The Red Heifer
3:1. Seven days prior to the burning of the [red] heifer, they would separate out the priest responsible for burning the heifer from his home to a chamber on the northeast side of the Temple Mount called the house of stone. For seven days they would sprinkle [blood] on him from all of the purification offerings that were there. R. Yosi says: They only sprinkled [blood] on him on the third and seventh [days]. R. Ḥaninah, assistant of the priests, says: On the priest responsible for burning the heifer, they would sprinkle each of the seven days, but upon [the priest responsible for offerings] on the Day of Atonement, they would only sprinkle on the third and seventh days.
2. There were courtyards in Jerusalem built on the bedrock with a hollow under them, in case of a grave of the depth [that would cause impurity above if not for the hollow space that prevents the upward transmission of impurity]. They would bring pregnant women there and they would give birth [there], and they would raise their children there [to keep the children from becoming impure]. They brought oxen with doors on their backs, and children would sit on their backs with stone cups in their hands.1 When they reached Shiloaḥ,2 they descended and filled [the cups] and ascended and sat on the backs [of the oxen]. R. Yosi says: From his place, he [the child] would lower [a cup] and fill it.
3. When they [the children] reached the Temple Mount, they descended. [ . . . ] At the entrance to the courtyard was prepared a pitcher of purification offering [containing the ashes of the red heifer]. They would bring a male from among the sheep and tie a rope between its horns, and they would tie a staff or lattice of twigs to the [other] end of the rope and throw it into the pitcher. He [one of the priests] would strike the ram, and it would be startled and jump back.3 He would then take [some of the ashes of the red heifer] and sanctify them [in water] so that they could be seen on the face of the water. R. Yosi says: Do not give room to the Sadducees to rebel! Rather, he would take [the ashes] and sanctify them [in water, without the use of the ram].4 [ . . . ]
7. If the heifer did not want to go out [from the Temple to the place where it would be burned], they would not bring out a black [heifer] with it so that [people] would not say that they slaughtered a black [heifer to make the waters of purification], nor another red heifer, so that [people] would not say that they slaughtered two [heifers at the same time]. R. Yosi says: It was not for this reason, but rather because [of the verse], as it is stated: and he will bring it out (Numbers 19:3). [It means] “by itself.” [ . . . ]
9. They bound [the heifer] with rope or reeds and put it on the pile [of wood] with its head toward the south and its face toward the west. The priest stood in the east facing west. [The priest] slaughtered [the heifer] with his right hand and collected the blood with his left. R. Judah says: He would collect the blood with his right hand and then put it in his left hand and sprinkle with his right hand. He dipped [his finger in the blood] and sprinkled seven times toward the holy of holies, dipping for each sprinkling. When he finished sprinkling, he wiped his hand on the body of the heifer. He descended and lit the fire with wood from a fig tree. R. Akiva says: With dried branches.
Notes
[The doors are to prevent the children from casting a shadow over a grave, which would make them impure. Stone cups are used because they cannot become impure.—Ed.]
[A spring south of Jerusalem.—Ed.]
[This method of removing the ashes from the pitcher avoided any human contact with the pitcher, an extra precaution against impurity.—Ed.]
[R. Yosi is concerned that using a ram to remove the ashes would be regarded as too absurd and would cause the Sadducees to rebel against the Pharisees.—Ed.]
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
