Parah Adumah and Kiruv: Purifying Others Without Becoming Impure

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Para aduma is about tumah. When a person is a baal aveira, when a person is lost, he's not being shomer Torah mitzvahs. In essence, he's dead. In halacha, throughout Chazal, we accept baalei aveira are kruyim meisim. They're called dead people. You know, in halacha, they all ask, what is the mekor for the mitzvah of kiruv rechokim? It's not in the Torah. We find by Avraham Avinu, v'es hanefesh asher asu b'Charan, that he did kiruv rechokim, but it's only a limud in the pasuk. There's no outright pasuk where it says, Go be mekarev rechokim, and different Rishonim and Acharonim and Poskim give different mekoros of where we learn kiruv rechokim from. The Chinuch, mitzvah reish lamed tes, ayin daled, as well as the Shlah in Parshas Kedoshim, learn that kiruv rechokim is based on lo samod al dam re'echa. A person who is a baal aveira, a person who is not connected to the Ribono Shel Olam, is dead. And by saving his life, you saved a life. Bringing him back to Yiddishkeit is called saving a life. And just as his physical life is pikuach nefesh, his spiritual life, his chayei ruchniyus, is also pikuach nefesh. The Taz in Orach Chaim, siman Shin Vav, sif katan hei, paskens that we are mechalel Shabbos to save someone from shmad. The case there was that they were capturing, they were kidnapping a girl to take her to shmad, to a monastery. And the question is, you're allowed to be mechalel Shabbos to save the life, physical, of a person. How about to save the spiritual life? And the Taz paskens, loy gara mipikuach nefesh. It is pikuach nefesh, because if the person is shmad, if the person is rachok miTorah u'mitzvos, it's like he's dead, which is what we're learning, that para aduma is tumas meis. Part of tumas meis is not shomea Torah u'mitzvos. The tumah of aveirah, the tumah of being rachok mehaShechinah, menutak, mimkor haTorah, mimkor hataharah. There's an interesting Sippurno. Sippurno seems to say this yesod of kiruv, that we need to go out and we need to work to be metaher, to bring close those that are lost, those that are far. And he says a me'oirdige chiddush, the Sippurno. You know, when you ask anyone, what is the chelek of para aduma? They'll say on the spot, it's metaher es hatemeiim umetame es hatahorim, which means the person who is tamei becomes tahor, but the kohanim who were involved in making the efer haparah. And sprinkling the eifer parah, they become tamei. And everyone's going to tell you that that's the cheik, which means it doesn't make sense. This person becomes tahor, and all those become tamei. It's not true, rabosai. It's a mistake. Not all the kohanim who are involved with the eifer parah adumah are tamei. It's only those that prepare it. But the one who actually sprinkles the eifer, who sprinkles the waters on the tamei to be metaher him, he is tahor. He remains tahor. It's a mistake that people run around saying all the kohanim, they all become tamei. It's all the kohanim till the last one who does the actual sprinkling of the mei chatos. Says the Seforno, it has to be that way. Why? Because if someone is in the process of being metaher somebody, it's impossible that he should become tamei. When you're in the, so to speak, in the trenches to try to get someone to be mekarev, to be metaher, you think that you're also defiling yourself. You're connected with all the tumah.

And therefore you could become tamei. I've had many rabbeim who are oisek in kiruv rechokim. This is one of their concerns, that they themselves will start becoming too acquainted, too comfortable with all the hashpa chitzoni, all the hashpaah that they're listening to, that they're in contact with all the time. There's an interesting story from the Belzer Rebbe, zichrono tzaddik livracha. One of his chassidim wanted to do kiruv rechokim in a faraway place. He asked the Rebbe, the previous, maybe Reb Shlomo, should he go do the kiruv rechokim, move away, away from the center metropolitan where all the Yidden are, and the Rebbe told him to do it. He writes back to the Rebbe after six months, It's very difficult. I don't have who to talk to. Shabbosim, throughout Shabbos, chamish b'metzi'redn, I don't have who to talk to. There's nobody here. I can have a chumrah, a guteh teirahdige conversation. I don't have who to talk to. There's nobody on my level. Should I come back? Rebbe said, No, stay. A few months later, again he writes back, Rebbe, it's really, really hard. There's nobody here for me to talk to. I'm alone. Should I come back? The Rebbe writes back, Stay. A year passes. He sends another letter, Rebbe, it's getting better. I have who to talk to. I'm starting to make friends here. The Rebbe says, Okay, now come back. Now it's time to come back. If you're having who to communicate with, which means you're falling, you're getting less, and it's becoming mim b'minoi, mim b'minoi. Yeah, you're starting to have hashpaah from them that you're starting to feel comfortable. Yeah, but it seems the support is saying a yesod, that theoretically, if you're metaher others, you will remain tahor. You will remain tahor. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.