Man’s excellence is to be found in, and achieved by means of, the very thing with which he is blemished. Thus, on the verse, “And they sewed fig leaves together (Genesis 3:7),” the Sages commented, “The very thing which brought them ruin was the means for setting them right (Sanhedrin 70a).”
Similarly, our Sages state that “on the very day that the Temple was destroyed, the Messiah was born (Yerushalmi Berachot 2:4).”
In this same vein they said, “Where in the Torah is the idea of the resurrection of the dead (Sanhedrin 91b)?”
This also explains why the Red Heifer cleanses from the impurity caused by death. Our Sages commented, “Let the mother, and cleanse her son’s dirt (Bamidbar Rabbah 19:4).” The Heifer is the mother which gave birth to this; all comes from God; from Him all things emerged. Thus, the Red Heifer is the cleansing of the dirt. (Tzidkat HaTzaddik #70)
The heifer, as stated, is the mother.
And in the Kabbalistic doctrine, the third Sefirah, Binah, is the Mother, the celestial womb, from which all existence flows.
It is in this realm that we find the first signs of differentiation, as the Ein Sof turns out word in self revelation. Just as all existence issues from Binah, the Mother, so the heifer-mother is the source of both the dirt and its cleansing: the calf-idols established by Yeravam, and the Messiah who will issue from his loins. (Ibid.)
By: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, n''y
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