Numbers
Chapter 19
The Red Heifer
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said:
“This is a regulation and a law that the Lord gives you. Say to the people of Israel that they are to bring you a red cow, which has no defects and has never been made to work.
You will give it to Eleazar, the priest, so that it may be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of the cow’s blood on his finger and sprinkle this blood seven times toward the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
The cow shall then be burned in his presence, including hide, flesh, blood, and the intestines too.
Then the priest is to take cedar wood, a twig of hyssop leaves, and a red cord, and throw them on the fire where the cow is burning.
Finally, he shall wash his clothing and bathe his body in water, after which he may return to the camp, but he will remain unclean until evening.
The man who has burned the cow shall wash his clothing, bathe his body in water, and remain unclean until evening.
A clean man shall gather the cow’s ashes and put them in a clean place outside the camp. They must be kept for the community of Israel to prepare the water for purification.
The man who has gathered the cow’s ashes shall wash his clothing and remain unclean until evening. This will be a law forever for the people of Israel and the strangers living among them.
Laws of Ritual Purity
Anyone who touches the corpse of any person whatsoever will be unclean for seven days.
He shall purify himself with these waters on the third and the seventh day, and he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third and the seventh day, he will not be clean.
Anyone who touches a dead person, the body of a man that has died and has not purified himself, defiles the Holy Tent of the Lord; such a person must be cut off from Israel because the waters for purification have not flowed over him; he is unclean, and his uncleanness remains in him.
This is the law when a person dies in a house. Anyone who goes into the house, or anyone already there, becomes unclean for seven days.
Equally unclean shall be every open jar and pot in the house that has not been closed with a lid or fastened.
Anyone in the open country who touches a person who has been killed, or a person who had died, or human bones or a tomb, becomes unclean for seven days.
For the unclean, you shall take some of the ashes of the cow offered for the sin and throw it into the water in a vessel.
A clean man shall dip a twig of hyssop in the water and sprinkle it on the house, everything in it, and the persons there. And he shall sprinkle it on the one who touched the bone, dead body, slain, or grave.
The clean man shall sprinkle water on the unclean on the third and the seventh days. So, on the seventh day, the unclean is cleansed; he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself on this day, and in the evening, he will become clean.
But if the unclean man does not cleanse himself, he shall be removed from the assembly, lest he defile the Lord’s Sanctuary. He is unclean as long as the purification water has not been thrown upon him.
This shall be a lasting ordinance for you. The man who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash his clothes, and those who touch this water are unclean until the evening.
Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and whoever touches it shall be unclean until evening.”
Commentaries
The Red Heifer.
The significance of this rule remains unclear. While the text explains the purpose of the ashes from this animal, it is unknown why they needed to be red. Today, the most Orthodox branches of Judaism are waiting for the moment when a specimen meeting these conditions is found; this would signal the start of the process to restore Judaism and its institutions, which were destroyed after the year 70. This restoration effort would include rebuilding the Temple, whose site is now occupied by the second most important mosque in Islam. Such a project would not benefit anyone. It would be better to promote interfaith dialogue between these communities—Jewish and Muslim—which, despite believing in the same God, do not see Him in the same way.
Laws of Ritual Purity.
The concept of a pure and holy God encourages a focus on the purity and dignity with which the faithful connect to God. Therefore, the priestly school (P) is notably repetitive, almost obsessive, in its efforts to differentiate the pure from the impure, the profane from the sacred, and to establish how purity can be regained if lost. As shown, we are at a stage of theological understanding where the idea of divine grace is not yet fully understood; it is not achieved through rites, offerings, or sacrifices, but is a pure gift from the Father. This heightened concern about avoiding impurity or contamination, which can make the believer insensitive to his neighbor, is vividly illustrated and revealed by Jesus in Luke’s account of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:25-37).