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File:Red Angus Heifer.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A red Angus cow which is grown by the Temple Institute for the red heifer sacrifice in the reconstruction of the Third Temple of Jerusalem in Jerusalem, IsraelIsrael{{Tumah and taharah|expanded=Purification methods}}{{short description|Cow mentioned in the Torah}}The red heifer (), a heifer which is never pregnant, milked, or yoked, also known as the red cow, is a heifer sacrificed by the priests as a sacrifice to God in the Book of Numbers (Torah, Old Testament). Its ashes after being sacrificed and burned were used for the ritual purification of corpse uncleanness caused by an Israelite coming into contact with a human corpse, a human bone, or a human grave. BOOK, Carmichael, Calum, The Book of Numbers: a Critique of Genesis, Yale University Press, 2022, New Haven, Connecticut, 103–121,books.google.com/books?id=6uy6LVXGOxkC&pg=PA106, 9780300179187,

Hebrew Bible

The red heifer offering instructions are described in Numbers 19. The Israelites were commanded to obtain “a red (:wikt:heifer|heifer) without spots, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came a yoke”. The heifer is then slaughtered and burned outside of the camp. Cedar wood, an herb called ezov, and wool dyed scarlet are added to the fire, and the remaining ashes are placed in a vessel containing pure spring water.To purify a person, water from the vessel is sprinkled on them using a bunch of ezov, on the third and seventh day of the purification process.{{bibleverse||Numbers|19:18-19|HE}} The Kohen who performs the ritual then becomes ritually impure and must then wash himself and his clothes in spring waters. He remains impure until the evening of the day he sprinkled the water of lustration.

Mishnah

The Mishnah, the central compilation of the Oral Torah in Rabbinic Judaism, the oral component of the Written Torah, contains a tractate on the red heifer, which is the tractate Parah (“cow“) in Seder Tohorot, which explains the procedures involved. The tractate has no existing Gemara, although commentary on the procedure appears in the Gemara for other tractates of the Talmud.

Details of the commandment

According to Mishnah’s tractate Parah, the presence of two black hairs invalidates a red heifer, in addition to the usual requirements of an unblemished animal for sacrifice. There are various other requirements, such as natural birth (The caesarian section renders a heifer candidate invalid).Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Para Adumah 1:7 The water must be “living” (ie., spring water). This is a stronger requirement than for a mikveh or ritual bath; rainwater accumulated in a cistern is permitted for a mikveh but cannot be used in the red heifer ceremony.The Mishnah reports that in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, water for the ritual came from the Pool of Siloam. The ceremony involved was complex and detailed. To ensure the complete ritual purity of those involved, care was taken to ensure that no one involved in the red heifer ceremony could have had any contact with the dead or any form of tumah, and implements were made of materials such as stone, which in Jewish law do not act as carriers for ritual impurities. The Mishnah recounts that children were used to draw and carry the water for the ceremony, children born and reared in isolation for the specific purpose of ensuring that they never came into contact with a corpse:Various other devices were used, including a causeway from the Temple Mount to the Mount of Olives so that the heifer and accompanying priests would not come into contact with a grave.Mishnayoth Seder Taharoth, translated and annotated by Phillip Blackman, Judaica Press, 2000.According to the Mishnah, the ceremony of the burning of the red heifer took place on the Mount of Olives. A ritually pure kohen slaughtered the heifer and sprinkled its blood in the direction of the Temple seven times. The red heifer was then burned on a pyre, together with scarlet dyed wool, hyssop, and cedarwood. In recent years, the site of the burning of the red heifer on the Mount of Olives has been tentatively located by archaeologist Yonatan Adler.JOURNAL, Adler, Y., The Site of the Burning of the Red Heifer on the Mount of Olives, Techumin, 22, 2002, 537–542, he,

Color

The heifer’s color is described in the Torah as adumah ({{Script/Hebrew|אדומה}}), which is “red”. However, Saadia Gaon translates this word as , a word translated to English as “yellow”.See also {{Bibleverse|Job|16:16|HE}} where Saadiah uses á¹£afrā to describe a red-flushed face. In addition, the Quran describes Moses being commanded about a “yellow” cow (al-Baqara 2:69).To explain this discrepancy, Yosef Qafih in his Hebrew translation and commentary on Saadia’s work argues that the Bible requires the cow to have a ruddy light-brown color, which he says is the normal color of a cow. He says this color is in general described as {{Script/Hebrew|אדום}} in Hebrew and “yellow” in Arabic, resolving the discrepancy in the color words. He explains the Biblical requirement to mean that the cow be entirely of this color, and not have blotches or blemishes of a different color.Yosef Qafih, Perushei Rabbeinu Saadiah Gaon al haTorah, footnote to Numbers 19:2.

Jewish tradition

A red heifer that conforms with all of the requirements imposed by halakha is practically a biological anomaly. For example, the animal must be entirely of one color (a series of tests listed by the sages must be performed to ensure this) and the hair of the cow must be absolutely straight (to ensure that the cow had not previously been yoked, as this would be a disqualifier). According to Jewish tradition, only nine red heifers were actually slaughtered in the period extending from Moses to the destruction of the Second Temple. Mishnah’s tractate Parah recounts them, stating that Moses prepared the first, Ezra the second, Simeon the Just and Johanan the High Priest prepared two each, and Elioenai ben HaQayaph, Ananelus, and Ishmael ben Fabus prepared one each.Mishna Parah 3:5The extreme rarity of the animal, combined with the detailed ritual in which it is used, have given the red heifer special status in Jewish tradition. It is cited as the paradigm of a ḥoq, a biblical law for which there is no apparent logic. Because the state of ritual purity obtained through the ashes of a red heifer is a necessary prerequisite for participating in Temple service, efforts have been made in modern times by Jews wishing for biblical ritual purity (see tumah and taharah) and in anticipation of the building of the Third Temple to locate a red heifer and recreate the ritual. However, multiple candidates have been disqualified and multiple candidates were found at the same time also.Also, all red heifer ashes were still in use as late as the time of Jeremiah (III) in the fourth century CE and then were exhausted completely.Jerusalem Talmud, Brachot 6:1, according to Or Yesharim commentary and Rome manuscript where בי חנוותא is replaced by מי חטאתה

Quran

The second and the longest surah (chapter) in the Quran is named ”al-Baqara” ( “the heifer“) after the heifer as the commandment is related in the surah.Surah Al Baqarah Ayah 67-71WEB, Surah Al Baqarah,quran.com/al-baqarah/67-71, Quran.com, Ibn Kathir explains that according to ibn Abbas and Ubayda ibn al-Harith, it displayed the stubbornness of the Children of Israel, who asked unnecessary questions to the prophets without readily following any commandment from God; had they slaughtered a cow, any cow, it would have been sufficient for them - but instead, as they made the matter more difficult, God made it even more difficult for them.WEB, Quran Tafsir Ibn Kathir - The Stubbornness of the Jews regarding the Cow; Allah made the Matter difficult for Them,www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=363, www.qtafsir.com, 1 February 2019, {{Obsolete source|reason=|date=April 2024}}

Christian

The non-canonical Epistle of Barnabas (8:1) explicitly equates the red heifer with Jesus. In the New Testament, the phrases “without the gate” ({{bibleverse||Hebrews|13:12|9}}) and “without the camp” ({{bibleverse||Numbers|19:3|HE}}, {{bibleverse||Hebrews|13:13|9}}) have been taken to be not only an identification of Jesus with the red heifer, but an indication as to the location of the crucifixion.BOOK, Secrets of Golgotha: The Forgotten History of Christ’s Crucifixion, Martin, Ernest L., ASK Publications, 1988, 978-0945657774,

Modern day

The Temple Institute, an organization dedicated to preparing the reconstruction of a Third Temple in Jerusalem, has been attempting to identify red heifer candidates consistent with the requirements of Numbers 19:1–22 and Mishnah Tractate Parah.WEB,www.templeinstitute.org/red_heifer/red_heifer_contents.htm, The Mystery of the Red Heifer: Divine Promise of Purity, The Temple Institute, templeinstitute.org, 2008-01-31, 2015-06-03, 2020-02-23,www.templeinstitute.org/red_heifer/red_heifer_contents.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20200223102301www.templeinstitute.org/red_heifer/red_heifer_contents.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20200223102301www.templeinstitute.org/red_heifer/red_heifer_contents.htm, dead, NEWS In September 2022, five red cows were imported from the United States and transferred to a breeding farm in a West Bank settlement.AV MEDIA,www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI7H6J3ZzEo, The unlikely role red cows play in war between Israel and Hamas, en, 2024-04-25, www.youtube.com, Time stamp 1:27 indicating West Bank location of the farm Rabbis consider the cows kosher for sacrifice.Five red cows were flown to Israel: For 2,000 years there were no red cows here. Hamechadesh (The Innovator, Hebrew) August 1, 2022

See also

• Akabeko, a red cow in a different tradition

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

• “Ashes and Water – From the Chassidic Masters”
• The Statute of the Torah {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619151208www.neirot.com/weekly-parshah/parshat-chukat-the-statute-of-the-torah |date=2021-06-19 }}