Red Heifer - Biblical Therapy

(1) יהוה spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

(2) This is the ritual law that יהוה has commanded:

A: Preparing the Powder:

Instruct the Israelite people to bring you

a red cow

without blemish,

in which there is no defect

and on which no yoke has been laid.

(3) You shall give it to Eleazar the priest. It shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.

(4) Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.

(5) The cow shall be burned in his sight, its hide, flesh, and blood shall be burned, its dung included.

(6) and the priest shall take

cedar wood,

hyssop,

and crimson stuff,

and throw them into the fire consuming the cow.

B: Status of those handling the ashes:

(7) The priest shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water; after that the priest may reenter the camp, but he shall be impure until evening.

(8) The one who performed the burning shall also wash those garments in water, bathe in water, and be impure until evening.

(9) Another party who is pure shall gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a pure place, to be kept for water of purification for the Israelite community. It is for purgation.

(10) The one who gathers up the ashes of the cow shall also wash those clothes and be impure until evening.

C: Laws of Impurity

This shall be a permanent law for the Israelites and for the strangers who reside among them.

(11) One who touches the corpse of any human being shall be impure for seven days.

(12) They shall purify themselves with [the ashes] on the third day and on the seventh day, and then be pure; if they fail to purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they shall not be pure.

(13) Those who touch a corpse, the body of a person who has died, and do not purify themselves, defile יהוה’s Tabernacle; those persons shall be cut off from Israel. Since the water of lustration was not dashed on them, they remain impure; their impurity is still upon them.

(14) This is the law: When a person dies in a tent, whoever enters the tent and whoever is in the tent shall be impure seven days;

(15) and every open vessel, with no lid fastened down, shall be impure.

(16) And in the open, anyone who touches a person who was slain by the sword, or who died naturally, or human bone, or a grave, shall be impure seven days.

D: Process of Purification

(17) Some of the dust from the fire of purgation shall be taken for the impure person, and fresh water shall be added to them in a vessel.

(18) Another party who is pure shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle on the tent and on all the vessels and people who were there, or on the one who touched the bones or the person who was killed or died naturally or the grave.

(19) The pure person shall sprinkle it upon the impure person on the third day and on the seventh day, thus purifying that person by the seventh day. [The one being purified] shall then wash those clothes and bathe in water—and at nightfall shall be pure.

(20) If any party who has become impure fails to undergo purification, that person shall be cut off from the congregation for having defiled יהוה’s sanctuary. The water of lustration was not dashed on that person, who is impure.

(21) That shall be for them a law for all time. Further, the one who sprinkled the water of lustration shall wash those clothes; and whoever touches the water of lustration shall be impure until evening.

(22) Whatever that impure person touches shall be impure; and the person who touches the impure one shall be impure until evening.

(3) 3 (Numb. 19:2) “This is the statute of the Torah”: R. Isaac began [his discourse] (with Eccl. 7:23), “All this I tested with wisdom; I thought I could fathom it, but it eludes me.”...

(I Kings 5:13) “And he spoke with/concerning ('al) the trees”: Is it possible that a person would speak with the trees? Solomon said, “For what reason is a leper cleansed through the tallest among the trees (the cedar) and through the lowest of the low (the hyssop); through (according to Lev. 14:4) cedar wood, [crimson stuff,] and hyssop?’ It is simply because he had exalted himself like the cedar, that he was stricken with leprosy. As soon as he humbled himself like the hyssop, he was therefore cured through hyssop”....

Solomon said, “About all these things I have knowledge; but in the case of the parashah on the red heifer, I have investigated it, inquired into it, and examined it. [Still] (at the end of the verse in Eccl. 7:23), ‘I thought I could fathom it, but it eludes me.’”

(8) A gentile asked Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai:

"These rituals you do, they seem like witchcraft! You bring a heifer, burn it, crush it up, and take its ashes. [If] one of you is impure by the dead [the highest type impurity], 2 or 3 drops are sprinkled on him, and you declare him pure?!"

He [RYbZ] said to him, "Has a restless spirit ever entered you?" He said to him [RYbZ], "No!"

"Have you ever seen a man where a restless spirit entered him?" He said to him [RYbZ], "Yes!"

[RYbZ] said to him, "And what did you do for him?" He sad to him [RYbZ], "We brought roots and made them smoke beneath him, and pour water and it flees."

He [RYbZ] said to him, "Your ears should hear what leaves from your mouth!...

After he left, our rabbi's students said, "You pushed him off with a reed. What will you say to us?"

He said to them, "By your lives, a dead person doesn't make things impure, and the water doesn't make things pure. Rather, God said, 'I have engraved a rule, I have decreed a decree, and you have no permission to transgress what I decreed, as it says "This is a rule of the Torah."

(9) King Jehoash of Israel sent back this message to King Amaziah of Judah:

“The thistle in Lebanon sent this message to the cedar in Lebanon,

‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ But a wild beast in Lebanon went by and trampled down the thistle.

The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to the Jewish people... even at a time that I bestow greatness upon you, you diminish yourselves before Me.

I granted greatness to Abraham, yet he said before Me: “And I am but dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27).

I granted greatness to Moses and Aaron, they said: “And what are we” (Exodus 16:7).

I granted greatness to David, yet he said: “But I am a worm, and no man” (Psalms 22:7)...

(19) By the sweat of your brow
Shall you get bread to eat,
Until you return to the ground—
For from it you were taken.
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”

(14) This is the Torah: When a person dies in a tent...