This term designates a cow with a reddish coat. As ordained in Numbers 19, its ashes  (mixed with spring water, cedar wood, crimson stuff and hyssop) provided ritual purity to Jews who had entered a cemetery or otherwise made contact with corpses. (It was a religious duty to wash, attend and bury the dead, but the act rendered one impure for visiting the Temple.) Purification took a week. A priest would sprinkle you with the mixture on the third and seventh days. Then you would take a ritual bath and be pure.

The red heifer had to be without defect (Numbers 19:2). "According to Halacha, the red cow must be three years old, perfectly red, a uniform hue, and even a few hairs of a different color invalidates it for sacred use. Its horns and must also be red. It may not have a blemish, and a yoke must not be placed on it." (Source)

Such an animal was rare. According to Tractate Parah ("Cow") of the Mishnah, no more than nine were sacrificed from the time of Moses till the Temple's destruction in 70 AD. Today none exists, and attempts to breed it have failed. Virtually all Jewish adults, having been in some kind of contact with a cemetery or corpse, remain therefore in a state of ritual impurity.

Since the Temple precinct, according to a ruling by Maimonides, retained its holiness after the destruction, religious Jews, being ritually impure, must avoid it.

There is another restriction as well. Only the High Priest, if there were one, would be allowed to enter the area of the Holy of Holies. But no one is sure where it was.

Thus the non-existence of a perfect red heifer and our archaeological ignorance contribute to the peace of the sacred precinct.

© 2003 Near East Tourist Agency (NET)

Text © 2003 Stephen Langfur