The Beauty of the Red Heifer

Parashat Chukat, Numbers 19:1–22:1

Barri Cae Seif, Sar Shalom Congregation, Dallas

Through the death of one perfect red heifer, the unclean receives purification. As we take a look at this passage in Numbers 19, let us ponder that statement.

This is the statute of the Torah which Adonai commanded saying: Speak to Bnei-Yisrael that they bring to you a flawless red heifer on which there is no blemish, and on which has never been a yoke. Give her to Eleazar the kohen. He will take her outside the camp and slaughter her in his presence.

 While watching, he is to burn the heifer, her hide, flesh, blood and refuse. The kohen is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool, and cast them into the midst of the burning heifer.

Afterward, the kohen is to wash his clothes and bathe his flesh with the water, and afterward he may come back into the camp. Still the kohen will be unclean until evening.  Also the one burning it is to wash his clothes and bathe his flesh with the water, and he will be unclean until evening.

 A clean man is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a clean place outside the camp. They are to be for the community of Bnei-Yisrael to use as water of purification from sin. (Num 19:1–10)

Death has a way of blending in with life. My first experience with death was when my father’s mother, my bubbie, died. It was as if there was a shadow cast over our home. There are rituals to accompany death and mourning in Judaism. I do not remember my father covering the mirrors, but I do remember him sitting close to the ground; he was unshaven. God gives us directives when we are called to deal with death.

Such is the content for this week’s passage, Chukat. God required a strange recipe for the priests who would at times touch dead things. Provision had to be made in order to sanctify themselves to become clean again.

The red heifer was a rarity and valuable. The red heifer was a limited edition. Looking for this animal is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The existence of a red heifer that conforms with all of the extreme requirements imposed by halakha is a biological anomaly. The cow had to be entirely of one color. The hair of the cow had to be absolutely straight. Not even a blanket could be placed upon this cow. The cow was never to be ridden. The requirements noted illustrate the principle of chok, or biblical law, for which there is no apparent logic.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, noted:

The command of the parah adumah, the Red Heifer, with which our parsha begins, is known as the hardest of the mitzvot to understand. The opening words, zot chukat ha-Torah, are taken to mean, this is the supreme example of a chok in the Torah, that is, a law whose logic is obscure, perhaps unfathomable. (https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/chukat/kohelet-tolstoy-and-the-red-heifer/)

 Rabbi J. H. Hertz adds:

This ordinance is the most mysterious rite in Scripture, the strange features of which are duly enumerated by the Rabbis. Thus, its aim was to purify the defiled, and yet it defiled all those who were in any way connected with the preparation of the ashes and the water a purification. ‘It purifies the impure, and at the same time renders impure the pure!’ (Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, p. 652)

If by chance, a perfect red heifer was found, it had to be burned outside the camp and he who burned it was also unclean. Its ashes were used in the ritual purification in which water was also included. Three other elements were added: hyssop, cedar wood, and scarlet thread. Why these elements? It is because they were all used in the building of the sanctuary: the hyssop was used by the priests for sprinkling the blood; the cedar wood was used for the posts, and the scarlet thread was used for the construction of the curtains. Therefore, in mixing the sacred objects with the death of the heifer, death and life would be combined to bring forth cleansing and purification. This allowed the person to cross the bridge from unclean (tamei) back to clean (tahor).

In this ceremony, the cedar, hyssop, wool were burned along with the ashes of the heifer. The beauty of the red heifer was not in its life but in its death. It is more valuable in its death than it ever was in its life. In its death it changes forms. It does not cease its power, but it changes forms as it goes through a metamorphosis from the physical body to the ashes. This is the “chok” of which the late Rabbi Sacks spoke. It is a law whose logic is obscure and even unfathomable. It makes no sense.

Hebrews 9 notes:

But when Messiah appeared as Kohen Gadol of the good things that have now come, passing through the greater and more perfect Tent not made with hands (that is to say not of this creation), He entered into the Holies once for all—not by the blood of goats and calves but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Messiah—who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God—cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

The red heifer teaches us about Yeshua. It helps us to understand the rarity of knowledge of him. The red heifer reminds us about the vicarious atonement of Yeshua that paves the way to life for us.

In conclusion, I ask myself, “What dead things do I have in my life?” I can’t cleave to dead things. What dead things do I think about? What is my past? What dead things do I keep visiting? Every time I touch these dead things, these past things, I diminish myself. Unforgiveness, envy and strife take away peace. If I touch these things, they defile me. I am not to cleave to anything that God told me not to touch.

Forget what is behind and press forward and upward.

Get rid of the dead to experience the fresh new move of God.

Our faith is purified as we go through fiery trials, when we are called to surrender our “lives” to El Chai, the Living God. We learn about God as we go through the fire.

We are to look forward and not behind; to look up and not down.

Rabbi Hertz’s words are exact: “It purifies the impure, and at the same time renders impure the pure!”

Yeshua purifies the impure; he renders the impure, pure!

To know Yeshua is a blessing. The Good News, the Besorah, is hidden from the world, but revealed to us. Many cannot see this, but God has allowed us to see who Yeshua is. We give thanks for the personal knowledge of knowing Him! This is the beauty of the Red Heifer.

 Scripture references are from the Tree of Life Version (TLV).