The Rules of Illogic

זֹאת חֻקַּת הַתּוֹרָה אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה’ לֵאמֹר דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִקְחוּ אֵלֶיךָ פָרָה אֲדֻמָּה במדבר יט, ב “THIS IS THE DECREE OF TORAH THAT G-D COMMANDED TO SAY. SPEAK TO BNEI YISRAEL AND HAVE THEM TAKE TO YOU, A RED-HAIRED COW.” (BAMIDBAR 19:2) King Shlomo said, “All of the Torah’s commandments I have comprehended. But the chapter of the red heifer, though I have examined it, questioned it and searched it out, ‘I said I’d be wise [in it], but it is distant from me (Koheles7:23).’” -Midrash Rabbah  The wiseset of all men Shlomo Hamelech, found other mitzvos of the Torah to be wise and reasonable. Not so the process of purification from ritual impurity using the ashes of a red heifer, which is classified as a chok, a decree. The appropriate preface to the Parah Adumah laws would therefore be, “This is the decree of the red heifer”, meaning, “The following are the details of G-d’s super-rational decree regarding the red heifer”. Why are its laws introduced instead as “This is the decree of Torah,” associating and implicating Torah as a whole with the irrational rules which follow? This teaches us about the nature of the mitzvos and the outlook with which they must be approached. If at all, manifestations of G-d’s wisdom can be perceived by us as wise and sensible, but not manifestations of His supernal will. That which G-d wills simply because so He wills and did not see a need to “justify” with His wisdom, as it were, can never be grasped and defined by mortal wisdom and intellect. Its truth is not characterized by logic and reason – even G-dly reason. The mitzvos are what G-d wills that we observe; will which transcends wisdom and reason. This is true of all mitzvos. Yet, by His very same will, G-d desired that some mitzvos also be justified in His wisdom, resulting in these mitzvos being subject to comprehension – by the wisest of men at the very least. The chukim, however, and obviously the definitive chok of the Parah Adumah ritual, are those laws which He chose not to process with His wisdom, and will therefore forever remain elusive. The Parah Adumah laws are therefore introduced with the sweeping statement, “The following is the decree of Torah”.  This emphasizes that thechok element of Parah Adumah is, in fact, a universal and underlying theme in all of the Torah and its commands. For like the laws of the red heifer, even those mitzvos whose reason we can comprehend are chukim at their core, decreed by G-d’s simple will, transcendent of reason. - Likutei Sichos vol. 8, p. 131