Lead Tidbit
Post-Purim, Para, and Pre-Pesach
It is well-known that Purim represents our being saved from a threat to our physical existence. Haman did not check Tzitzit, as the expression goes. He wanted and plotted to kill every man, woman, and child - the nation of Mordechai. Religious, not religious. It didn't matter to him, as it hadn't mattered to Amalek, as it didn't matter to Hitler, and as it doesn't matter to a certain type of anti-Semite we have faced throughout our entire history.
So we celebrate Purim in a very physical way. Eating and drinking, etc. But we also know (or should know) that for our lives to have meaning, we must live them in more than a physical way. And that is one of the messages of Parshat Para. Para addresses the difference between the physical and the spiritual. Para addresses the concept of ritual, spiritual impurity - even if we are physically well. The Maftir deals with the individual's quest for spiritual purity and the haftara deals with the communal notion of purification. And that is the whole story. We are each individuals, whose individuality is not forfeited to the community. But our communal identity makes us complete. Our whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but those parts have to be something special, otherwise we don't add up to much.

And the link between Purim and Pesach carries the point across. We were physically enslaved and oppressed in Egypt. On Pesach, we celebrate our physical freedom. But on the night following the Seder, we begin counting the Omer and reliving the process of spiritual growth and purification, so that we will be able to stand at the foot of Sinai and remake the ultimate commitment to G-d. G-d created us with physical and spiritual components. Each must nurture the other, and both must combine so that we can attain our destinies.