THE POWER OF a moment. One second, life can be going in one direction, and the next, completely another direction. It can start all-time bad and turn into all-time good, and vice versa.

THE LAWS OF purification from tzora’as seemingly have little to do with Shabbos HaGadol. True, Moshe himself became a metzora on Har Sinai when he spoke badly about the Jewish people:

THE LAWS OF spiritual impurity do not have much relevance today for us since we are not really impacted by them. Without a Temple, and without a red heifer with which to purify ourselves, we live in a state of tumas meis, impurity from the dead, the most severe form of all.

THERE IS A minhag for tzaddikim to fast on Rosh Chodesh Nissan, even though we normally do not fast on a Rosh Chodesh. The reason for the exception? Because it was the day that Nadav and Avihu were struck down by God for bringing a “strange fire” on the eighth day of the inauguration ceremony. Just like that one of the happiest days in Jewish history became one of the saddest.

THIS SHABBOS IS also Parashas Parah. As we learn in Parashas Naso, a person who has become defiled by contact with the dead (no, not through a séance) is ineligible to eat from the Korban Pesach. By being sprinkled with the water of the Parah Adumah (Red Heifer) was the process a person underwent to become ritually pure again. Hence, we recall that halachah in advance of Pesach.