[Totally clueless about this topic, we’re leaving interpretation to Jewish scholars who, surprisingly, seem to be speculating themselves although they do offer possibilities for readers’ consideration. In short, take your pick!
Our consensus is this: YHWH uses laws governing nature to teach valuable lessons that incorporate hygienic principles into Israel’s ‘religious’ life. Why not indeed be pure in both material and spiritual dimensions; it doesn’t make sense to live filthy, contaminating and impure lives while serving in the holy sanctuary that is the visible ‘home’ of Israel’s HOLY God.
Bamidbar is full of painstaking details separating the pure from impure, so in this context where a red heifer is required for a specific purpose, we trust that while we don’t fully understand the meaning of the requirement in our time, the original hearers who had to comply with it did understand and obeyed the instructions.
Running commentary is from The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz. Translation is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.—Admin1.]
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The law set forth in this chapter belongs to the group of commandments dealt with in Lev. XII-XV; Laws of Purification.
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There are two distinct views in regard to the laws of purity and impurity: one, that they are hygienic; the other, that they are ‘levitical’, i.e. purely religious. Advocates of the hygienic view hold that the sources of impurity in Scripture — disease or death, the disintegrating corpse of man or beast, skin-diseases, and disorders in connection with sex-life—are in the main physical. In all these cases—they hold—impurity is equivalent to infection or the danger of infection; the rules of separation are intended to prevent the spread of infection; and the prescribed purification, whether by water or fire, is really disinfection. The procedure of purification bears out the character of disinfection. At no stage is there prescribed any prayer or formula to be recited; and the sacrifice, which invariably takes place after purification, is merely the token of readmission into the camp (Katzenelsohn). The sanitary interpretation of the laws of purity is, however, contested by other authorities, who, on their side, would rule out the hygienic motive altogether. they point to the Scipture passages which over and over again state that the supreme end of these laws is to lead men to holiness, and preserve them from anything that is defiling or that would exclude them from the Sanctuary. Strong arguments can thus be marshalled in favour of either view. However, while neither the hygienic nor the levitical motive can by itself account for all the facts, the two views are not mutually exclusive. Thus, in regard to Sabbath observance, Scripture assigns both a religious motive (Exod. XX,11) and a social motive (Deut. V,14). In the same manner, the eating of the flesh of an animal torn in the fields is in one place forbidden for reasons of holiness 9Exod. XXII,30), and in another place plainly for reasons of hygiene (Lev. XI,39,40).They did not apply in ordinary life, or to persons who did not intend to enter the Sanctuary.
It provides for the removal of defilement resulting from contact with the dead. A red heifer, free from blemish and one that had not yet been broken to the yoke, was to be slain outside the camp. It was then to be burned, cedar-wood, hyssop, and scarlet being cast upon the pyre. The gathered ashes, dissolved in fresh water, were to be sprinkled on those who had become contaminated through contact with a dead body.
This ordinance is the most mysterious rite in Scripture, the strange features of which are duly enumerated by the Rabbis. Thus, its aim was to purify the defiled, and yet it defiled all those who were in anyway connected with the preparation of the ashes and water of purification. ‘It purifies the impure, and at the same time renders impure the pure!” So inscrutable was its nature—they said—that even King Solomon in his wisdom despaired of learning the secret meaning of the Red Heifer regulations. To a high-placed Roman questioner, who expressed his amazement at the procedure in connection with the Red Heifer, Johanan ben Zakkai replied by referring him to a Pagan analogy: ‘Just as a person afflicted by melancholy or possessed of an “evil spirit” is freed of his disease by taking certain medicaments or by the burning of certain roots, in the same manner the ashes of the Red Heifer, prepared in the prescribed way and dissolved in water, drive away the “unclean spirit” of defilement resulting from contact with the dead.’ The Roman was satisfied with the answer, and went his way. Thereupon the pupils of Johanan said to him: ‘That man’s attack thou hast warded off with a broken reed, but what answer hast thou for us?’ ‘By your lives,’ said the Master, ‘the dead man doth not make impure, neither do the ashes dissolved in water make pure; but the law concerning the Red Heifer is a decree of the All holy, Whose reasons for issuing that decree it behooves not mortals to question.’ In brief, the attitude of Judaism as to the meaning of this law is not merely a confession of ignorance, but the realization that we shall never know why such defilement should be removed in that specified manner (‘ignorabimus’).
Nevertheless there have been many attempts at explanation, at any rate of symbolization, of this law both by Jews and non-Jews. One of them is: The majestic cedar of Lebanon represents pride, and hyssop represents humility; uncleanness and sin and death are all associated ideas: the ceremony, therefore, is a powerful object-lesson, teaching the eternal truth that a holy God can be served only by a holy People.
Numbers/Bamidbar 19
1 YHVH spoke to Moshe and to Aharon, saying:2 This is the law of the instructed-ritual that YHVHhas commanded, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel, that they may take you a red cow, wholly-sound, that has in it no defect, that has not yet yielded to a yoke;
statute of the law. The word ‘statute’ is used in connection with all laws and ordinances whose reason is not disclosed to us. . . . served the generations in Israel as a pure instance of absolute obedience to the decrees of God.
red heifer. Heb. parah adumah; a young cow, not a calf or a full-grown cow. The early Jewish conception was that the sacrifice of the red heifer was an expiatory rite to atone for the sin of the Golden Calf.
faultless. Faultlessly red; two hairs of another colour on its body were sufficient to disqualify it.
no blemish. Such as blindness and others referred to in Lev. XXII,22-24, as rendering an animal unfit for sacrifice.
upon which never came yoke. A ‘virgin’ animal in the sense of never having been used for secular purposes.
3 you are to give it to El’azar the priest, it is to be brought forth, outside the camp, and it is to be slain in his presence.unto Eleazar. ‘As Aaron had made the Golden Calf, this rite was ot to be carried out by him, because the prosecuting counsel cannot become the defending counsel’; i.e. Aaron, who had caused the sin was not the fitting person to atone for it (Moses Haddarshan, qoted by Rashi). In later time, it was usually—though by no means invariably—the High Priests who officiated on these occasions.
she shall be brought forth. The Heb. is idiomatic, and is equivalent to ‘one shall bring her forth’l probably the person ordered to slaughter her. Such person might be a layman.
4 El’azar the priest is to take (some) of its blood with his finger and is to sprinkle toward the face of the Tent of Appointment, some of its blood, seven times.toward . . . tent of meeting. An indication that the blood of the sacrifice was dedicated to the Sanctuary, and thereby acquired its atoning and purifying power.
seven times. As in the case of all sin-offerings; Lev. IC,6,17.
5 Then the cow is to be burned before his eyes; its hide, its flesh, and its blood along with its dung, are to be burned.6 The priest is to take wood of cedar, and hyssop, and scarlet of worm, and is to throw (them) into the midst of the cow burning.
cedar wod, and hyssop, and scarlet. These were also employed in the purgation ritual of the lepers; Lev. XIV,4. The scarlet may have been symbolic of sin (Isa. I,18), just as the redness of the heifer.
7 He is to scrub his garments, the priest, and is to wash his body in water, afterward he may enter the camp; but the priest will remain-tamei until sunset.unclean until the even. Which implied exclusion from the camp until sunset, and prohibition to partake of the meats of the holy sacrifices.
8 And he who burned it is to scrub his garments in water and is to wash his body in water, remaining-tamei until sunset.9 And a (ritually) pure man shall collect the ashes of the cow, depositing them outside the camp in a pure place. It shall be for the community of the Children of Israel in safekeeping, as Waters Kept-Apart, it is for decontamination.
it shall be kept. i.e., the ashes.
for a water of sprinkling. Many commentators take its literal meaning to be, ‘water for the removal of impurity.’ That the ashes were mixed with water is seen from v. 17.
purification from sin. Something that removes sin. The ashes of the heifer shall be a medium for the purification from sin; cf. ‘water of purification’, in VIII,7.
10 The collector of the cow’s ashes is to scrub his garments, remaining-tamei until sunset. It shall be for the Children of Israel and for the sojourner that sojourns in their midst, as a law for the ages:shall . . . be unclean. Everyone, priest or layman, who had something to do with the preparation of this water of purification became unclean.
A word must be said on the paradox of the parah adumah, i.e. the simultaneous possession of sanctification and defilement. There have been great institutions and movements, in both Jewish and general history, that have sanctified others, and yet have at the same time tended to defile those that created or directed those institutions and movements. The very men who helped others to self-sacrifice and holiness, not infrequently themselves became hard and self-centered, hating and hateful; elevating others, and themselves sinking into inhumanity, impurity, and unholiness. It is a real, if disturbing, fact in the spiritual life of man.
the stranger that sojourneth among them. i.e. the proselyte who assumes the religious duties of Israel.
11-13. THE SPECIFIC PURPOSE OF THE WATER FOR PURIFICATION
even any man. Israelite or non-Israelite.
shall purify himself. lit. ‘shall remove the sin from himself.’
therewith. With the ashes.
13 Anyone who touches a dead-body of any human person that has died, and does not decontaminate himself- the Dwelling of YHVH has he made-tamei, cut off shall that person be from Israel, since the Waters Kept-Apart were not dashed on him, tamei shall he be, his tum’a (stays) within him!of any man that is dead. Excluding the dead body of a beast.
the tabernacle. Here used in the larger sense to denote the Camp of Israel; cf. v. 3.
cut off. By Divine agency.
14-22. MODE OF PURIFICATION]
14 This is the Instruction: A human who dies in (his) tent- anyone that enters the tent, and anyone that is in the tent, (is to be) considered-tamei for seven days.in a tent. Here used generally to denote any place wherein people live, because the Israelites at the time dwelt in tents rather than in houses (Ibn Ezra). The same law applies to any dead body that is brought into a tent.
everything. Household utensils, wearing apparel, as well as the people who are in the tent at the time.
that cometh into the tent. i.e. whilst the dead body is inside it. Contact with the dead is not required for defilement. Mere presence under the same roof is sufficient.
unclean seven days. Even though these persons or things had no actual contact with the corpse.
15 And any open vessel that has no cover tied down on it, it is tamei!no covering. Not hermetically sealed with a cover.
16 And anyone who touches, on the (open) field, one slain by the sword or a dead man, or human bones or a grave, shall be tamei for seven days.in the open field. If one comes up against a dead body or a human bone or grave in the open, that is, not under cover, he contracts defilement only after actual contact with any of these.
of the purification from sin. As in v.9
running water. lit. ‘living water.’ According to the Talmud, this water from a running stream had first to be put in a vessel and then the ashes mixed in.
18 He is to take hyssop and dip it into the water, the (ritually) pure man, he is to sprinkle (it) on the Tent and on all the implements and on the persons that were there, and on the one who touched the bones or the slain-one or the dead-man or the grave.19 Then the pure-one is to sprinkle (it) on the tamei-one on the third day and on the seventh day, thus decontaminating him on the seventh day; then he is to scrub his garments and wash with water, and be purified after sunset.
20 Now a man who becomes-tamei and does not decontaminate himself- cut off shall that person be from the midst of the assembly, for the Holy-area of YHVH has he made-tamei, waters Kept-Apart have not been dashed upon him, he is tamei!
21 It shall be for you as a law for the ages: the one-who-does-the-sprinkling from the Waters Kept-Apart is to scrub his garments, and the one-who-touches the Waters Kept-Apart shall remain-tamei until sunset.
22 And anything that the tamei-man touches becomes-tamei- the person that touches (it) shall remain-tamei until sunset.
the unclean person. Who has had contact with a corpse or grave as mentioned in v. 16.
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that toucheth him. i.e. the person that has any contact with the person mentioned in the foregoing clause. This is a departure from the RV, which has ‘that toucheth it.’ According to the Rabbis, contact with a corpse is the primary source of ritual impurity. He that has contact with the person thus becomes a secondary source of impurity, which in diminishing intensity is transmitted to food and liquids.
until even. When he becomes ‘clean’, having bathed his body.
According to the Mishna, the ceremonial of the burning of a Red Heifer was enacted seven times; once by Moses, once by Ezra, and five times after Ezra. It naturally disappeared from Jewish life with the Destruction of the Temple.
Chapter XIX forms the reading for Sabbath Parah, one of the so-called four Extraordinary Sabbaths, on the last Sabbath but one in Adar; or on the last, if the first day of Nisan falls on a Saturday. The reading is to commemorate the purification of the unclean by sprinkling them with the ‘water of separation’, so that they may be enabled to bring the Passover sacrifice in a state of purity.
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