Shabbat Parah is one of four special readings that populate our calendar at this time of year. The ceremony of the red heifer is highly complex and self-contradictory, its great paradox lying in its mutually exclusive effects:

The ashes of the heifer were to be sprinkled over a ritually impure person. At the ceremony’s conclusion, two things occurred: the impure person became pure, whereas all of those involved in the ceremony who came into contact with the ashes became impure. In other words, Schrodinger’s Cow — an entity that somehow conveyed purity and impurity simultaneously.

This conundrum drove King Solomon himself to exasperation when he attempted to fathom the depths of the cryptic ceremony. “I resolved to become wise”, he declared, “but it remained distant from me!” (Ecclesiastes 7:23).

Why do we read about the red heifer on the Shabbat following Purim? Furthermore, what is the link between it and the main contents of our regular portion Ki Tissa: the drama and tragedy of the golden calf?

Many authorities suggest that the subject of purifying the impure is essential in the build-up to Pesach. In ancient times, families would make the pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem and celebrate Seder night together. A prerequisite of entering the Temple and participating in the Pesach offering was ritual purity. But this doesn’t fully explain the specific link between Parah, Purim and the golden calf.

Perhaps there is something more. The Purim story is unique in Scripture for the total absence of God’s overt intervention. The entire story reads from beginning to end like a series of fortuitous coincidences. Indeed, God’s name doesn’t appear once in the Book of Esther.

Now to the story of the Golden Calf: in essence, a national miscalculation fuelled by an existential doubt in our ability to exist in a world filled with Godliness. Tragically, the circles of dancing Israelites had at their centre an idol and with it, an absence of God.

The red heifer, with its famous ritualistic paradox, speaks directly into this void, urging us to remember that there is a level of existence that is simply unfathomable to the mortal mind. It is a reality where down can be up and up can be down; where the self-same element can produce purity and impurity concurrently — a result that cannot be dismissed as coincidence.

How does it work? Because God decreed it to be so. Full stop. To remind us of an idea as we leave the hidden miracles of Purim behind and begin the journey toward the open miracles of Pesach, God is encountered beyond the limits of our imagination.