What was the red heifer sacrifice for?

[tonychanyt]

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Nu 19:

1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come.

Find a perfect red heifer.

3 And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him.

Sacrifice the heifer.

4 And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.

Sprinkle some blood with a finger.

5 And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned.

Burn the entire heifer.

6 And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer.

Throw in some cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn for the burning.

7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8 The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. 9 And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place.

Gather up the ashes.

And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel.

Add water to some small portion of these ashes. The resulting solution would be used for cleansing unclean individuals.

1. Find a perfect red heifer..
2. Slaughter it outside the camp.
3. Burn the entire heifer.
4. Add cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool to the burning heifer.
5. Collect the ashes and store them.
6. When needed, mix a bit of them with water to create a unique solution of cleansing.

For example:

11 Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean.

This was not bathing. It was sprinkling.

But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. 13 Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

How often did they perform the red heifer sacrifice?
Red heifers were extremely rare. The Mishnah noted that only nine were sacrificed throughout history, from the time of Moses to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. Once the ashes were produced, they could be stored and used for a very long time, as only a tiny amount of ash was needed to create the purification water when mixed with spring water. The ashes from a single red heifer could last over a century.
What was the red heifer sacrifice for?
The priest used the ashes of the sacrificed heifer to prepare a special cleansing water for impurity.