On the first of Nissan, 2,449, the Mishkan's last Inauguration Day, Hashem revealed to Moshe the laws regarding impure people who are expelled from the Camp and the purity laws of the Kohanim.
Hashem taught him how purification from the different types of impurities is achieved (either by immersion in a mikvah or in a live spring, and so on), as well as the sacrifices that consummate the purification procedure.
When Hashem taught Moshe that a Jew becomes tamei by touching a dead body, Moshe questioned, "How does he purify himself of this tum'ah?"
Hashem did not answer his question, and Moshe's face darkened in grief and shame.* (There can be no greater pain for a talmid chacham, whose life goal is to perfect himself in Torah knowledge and performance, than to be denied the knowledge he seeks.)
* According to Alshich, Moshe was ashamed for Aharon's sake when Hashem did not reply. He thought that by participating in the chet ha'egel (sin of the calf - golden calf), Aharon had brought back the Angel of Death to the Jewish people and he would be eternally stigmatized unless Hashem prescribed a way of purifying oneself from the tum'ah caused by death. In truth, Hashem delayed His answer as a kindness to Aharon. The first time He addressed Msohe, Aharon was not present. Hashem therefore waited until Aharon, too, was present and then addressed the parsha of parah adumah to both of them (Bamidbar 19:1). This publicized the fact that He had forgiven Aharon for having participated in the Sin of the Gold Calf.
Later that day Hashem resumed the subject, explaining to Moshe and Aharon, "If someone became defiled by contact with a corpse, he is to be sprinkled with a special mixture of water and ashes from a red heifer."
The Almighty instructed them in the laws of the parah adumah:
- The parah adumah is purchased from the treasury of the Beit Hamikdash, from a fund containing the yearly half-shekel donations of individual Jews.
- To qualify as a parah adumah, a cow must be at least three years old (old enough to bear young).
- Its color must be completely red; even two hairs of another color disqualify it.
- The animal is also disqualified if it was once harnessed to a yoke, even if it did not perform labor.
- The kohen slaughters the cow "outside the Camp." During the years int he wilderness it was slaughtered outside all three Camps, and in the time of the Beit Hamikdash on the Mount of Olives, since this mountain is considered "outside Yerushalayim."
- He gathers some of the heifer's blood in his left hand, dips his right index finger into it, and sprinkles it in the direction of the entrance of the Heichal (Temple), which he can see from the mountain.
- A fire is lit, and the kohen supervises the cow's burining.
- With a red woolen string he ties together a cedar stick and some hyssop.
- While the cow is burning, the bundle containing the cedar stick and hyssop is cast into its carcass.
- The heifer's ashes are divided into three parts: one is placed in a certain section of the courtyard of the Beit Hamikdash, where it is preserved in order to fulfill the mitzvah that the ashes of the parah adumah must be kept for all generations. A second part is divided among the groups of kohanim who become tamei. the third part is placed in a spot on the Mount of Olives for the purification of Benei Yisrael.
- Whoever was involved in the preparation of the ashes - for example, the person who burned the cow, who cast the bundle into the fire, who gathered wood, who touched or carried the ashes - becomes tamei.
- In a utensil the heifer's ashes are mixed with fresh spring water.
- the waters of the parah adumah are sprinkled by someone who is himself pure from tumat hamet (the impurity of death) onto the Jew who purifies himself. He sprinkles him on the third and seventh day of the individual's purification. Moreover, during the seventh day the person being purified must immerse himself in a mikvah to consummate his purification.
To this day, nine Parah Adumah have been burnt. The first was prepared by Elazar ben Aharon under Moshe's supervision on the second of Nissan, 2,449. (Moshe directed the proper thoughts toward it, because Elazar did not understand its reasons.)
A blessing rested upon the portion of Moshe's ashes set aside for purification; they lasted until Ezra's time. Under Ezra's supervision, a second parah adumah was burned; a third and a fourth under Shimon HaTzaddik's guidance, and two more in the time of Yochanan Kohen Gadol. From then until the destruction of the Second Beit Hamikdash three further parot adumot were burnt.
The tenth one will be prepared by Mashiach, may he come soon!
- Midrash Says, Bamidbar
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