Talk:Red heifer
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"Cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet are added to the fire". How do you add a color to a fire? I doubt the link should be to scarlet (cloth). ? dbenbenn | talk 14:51, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Becoming and ceasing to be impure
The article reads: "In order to purify a person who has become ritually contaminated by contact with a corpse, water from the vessel is sprinkled on him, using bunch of hyssop, on the third and seventh day after the contamination took place (Numbers 19:19). The priests who have performed the ritual then become impure themselves."
Thus, further priests would then be needed to perform the ritual to purify the priests who performed the ritual for the person who was actually contaminated by the corpse. Then further priests would then be needed to purify those priests, and so on. When does it end? Thanks in advance for any responses. --Aquarius Rising 05:57, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
- There are many varying levels of ritual impurity (tumah), the most severe being ritual impure by a dead body. Only dead body tumah need a red heifer to become ritually pure (tahar). The priest performing the ritual would have a lower level of ritual impurity and could immerse in a Mikvah to become pure. The different levels of tumah act independently of one another; for example a person can be ritually impure to a dead body but not have any lower type of tumah or just the opposite.
- Nevertheless having a never ending cycle would not be problematic. Unless one need to go to the Temple in Jerusalem (the Three pilgrim festivals for example) there is no problem at all with being ritual impure to a dead body. In fact currently all of the Jewish people are ritually impure and that presents no problem whatsoever. (For other ritual impurities that apply nowadays see Niddah). Jon513 08:40, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] removed paragraph
I removed the follow:
- According to the Islamic traditions, a person among the jews in the times of Moses killed another (probably his own paternal uncle) in order to seize his wealth and property as well as marry his daughter. No one could detect the murderer as the murderer himself was the man to seek justice. Then Almighty Allah ordered them to slaughter any heifer. As the jews of that time were habitual of raising unnecessary questions from the Prophet Moses, they started asking the nature, colour and charcteristics of the heifer. Their unnecesary questions limited them to slaughter one specific heifer, which they thought to be a sacred one. Thus, they had to slaughter it though half-heartedly. The piece of that slaughtered heifer was touched to the corpse of the murdered man, who got up for some moment, indicated his murderer and cause of murder and died again immediately. The name of second chapter of the Holy Qur'an has been taken after that red heifer under the title "The Heifer". (Quoted in "Allah, Adam and Serpent" by Mujtaba Haider Zaidi Advocate:2007)
it was added by both 117.102.44.73 (talk · contribs) and Mzaidi (talk · contribs). I do not think that the paragraph adds to the article. Jon513 13:33, 7 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Modern day Red Heifers
There was mention of two Red Heifers born in Israel in the 1990's. One later grew a few dark hairs and was disqualified and it is not clear what happened to the other one. Something similar happened after the year 2000. This too is vague and somewhat mysterious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.143.237.213 (talk) 16:42, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
