The Paradoxical Law of the Red Cow¹

The Parah Aduma: Becoming Unclean to Become Clean

(from Chapter 19 of the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar)

The Law of the Red Heifer is contained in Numbers (Bamidbar) 19:2-10:

“This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer [parah aduma] without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come. You shall give it to Eleazer the priest, that he may take it outside the camp, and it shall be slaughtered before him; and Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting. Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight: its hide, its flesh, its blood, and its offal shall be burned. And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet [cloth], and cast them into the midst of the fire burning the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes, he shall bathe in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp; the priest shall be unclean until evening. And the one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water, bathe in water, and shall be unclean until evening. Then a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and store them outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of purification; it is for purifying from sin. And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening. It shall be a statute forever to the children of Israel and to the stranger who dwells among them.”

The use of the Parah Aduma is given in Numbers 19:17-19:

“And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the heifer burnt for purification from sin, and running water shall be put on them in a vessel. A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, the slain, the dead, or a grave. The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and at evening he shall be clean.”

Commentary

This is the Parah Aduma, a rarely performed, and unusual sacrifice. It was the only sacrifice prescribed by the Torah that required an animal of a particular color. Moreover, it involved a cow, and not the typical bull. Untypically, the blood of the sacrificed animal and all its parts was also burnt. The ashes were then mixed with water, and the sprinkling of the parah aduma water, this ash-water mixture (mei niddah), was the rite commanded to purify one who was contaminated from contact with a corpse. However, it contaminated the priests (kohanim) who prepared and sprinkled the parah aduma water/ash mixture, as anyone who came into contact with the process of making the mei niddah from the parah aduma would become impure. Thus, the priests—in burning the red cow and in preparing the ash/water mixture—would become ritually contaminated.

It is said that Solomon was referencing this enigmatic feature of the Parah Aduma—that the priests had to become unclean to make the people clean—when he said “I will acquire wisdom, but it was far from me.” Ecclesiastes 7:23.

Parah aduma (red cow) is a paradoxical law because the same law that causes atonement causes the priest who administers it to be contaminated.

The parah aduma is called a chok because humans are unable to understand the reasoning of this commandment or mitzvah.

Endnotes

¹ Numbers 19:2-19. ⇑