Concerning פרשת פרה, it says in Yerushalmi Megillah פרק ג הלכה ה, as Rashi and the Rif in Megillah דף כ״ט עמוד א bring it down, that בדין הוא שתקדים החודש לפרה, that באמת, פרשת החודש should come before פרשת פרה, שבאחד בניסן הוקם המשכן ובשני נשרפה הפרה, because the Mishkan was put up on the first day of Nissan, and the second day of Nissan, they made the פרה אדומה. ולמה פרה קודמת, why does פרה come first? שהיא טהרתן של כל ישראל, because that is the taharah of all the Yidden. פרה, פרשת פרה deals with the פרה אדומה, which is used to be מטהר, to purify a person who became טמא from a מת. So because this is the taharah of all the Yidden, and since the Yidden have to bring the קרבן פסח, they have to be טהור, so therefore, we first read פרשת פרה, and then we read פרשת החודש, because in פרשת החודש we learn about the קרבן פסח, and in order to be able to bring the קרבן פסח, you have to first be טהור, therefore פרשת פרה comes first. From the lashon of Yerushalmi, where it says that this is טהרתן של כל ישראל, this is the taharah of all the Yidden, it comes out that the taharah of פרה אדומה is important for all the Yidden. And even if we're not גורס in the Yerushalmi the לשון שהיא טהרתן של כל ישראל, that this is the taharah of all the Yidden, as the girsa of the Rif and Rashi, that when they quote the Yerushalmi, they don't use the לשון של כל ישראל, they just say that this is the taharah of Yisrael, but still, we see that the inyan of פרה אדומה is shayach to all the Yidden, because we see that this din that you have to read פרשת פרה is a takanah for all the Yidden. We don't say that some Yidden, only those who are tamei, have to read פרשת פרה, but every single Yid has the obligation of the kriyah of פרשת פרה. So obviously, פרשת פרה is noge'a to all the Yidden. But l'chorah, we have to understand: why is it important to all the Yidden? This that you have to become tahor from טומאת מת before you bring the קרבן פסח is only important for those people who are טמאי מת, those people who are tamei, but not to all the Yidden. The contrary, if all the Yidden or the majority of the Yidden would be טמאי מת, you wouldn't need a פרה אדומה at all. You wouldn't need a taharah, because the din is that טומאה הותרה בציבור. When it comes to a korban that's important for the community, like the קרבן פסח, if the majority of the people are tamei, you could bring it בטומאה. So then it comes out that when do you need a פרה אדומה? Only if most of the people are not tamei. So why is it that we say that the פרה אדומה is טהרתן של כל ישראל, the taharah of all the Yidden? And even if we don't have that girsa, but every Yid is מחוייב in the קריאה of פרשת פרה, even though this concept of פרה אדומה to clean from טומאת מת is not נוגע to every Yid. So we must say that there is something in the ענין of פרה, at least in the spiritual explanation of what the פרה אדומה is, which is נוגע to every single Yid at all times in all situations. To understand that, we first have to bring that there is a special din concerning the mitzvah of פרה אדומה.

The Rambam says in Sefer HaMitzvot, מצות עשה קי״ג, that the mitzvah of פרה אדומה is לעשות פרה אדומה, you have to make the פרה אדומה, כדי שיהיה אפרה מזומן, in order for its ashes should be ready, למי שיצטרך אליו, for somebody who will need it, לטהרת טומאת מת, to the taharah of טומאת מת. And also in the Chinuch, מצוה שצ״ז, he writes לשרוף פרה אדומה, the mitzvah is to burn a פרה אדומה, להיות אפרה מוכן למי שיצטרך אליה, so the ashes should be ready for the one that will need it, ומטהרו מטומאת מת, to clean him from טומאת מת. And in the מנין המצות that Rambam writes in the beginning of his Sefer HaYad, he also writes לעשות פרה אדומה להיות אפרה מוכן, that the אפר, the ashes should be ready. Which means that the תכלית of the mitzvah is not only in using the ashes of the פרה אדומה when you need it, when a person is טמא מת and he has to become tahor, but that אפר הפרה has to lechatchilah be ready for every single person whenever he will need it. That at any time when a Yid will need the taharah of טומאת מת, he should right away be able to be metaher himself. And the Rambam brings the pasuk where it says והיתה לעדת בני ישראל למשמרת. And the simple peshat in this pasuk is that the אפר פרה has to be משומר, has to be ready for every single Yid of עדת בני ישראל, from all the Yidden. Maybe a Yid will need the אפר פרה to be metaher himself. And this is a very big chiddush, because be'emet, there is no din in the Torah that a person who is טמא מת has to become tahor. Even before Yom Tov, when there is a din, a חיוב לטהר את עצמו ברגל, as the Gemara says in Rosh Hashanah. So first of all, there's a whole discussion in the Mishneh LaMelech on the Rambam and in other places whether this is a דין מדאורייתא or mid'rabbanan. Could be that mid'oraita, he doesn't even have to become tahor on Yom Tov. And even if we hold that mid'oraita you do have to become tahor before Yom Tov. This is only if somebody is going to be עולה רגל. This is only חל, this obligation is only on a person who is obligated to go up to Yerushalayim on Yom Tov. But those people who are not obligated, for instance a person who doesn't own property in Eretz Yisrael, or a person who lives in chutz la'aretz, and other people who are patur from עלייה לרגל, and therefore they are patur also from the korban Pesach, they are not מחוייב לטהר עצמן ברגל, they have no obligation to make themselves tahor on Yom Tov. So it comes out that for most people there is no chiyuv of becoming tahor. And still this inyan of having the אפר פרה ready applies to every single Yid. It applies to every single Yid from עדת בני ישראל, as the pasuk says והיתה לעדת בני ישראל למשמרת. So we have to understand why is it so important concerning the אפר פרה that we stress that it's not enough that the אפר פרה is around when you will need it, but part of the din in אפר פרה is that lechatchilah it has to be put away in such a way that it should always be ready for whoever needs it. Even though most people won't even need it, nevertheless we say it has to be ready for everybody. So obviously there is something in the inyan of פרה אדומה which is important to everybody.

Now we know that everything that we have in gashmiyut is nishtalshel from ruchniyut, comes as a result from the way the same thing is in the spiritual sense. And the truth is, this is really the meaning of what the Chazal say in Bereishit Rabbah in the beginning and is also brought down in the Zohar חלק ב׳ קס״א עמוד א׳ and עמוד ב׳, that אסתכל באורייתא וברא עלמא. Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world. And as it says that the Torah was the blueprint of the creation of the world. So it comes out that you have the world the way you actually have it, but then you have the world the way it's in the Torah. And definitely the world the way it's in the Torah is in ruchniyut. So it comes out that everything that we have in the world in gashmiyut definitely has a source in ruchniyut. Now if it is so concerning inyanim of the world, certainly it is concerning inyanim of Torah u'mitzvot. That all the inyanim that we have in a mitzvah the way it's begashmiyut certainly fits to the way that inyan is in that same mitzvah beruchniyut. And the same will be in our inyan. This that we say that the פרה אדומה, the mitzvah is that it has to be מזומן למי שמצטרך אליו, it always has to be ready lechatchilah for everybody, comes because in ruchniyut, in avodah ruchniyut, what the פרה אדומה represents in ruchniyut, it has to always be there. This is something that has to be ready for every single person. And therefore, in gashmiyut the halachah is that the אפר פרה has to always be ready. What is the inyan of פרה אדומה in ruchniyut?

So we know, as it says in sefarim, that the inyan of פרה אדומה represents the inyan of teshuvah. Because פרה אדומה cleanses a person from טומאת מת, from becoming tamei through a dead body. What is טומאת מת in ruchniyut? It is the inyan of aveirot. Because it says עונותיכם היו מבדילים, פסוק says in Isaiah קפיטל נ״ט פסוק ב׳, that the aveirot separate between the Yid and Hashem. When you are separated from Hashem, then automatically you don't have life. As the pasuk says ואתם הדבקים בה׳ אלקיכם חיים כולכם היום, the pasuk in Vaetchanan קפיטל ד׳ פסוק ד׳. That means, as it says in Avot d'Rabbi Natan at the end of פרק ל״ד, that when a Yid is דבוק בהשם, when the Yid is connected to Hashem, then חיים כולכם היום, then they are alive. But when a Yid is not connected to Hashem, he's separated from Hashem, then he doesn't have the inyan of chayim, and he doesn't have the inyan of life. Therefore it says that רשעים אפילו בחייהם קרויים מתים. רשעים, even while they're alive, they're called dead. Because they're not connected to Hashem, so they have no life. Now since aveirot are mavdilim, aveirot separate between the Yid and Hashem, so aveirot bring the inyan of death. So when we say a person becomes טמא מת, his טומאה comes as a result of death, this shows that he is a בעל עבירה, this is the concept of aveirot in רוחניות. פרה אדומה, which cleanses the person from טומאת מת, is the inyan of teshuvah. That just like we know teshuvah brings the person back, that he connects himself again to Hashem, takes away the concept of מיתה from the person, so the פרה אדומה, which cleanses the person from טומאת מת, is the inyan of teshuvah. Which is really מרומז in the מאמר חז״ל in Tanchuma חקת ח׳, brought down in Rashi in פרשת חקת קפיטל י״ט פסוק כ״ב, that תבא פרה ותכפר על מעשה העגל. That the פרה אדומה is a כפרה for the עבירה of עגל. Now we know that the חטא העגל is the source of all aveirot. Because it says that the source of all aveirot came from the חטא עץ הדעת. But then by מתן תורה the טומאה that came to the world through the חטא עץ הדעת went away, as the Gemara says in Shabbos. But then when they sinned with the עגל, it came back. So obviously the עגל is the source of all aveirot, and that's why it says וביום פקדי ופקדתי. Hashem says that there is no punishment for any aveirah that doesn't also include in the punishment for the חטא העגל, because every aveirah comes as a result of the חטא העגל. And here we say that the פרה אדומה is a kaparah for the חטא העגל, so really the פרה אדומה is a kaparah for all aveirot, which means that פרה אדומה is similar to the inyan of teshuvah. And that is why in פרה אדומה we find two opposite extremes: on one hand, the פרה אדומה was done outside, out of the three machanot, as it says in Rashi in פרשת חקת קפיטל י״ט פסוק ג׳, taken from the Gemara in Yoma דף ס״ח עמוד א׳, not like other korbanot which had to be done in פנים, inside the בית המקדש; on the other hand, it says there that when they sprinkle the blood of the פרה אדומה, it had to be נוכח פני אהל מועד, had to be across the opening of the אהל מועד. As the Gemara says there: מתכוין ורואה פתחו של היכל בשעת הזאת הדם. You have to be mechaven and you have to see the door of the היכל at the time of the sprinkling of the blood. Why is it? Because since פרה אדומה represents teshuvah, teshuvah takes care, wipes out, what you did outside of kedushah. Teshuvah is to wipe out the aveirot. Now, the aveirot, anything that you do which is wrong is considered chutz, it's outside of the machaneh of kedushah, of the camp of kedushah. And therefore, when you have to wipe out the aveirot, you have to go to that place outside of the מחנה דקדושה and wipe it out. That's why the פרה אדומה was done חוץ לג׳ מחנות. But at the same time, since this is the koach of teshuvah, in order to be able to wipe out the aveirot, you have to have a very, very strong koach from a very high level, therefore it came from the madreigah of פני אהל מועד, פני means פנים, inside, the inner part, the very high madreigah. Now that we know the inyan of פרה אדומה, the ענין of teshuva, a person might think that this ענין in פרה אדומה, which is teshuva, is only for somebody who sinned. He has to have the פרה אדומה which is done outside in order to forgive for his aveirot. But when a person feels that he never sinned, as the pasuk says in Kohelet קפיטל ז׳ פסוק כ״ט, that עשה אלקים את האדם ישר, השם made a person straight, so a person who follows that straight path, he doesn't לכאורה need the פרה אדומה, which is teshuva, to wipe out the חוץ, the outside, to wipe out the aveirot. That's why we say that the ענין of פרה אדומה, part of the mitzvah of פרה אדומה was that שיהיה אפרה מזומן למשמרת. The ashes always has to be ready for anybody who needs it, and as we explained before, it has to be ready for everybody. This tells us that this ענין of פרה אדומה, which is the ענין of teshuva, has to be by everybody. There is no person who is פטור from the ענין of teshuva. And in simple pshat, it is because, as the Mishnah says in Pirkei Avot, פרק ב׳ משנה ד׳: אל תאמן בעצמך, never believe yourself. A person is never sure with himself that he's not going to be עובר עבירות. Especially the pasuk says in Kohelet קפיטל ז׳ פסוק כ׳: אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא. There is no צדיק in the world that could only do good and not sin. And even though there are צדיקים who never sinned, still, when the pasuk says ״לא יחטא״, means not only sinning, כפועל כפשוטו, in the simple pshat, יחטא also comes from the word חסרון, the word חטא could mean חסרון. There is nobody who we could say fulfilled everything that he's supposed to and didn't have any any חסרון at all. So he also has to do teshuva. And that is the reason why the פרה אדומה, the אפר פרה, always has to be ready for everybody, because every person needs teshuvah. And even those people who the Gemara says מתו בעטיו של נחש, as the Gemara says in שבת דף נ״ה עמוד ב׳ and in בבא בתרא דף י״ז עמוד א׳, they had no עבירות whatsoever, there was nothing wrong with them, they only died בעטיו של נחש, which means because of the נחש הקדמוני, because of the חטא עץ הדעת, so still, they also need the ענין of teshuvah, because after all, since they did die because of the עץ הדעת, so the חטא עץ הדעת affected them also. Now, since it affected them, there's something within them that they have to get rid of, and therefore they also need the ענין of teshuvah. So every person needs the ענין of teshuvah, and that's why the אפר פרה has to be ready for everybody, always. Certainly, when a person will start thinking about what it says in ירושלמי יומא פרק א׳ הלכה א׳ and brought in the מדרש תהלים קפיטל קל״ז פסוק ז׳, that כל דור שאינו נבנה בימיו מעלין עליו כאילו החריבו, any generation that the בית המקדש was not built in his time, is as if he destroyed the בית המקדש. So it comes out that every person, in all generations that there is no בית המקדש, has to feel as if in his time it was destroyed. Now why was it destroyed? Obviously it's up to him, because we know that every person's mitzvot counts, and as the Rambam says, when a person does one מצוה, הכריע את עצמו ואת כל העולם כולו לכף זכות, he tips the scale for the good for himself and for the whole world, וגרם לו ולהם תשועה והצלה, and he brings a תשועה, a help, and a redemption for everybody. Since in his time there was no redemption yet, obviously it is his fault. So therefore, when you look around and you see that you're still in galut, and especially such a terrible galut, a חושך כפול ומכופל, a galut which is dark and a triple and double and triple darkness, in עקבתא דמשיחא, you are at a time when it's really חוץ, outside of the levels of קדושה, and Mashiach still didn't come yet. So obviously it depends on you. You could have done more and then Mashiach would have come. Since you didn't, it is as if in your time it was destroyed, and you are at fault. Now, if So, certainly you have to have teshuvah. And this is the רמז that we're supposed to take out from this mitzvah of פרה אדומה, and from this דין that a פרה אדומה is always supposed to be ready for everybody. And this that the ירושלמי says that it's טהרתן של כל ישראל, of all the Yidden, and it's taken from the pasuk, it says למשמרת for the עדת בני ישראל, for the whole community of בני ישראל, is because the inyan of teshuvah is something that belongs to everybody. And the truth is there are many people that don't have to come onto all these cheshbonot and calculations, that the reason he has to do teshuvah is because the בית המקדש was not built yet and all the other expressions that we said before. But many people pashut have to do teshuvah because if they look into their own actions and they make a cheshbon hanefesh, they will see that there are many things that they did which are wrong, that need teshuvah.

So when it comes to the time of פרשת פרה, when we read in the Torah the parashah of פרה אדומה, and we know that whenever we learn in the Torah a din of a certain thing, it's as if we did that thing. When we learn about a certain korban, it's as if we brought that korban. So when we learn and we read in the Torah about פרשת פרה אדומה, it's as if we are bringing the פרה אדומה. So then we have the special koach of accomplishing what the פרה אדומה is supposed to accomplish. And that is the inyan of teshuvah. Which means that this is also a time when a person is able to be mit'orer bitshuvah. And since this is a din given by Hashem that you have to read פרשת פרה at that time, so Hashem gives special koachot to every Yid to be able to accomplish what he's supposed to accomplish for פרה אדומה. Which means that during the שבת פרשת פרה, that it is a special zman mesugal to be mit'orer in teshuvah and to do teshuvah, and the teshuvah will be accepted fastest. Similar to what it says in the Rambam concerning עשרת ימי תשובה, that even though all year round teshuvah is good and important and you must do it, but during that time it is יפה ביותר ומתקבלת מיד, that is better and it's accepted faster, so too we can say concerning פרשת פרה, that even though always teshuvah is important and you need it, but on פרשת פרה it's יפה ביותר, it's better, and מתקבלת מיד, it's accepted right away.