Haftarat Parshat Parah: From Spiritual Impurity to Redemption

With Pesach on the horizon, we read Parshat Parah, which details the rules of ritual purification required to enter the Beit Hamikdash and offer the Korban Pesach (Paschal sacrifice). The Torah spells out in great detail the purification process for one who has had exposure to human remains – whether by direct contact or by being in the same enclosure. This process involves not only immersion in a mikvah, but also the sprinkling of mei chatat: specially prepared water containing the ashes of the Parah Adumah, the burnt red heifer.

In the absence of the Beit Hamikdash, these laws are largely inapplicable, as there is no prohibition on becoming impure, only against entering the Beit Hamikdash while in the state of impurity. (Even today Kohanim are still subject to certain restrictions related to impurity. Any exposure to human remains is prohibited, impacting actions such as when they may visit hospitals in Israel, participate in funerals or enter cemeteries.)

Yet, when the prophet Yechezkel speaks about impurity in this week’s Haftarah, he is not referring to tumah in this technical sense. Rather, he decries the way the Jewish people have defiled the land – not through contact with human remains, but through their moral and spiritual corruption. Yechezkel, himself a Kohen, perceives the rampant idolatry and murder that have overtaken Jewish society not merely as transgressions, but as a pervasive spiritual impurity, no less serious in God’s eyes.

In God’s message to the people, conveyed through Yechezkel, the spiritual contamination has become so severe that it constitutes a chilul Hashem, a desecration of God’s name, leading God to exile the people.

However, as the prophet writes, God will ultimately return the Jewish people to the land—not because of our merit, but to restore the sanctity of His name. For our exile compromises the divine reputation.

This underscores the profound responsibility and opportunity we carry as the bearers of God’s name: Jewish moral failure is not only a serious sin, a form of impurity, but a disgrace to God Himself.

As in the prophet’s account, God often intervenes to purify us. But fundamental to the very notion of impurity is the prospect of purification, some manner of ridding ourselves of the impurity that has overtaken us. And surely, if the spiritual impurity Yechezkel describes is caused by moral failure, purification must come through imitatio Dei, emulating God and sanctifying His name.

As Rabbi Norman Lamm expressed in a sermon on Shabbat Parah 1969, we can purify ourselves through acts of chesed; by caring for those in need, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked; offering friendship to the lonely, comforting the bereaved, and extending sympathy to those facing hardship. These actions can purify us, sanctify God’s name, and empower us to reshape our world, hastening the arrival of Mashiach and advancing our efforts to bring the ultimate redemption.