The ritual of
the red heifer is confusing, self-contradictory, arcane, and downright bizarre.
But this is far from a new or modern observation.
First: what is
it all about? Torah instructs that a pure red heifer be sacrificed outside the
Israelites’ encampment (and later outside the Temple) and burned completely to
ashes. The ashes, when mixed with water are sprinkled on a person who is in a
state of ritual impurity through contact with the dead, and is thereby purified
— yet the priest is rendered ritual impure by making the sacrifice.
Midrash (Numbers Rabbah 19:8) records that Rabban Yochanan b. Zakkai,
who lived through the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. (after which,
there was never again the sacrifice of a red heifer), faced the sort of
questions people ask today. I will interpolate comments throughout the midrash.
An idol worshiper asked Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: “This ritual that you perform seems like witchcraft. You bring a cow, burn it, pound it, and take the ashes; then you sprinkle upon one who has become impure by contact with the dead two or three drops and say to him, ‘You are purified!’”
In a later age, Rashi
comments that the other nations taunted Israel on account of this ritual,
saying, “What in the world is this?” Nachmanides[1]
adds to Rashi’s comment: “The reason the other nations heap scorn on Israel
about this more than they do about any of the other sacrifices of expiation or
of purification [Nachmanides has in mind the purification rituals after a woman
gives birth] is because the animal is slaughtered outside the sacred enclosure.
It therefore appears to have been offered in
the open… to the goat demons (Leviticus 17:5,7). But the truth is that it
is meant to transfer the spirit of uncleanness outside the encampment — so even
though it is burned in the open, it is the same as the ‘pleasing odor’ of
sacrifice being offered.” Where Rabban Yochanan fielded accusations of
witchcraft, Nachmanides heard accusations of paganism. As I said, it’s a
bizarre ritual.
The midrash continues with a conversation between Rabban
Yochanan b. Zakkai and a pagan idolater who says that the red heifer is a silly
ritual. Rabban Yochanan b.
Zakkai compares the pagan exorcisms, which the idolater believes to be
efficacious, with the ritual of the red heifer. This is really risky territory
for him to enter:
He [Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai] said to him [the idolater]: “Has the spirit of madness ever entered you?” He [the idolater] said to him, “No.” “Have you ever seen a person into whom the spirit of madness has entered?” He [the idolater] said to him, “Yes.” He [Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai] said to him, “And what do you do for him?” He [the idolater] said to him, “We bring roots and burn them to smoke under him, and we sprinkle water on it and the spirit flees.” He [Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai] said to him, “Let your ears hear what comes out of your mouth! [In other words: “Listen to what you’re saying!”]This spirit is the spirit of impurity, as it is written, And I will also make the “prophets” and the unclean spirit vanish from the land [Zechariah 13:2]. Water of purification is sprinkled upon him and it flees.”
Is Rabban Yochanan b. Zakkai saying that Torah’s ritual is no different
from the pagan’s ritual? It helps to pay closer attention to the verse from
Zechariah that he quotes. He quotes only the second half because it mentions “unclean spirits,”
which resonates with the idolater. The first half of the verse, which the
midrash presumes the reader either knows or will look up, says: In that day, too — declares the Lord of
Hosts — I will erase the very names of the idols from the land; they shall be
uttered no more. In this way, the verse appears to affirm the rituals of
the idolater, thereby convincing him of the legitimacy of the Red Heifer ashes,
yet is entirely delegitimizes his practice!
Pretty
impressive, no? Well, Rabban Yochanan’s students don’t buy his explanation:
it’s a flimsy reed.
After he [the idolater] had left, his students said to him [Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai], “Our Master, you put him off with a reed, but what would you say to us?” He said to them, “I swear: The dead do not make one impure, and the water does not purify. Rather, the Holy One praised be God said, ‘It is a ritual law that I have enacted; it is a decree that I have decreed. You may not transgress My decrees, as it is written, This is the ritual law.’”
Rabban
Yochanan explains to them that the law of the Red Heifer is a chok: it is a commandment that can neither
be explained nor understood. But it must be obeyed.
Once
there was a synagogue where they had an unusual tradition. As they recited the
Amidah, they would begin facing east, and slowly turn 360 degrees counter
clockwise, completing the Amidah facing east again. Visitors enquired about
this tradition, but no one knew its origins. It had always been thus. There came a time when the synagogue needed
renovation. Workmen came and began by stripping off the wallpaper. What did
they find? They saw that long, long ago, before the time that everyone had
printed prayerbooks, the words of the Amidah were written on the walls of the
synagogue, near the ceiling, beginning to the left of the Holy Ark, and
continuing all the way around.
Some
rituals are clouded in mystery. The Red Heifer may well be one we never truly
understand. Yet it does not brand all ritual silly, bizarre, and meaningless.
Rituals capture a holy moment, or a holy event, and preserve them for us so
that we can experience them again and again and again. Consider the Passover
seder: through it we relive the experience and meaning of the Exodus and
Redemption year after year. Consider lighting shabbat candles and making
Havdalah: through them we are reminder that we delineate and mark holy time for
it to be real in our lives.
The
notion of a ritual shrouded in mystery, without reason or meaning, does not sit
well with everyone. This, too, is not new. Our midrash includes a d’var acher, another explanation of the
Red Heifer, more suited to one who finds the notion of unexplainable chok unpalatable and insufficient:
And why are all the sacrificial animals male, but this one is a female?
Rabbi Aivu said, “This can be explained by a parable: The son of a handmaiden
dirtied the king’s palace. The king said, ‘Let his mother come and wipe up the
filth.’ So too, the Holy One, praised be God, said, ‘Let the cow come and atone
for the incident of the Golden Calf.’
R. Aivu assures
us that the Red Heifer is not a mysterious and inexplicable ritual; it
is a riddle to unlock. The Red Heifer points to an event in our past: the
Golden Calf. As the Golden Calf is a female idol, so the Red Heifer is a female
sacrifice of the same species that is given to compensate for the sin of the
Golden Calf.
As archaic,
arcane, and bizarre as the Red Heifer ritual seems to us, R. Aivu’s explanation
doesn’t make it more comfortable or enlightening to most Jews in the 21st
century. Yet there is something about R. Aivu’s explanation that I appreciate,
and it is this: R. Aivu lived in Babylonia in the third century C.E., long
after the anyone had a clue about the ritual of the Red Heifer (if ever anyone
did). Yet he felt free to make sense and meaning of it.
That is what we
continue to do, studying our sacred texts to wrest from them new insights and
meaning to live our lives better. This is what we do with our rituals and
traditions. We invest them with new meanings to uplift, encourage, and inspire.
The proliferation of Passover haggadot is an excellent example of the energy
invested in this process. This is not to say that every tradition should be
preserved and justified. There is a Demotivator poster that expresses it best:
At the top is a picture of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. The caption
below says: “Tradition: Just Because You’ve Always Done It That Way Doesn’t
Mean It’s Not Incredibly Stupid.”
But R. Aivu does open the door and invite us into the process, which has been
ongoing for three millennia, and to which we continue to make wonderful
contributions, not only for own spiritual benefit, but for future generations,
as well.
© Rabbi Amy
Scheinerman
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