The Red Cow - Parah Adumah
One who has become impure through contact with a corpse is purified by
sprinkling him on the third and seventh days with water in which the ashes of a
red cow have been mixed, as it says "They shall
take an unblemished red cow... and they shall take for the impure person some of
[its] ashes and put on it living water in a vessel; and a pure man shall take
hyssop and dip it in the water... and sprinkle on the impure person on the third
day and on the seventh day... and he shall wash in water and be clean in the
evening".1
Those who slaughter the cow and prepare the ashes become impure for a day,2
as do those who burn the sin-offerings that are not eaten and who take the
scapegoat to the desert.3
One who touches or moves the water before it has been sprinkled, except to
sprinkle it, also becomes impure for a day, as it says
"And one who sprinkles the water of isolation shall
wash his clothes, and one who touches the water of isolation shall be impure
until evening".4,
a
Sources:
1)
BaMidbar 19:2-19
a.
5:1,4; 11:1; 15:1
2)
BaMidbar 19:7-8,10
3)
VaYikra 16:26,28
4)
BaMidbar 19:21
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