Our Gemara on Amud Aleph recounts the famous story of Dama Ben Nesina, serving as an object lesson for the extent to which one should go to honor one's parents. The rabbis visited Dama to purchase precious gems for the Cohen Gadol's breastplate. Unfortunately, the key to the chest containing the gems was safely tucked under his sleeping father's head. Despite being offered an exorbitant sum, Dama refused to wake his father, apparently believing that his father did not want to be disturbed, no matter the cost. As a reward, the following year, a rare red heifer was born in his flock, and the rabbis returned to purchase this Parah Adumah. Dama recouped his losses by selling this rare calf.

Ben Yehoyada quotes his son, who makes an interesting observation about the significance of the Red Heifer in the story. The mitzvah of honoring parents does not require any esoteric explanation for its purpose. On the other hand, the mitzvah of Parah Adumah is a mystery cloaked within mystery, especially considering that it renders the impure pure but then confers tumah (impurity) on those who perform the ritual. The message to the sages (and possibly even Dama) is that we honor every mitzvah the same, whether we see a logical reason for it or not.

I also wonder if the Parah Adumah, which must never have been used to perform any labor (Bamidbar 19:2), might hint at Dama's guileless sincerity. Perhaps he did not even consider that his father might have wanted to be woken up. Like the Parah Adumah, Dama was unburdened with complexities and followed his morals with simple faith. Or perhaps the lesson was that Dama honored his father not out of the apparent logic of the mitzvah but for the mitzvah itself, as evidenced by him not making any logical calculations and choosing not to wake his father. In essence, he performed the mitzvah of honoring parents in the same vein as the sages would perform the Parah Adumah, and this was his reward.

I have a side question, and if any of the readers have a good answer, please email me. The sages needed new gems for the breastplate. Exactly what happened to the original gems? Did they get lost? That seems unlikely. Did they burn out like LED bulbs? That's absurd. Could they crack with age? Also, not likely for high-quality gems. So what was the reason they needed replacing? It is hard to understand why or under what circumstances purchasing new stones became necessary. One possibility that occurs to me is that perhaps they heard of or saw that Dama had a higher quality gem of the same kind in the breastplate. The rabbis did not want to spare any expense and sought to purchase an upgrade.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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