Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin.The mechanics of this are what confuse me. Is this saying that the heifer is to be used as water is used for purification? Normally, water is either sprinkled on someone, or they are supposed to bathe in it, to become clean. Somehow I don't see that working out well, and it would mean that they'd always be having to find new red heifers to sacrifice, which are apparently very rare.
The other option I can see is to treat the ashes as they would purification water. That water is carefully protected and maintained, because any contamination would render it useless. Maybe this is what is meant? The ashes are to be looked after, ensured they remain pure. Perhaps by their mere presence the ashes allow some kind of purification to occur. Honestly, I don't know this time.
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