The kohen shall take cedar wood and hyssop[2]
Why those? This one is easy. Gaavah lurks behind all tumah in the world, particularly tumas meis. Hyssop – as a low, unpretentious plant – is the symbol of humility. It is therefore a key antidote to all tumah.
Think about it. It all started with Adam’s sin. However you explain it, it could not have occurred without some small element of gaavah. Adam arrogated to himself more freedom than he should have, because some amount of self-importance intruded where it had no right to be.
Standing at the threshold of attaining liberty and nationhood, the Jews of Mitzrayim were reminded of the need for humility. They dabbed their doorposts with the blood of the korban Pesach; the applicator was hyssop.
Dovid sees it as the all-purpose applicator of taharah. “Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be purified.”[3] Chazal[4] explain: “Whoever commits a sin is as if he became tameh meis, and is purified only by way of hyssop.” Both derive from the common ancestor of gaavah, which must be challenged by the unassuming bunch of hyssop.
There is, then, a compelling case for hyssop serving to purify people from their gaavah. But why does the Torah include its polar opposite among the ingredients of the parah adumah ashes? The cedar is a tall, proud, majestic tree. What is it doing in a concoction that means to teach humility?
Rambam[5] sees the two dancing around each other. People often find it necessary to employ proud, confident demeanors in their affairs. Rambam writes that the cedar wood that goes into the preparation of the parah adumah is one amah long, i.e. it is measured out exactly. When a person needs to assume a prideful stance, he must be measured and precise about adopting it. And he should immediately follow up by moving in the opposite direction, and resuming the humility of the hyssop.
Toldos Yaakov Yosef sees the hyssop and cedar wood acting in different circumstances. Sometimes, the yetzer hora convinces a person that he is incapable of meaningful growth. It reminds him of his sins and failures, making a good case for his insignificance. At such a time, a person must focus on the lofty, cedar-like part of himself: his pure neshamah. At other times, a person’s accomplishments get to his head, and he attributes too much importance to himself. When this happens, he should look to his physical, material self which keep him small, like the hyssop.
The Besht’s students asked him how the parsha of parah adumah can be applied to daily living, particularly its paradox. This being that the parah purifies those who are impure, but creates tumah in the person who is tahor. The Besht responded with yet another approach to cedar-hyssop relationship. At the beginning of a person’s spiritual journey, it is often necessary to resort to inducements that are not entirely lishmah – like promising the person power and recognition. The proud cedar symbolizes those inducements. Later, however, when that person attempts an avodah that is completely lishmah, the cedar is toxic. There is no room for any trace of them; they need to be purged, leaving the person small and understated like the hyssop. Like the parah adumah, the shelo-lishmah factors can purify the tameh, but will spoil those already tahor.
In truth, it is not just the tyro who needs some cedar support. Even the person well along the road, who has achieved the madregah of lishmah, will be challenged by periods of nefilah, where his spiritual fortunes take a downward tack. At those times, he will need to lean on the cedar, before reverting to the hyssop.
- Adapted from Be’er Moshe, by the Ozherover Rebbe, zt”l ↑
- Bamidbar 19:6 ↑
- Tehillim 51:9. See Shadal there. ↑
- Medrash Tehillim loc. cit. ↑
- Tumas Tzoraas 11:1 ↑
Cover Image via Wikimedia Commons
