“The person who remains unclean and does not purify himself will be cut off from the community because he has defiled the sanctuary of Adonai. The water for purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.”-Numbers 19:20
Alrighty, let’s not waste any time and get right down to examining the step-by-step procedures of the Red Heifer sacrifice.
Here they are in excruciating detail for your intense reading pleasure!
STEP ONE:
A high-ranking priest (NOT the High Priest but a senior-level priest) escorts the red female cow to a common woodpile, cuts the throat of the cow and then gathers the dripping blood into a ceremonial vessel.
STEP TWO:
The priest turns around and with his finger, sprinkles blood seven times in the direction of the Sanctuary door. Understand that since he was situation quite a distance away from the Holy Place, a line of vision had to be established so that he could actually see the door leading into the Holy Place.
STEP THREE:
The whole cow (as in “every part of it”) was completely burned up on the now raging bonfire. While the cow was being roasted, the priest would throw in some cedar wood, hyssop (also known as “oregano”) and a red-colored thread to the mix.
STEP FOUR:
Following the “burning” was the “bathing“. The priest removed his ritual garments and bathed in water. And if there was an assistant with him, he too bathed and changed into a new set of clothes. Understand that the priest was NOT allowed to return to the camp until the sun set. And even after returning to the camp, he (and his assistant if there was one) would be ritually unclean until sundown. Again, this indicates the end of the current day and the beginning of the next.
STEP FIVE:
A man who had up to this point in time NOT participated in the ritual (and thus was still ritually clean) came to collect all the ashes and put them in a specially chosen spot. Later, this pile of Red Heifer ashes would be combined with water resulting in the POWERFUL potion that would be used to purify anybody who had come into contact with a corpse. Since the man who had just gathered up the ashes was now ritually unclean, he also had to take a bath and would be in an unclean state until the sun set.
And those are the steps!
Whaddaya think?
Understand that the degree of impurity one contracted from touching a corpse, whether of beast or man, was so high that it would INSTANTLY defile anyone who touched it.
In fact, the level of impurity a corpse carried was so high that even coming into close proximity with a dead body could render a person UNCLEAN.
Again, there was only one remedy and that remedy was the mixture of Red Heifer ashes with water.
This potion would be sprinkled on a home or building where a person died (which makes this potion perfect for haunted houses I think).
And of course, the potion was sprinkled on anybody who had been in contact with the now deceased individual.
The sprinkling of ashes and water mixture was done twice: on the 3rd day and on the 7th day.
After being properly sprinkled, the person who had been defiled was considered ritually clean at the close of the 7th day.
Of course, at that time, he had to wash his clothes and bathe.
Now as superstitious as all of this might sound, understand these procedures were considered a VERY SERIOUS MATTER!!!
Anybody who had been defiled by a corpse who didn’t undergo these procedures was to be KARET!
Do you remember what KARET means?
It means to be “cut off“.
This was one of the most terrifying prospects any Hebrew could face.
To be “cut-off” or KARET was to lose one’s relationship with not only the people of Israel but with God Himself!
One might think “Why such a severe penalty?”
We’ll find the answer in verse 20 (also pasted above).
“The person who remains unclean and does not purify himself will be cut off from the community because he has defiled the sanctuary of Adonai. The water for purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.”-Numbers 19:20
To put it simply, if you defile God’s Sanctuary which is the very dwelling place of the Almighty, you are trampling on HASHEM’s Holiness.
And if there is anything you should have learned by now at this stage in our TORAH studies, to trample on God’s HOLINESS is death, both in this world and the next.
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