PARSHAT CHUKAT "This is the Torah's decree... have them bring you a completely red cow which has no blemish..." (19:2) This is the mitzvah of parah adumah (red cow): contact with a human corpse, or even being together with a corpse, overshadowed by one cover renders a person ritually impure. The purification-procedures for such a person include his being sprinkled by the "waters of purification" which contain the specially prepared ashes of a parah adumah. There is a profound link between the precept of parah adumah and the principle of the Messianic redemption: For the duration of the galut, until the coming of Moshiach, all Jews are in a state of impurity caused by corpses. We no longer have ashes of a parah adumah, and new ones can be prepared only in the presence of the Sanctuary (Bet Hamikdash).

One of the Messianic prophecies thus says of that time, in terms analogous to the "waters of purification" of the "red cow": "I shall sprinkle pure waters upon you that you be purified. From all your impurities and from all your idols I will purify you!" (Ezekiel 36:25)Maimonides cites a Talmudic ruling in the following words: "Nine `red cows' were prepared from the time this precept was ordained until the Second Temple was destroyed: the first was prepared by Moses our Master, the second Ezra prepared, and there were seven from Ezra to the destruction of the Temple. The tenth will be prepared by the King Moshiach - may he soon be revealed, amen, may thus be (G-d's) Will!" Our present mitzvot will make this happen momentarily!(From: Discover Moshiach in the Weekly Torah Portion)

"Take the staff...and speak to the rock before their eyes that it shall give its waters." (20:8) QUESTION: What purpose was the staff to serve and what was Moshe to say to the rock? ANSWER: Aharon and Moshe each had his own staff. When Hashem wanted Moshe or Aharon to take his own staff, He would say "matecha" - "your staff" (see Shemot 7:9). Since in this pasuk it says "hamateh" -"the staff" - obviously it was a special one with unique qualities. In Parshat Korach, Moshe told the leaders of each tribe to bring a staff to be put in the Tabernacle. On each would be written the name of the tribal leader, with Aharon's name written on the staff of the tribe of Levi. The staff belonging to the one who was Divinely-chosen would blossom. The staff of Aharon blossomed and produced almonds and eventually was put next to the holy Ark for posterity. It was this staff that Moshe was to take. This corresponds to the verse, "Moshe took the staff from before G-d" (20:9). The purpose of taking the staff was to show it to the rock as if to say, "Learn this lesson; just as this dry piece of wood suddenly became moist and alive in order to sanctify Hashem's name, so should you sanctify Hashem's name by giving water, even though it is not your nature." (From: VeDibarta Bam by Rabbi Moshe Bogomilsky)

"When the entire assembly saw that Aaron had perished, they wept for Aaron thirty days, the entire house of Israel." (20:29) Whenever Aharon heard that two people were involved in a quarrel, he would go to one of them and tell him that he had recently met his friend and had heard him say, "The quarrel was my fault, and I bitterly regret it." Aharon would then go to the second friend and tell him the same fabricated story. When the two would meet again, they would hug one another and be friends. For this reason, the entire nation wept when Aharon died. (Avos D'Reb Noson 12:3, From: Love Your Neighbor by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin)

Rabbi Yehoshua said: " The evil eye, the evil inclination, and hatred of one's fellow drive a man from the world."(Avot 2,11) Our Rabbis often use the expression, "Happy is a person whose portion is..." For each person is given a particular portion of the world, and the potentials and tendencies necessary to connect that portion to G-d. The evil inclination stands in the way of a person developing this portion, thus driving him from the world. Although it tempts a person in many ways, its primary thrust is to thwart the fulfillment of this individual mission. (Likkutei Sichos, Vol. III, p. 779; Vol. XVI, p. 553)