Torah Study by Arnie Schwartz

Torah Study
Mishnah Masechet Parah
In Memory of Avi Karkowsky

When I joined many other family and friends of Avi to bless his memory with Limud Torah, I realized how rapidly the Mishnah sign-up list filled.  Only two Tractates were left when I checked the website.  I chose Maseschet Parah, dealing with the Parah Adumah and the ritual of tumah and taharah.  I know what Avi would have said. “Holy cow, how did you get Masechet Parah!  Schwartzie, were you the last one on the line?”  I would have replied that I know it’s a sacrifice, but somebody had to do it.

So paging through the Kahati edition with the Bartenura explications, I was rewarded by learning Halachah that appears no longer applicable for modern Jews…..but it became highly relevant when I reflect on Avi’s rich and wonderful but brief life.  I also have the advantage of knowing Avi from our MIT days and from our newborn kehilah at Anshei Fairmont, a wretched hovel that was home to a bunch of graduate students until their wives rescued them through marriage.  

Avi was the “glue”.  He made sure that things and people were connected.  He would remind us that we needed to make our arrangements for Shabbat in Brookline or Harvard Hillel, at least by Thursday night.  Avi appeared to monitor our scientific disputations so no one would take the arguments seriously and walk away hurt.  Avi made sure that dinners were never silent.  So the first thing I learned from Parah Adumah, which the Torah categorizes as a Chok and the Rabbis look for hints of meaning, is the communtarian aspect of the ritual.  The process, both complicated and mystical, causes some to become tahor and others to become tamay.  Why would anyone do this, especially for a stranger?  Avi, as a young pediatrican, could understand this dedication, tending to a small child through the night while explaining the process to total strangers called parents.  I could imagine a Second Temple event where Avi’s supportive and solicitous nature would permit some individual who was tamay and missed the Korban Pesach to become tahor in order to celebrate Pesach Sheni.  Meanwhile the participation renders Avi tamay.  Avi had a sense of community…..he was viscerally aware of those who needed some advice, support, a bad pun, or a ticklish handshake.  Avi’s glue would make connections and results would spring up anonymously.  

The Mishnah speaks about the age of animals appropriate for the korban.  One does not select an older animal (4 or 5 years) “mipneh ha’kavod”…..out of respect, for the sanctity of the altar.  Avi had a gift of being a barometer of mipneh ha’kavod.  He had an amazing talent for treating 4 year olds and full professors will the same respect and joy, looking for clues to discover the inner person.  Avi had a gift of enabling a sense of self-respect and dignity even in the face of loss or disappointment.  He had the reserve of holding back his own news while he relished in your good news or achievements.  He had abundant portions of kavod habriot, a respect for others and a respect for life.

As I concluded Masechet Parah, I marveled at how ritualistic law can remind us of human events and touch our sense of life and friendship.  My initial connection with Avi was with scientific study; how appropriate it continues with Limud Torah.  Thank you, Avi, for being a part of my life.  I have learned much.