פירוש על במדבר 19:10

V. 10. וכבס האוסף וגו׳ (siehe V. 7). Nur der אוסף, wer aber, nachdem sie gesammelt ist, sich mit der Verteilung der Asche, mit ihrer Aufbewahrung beschäftigt, oder sonst sie berührt, ist 4 ,5 פרה רמב׳׳ם), טהור ).

וכבס האוסף, “and he that gathers the ashes shall wash his clothes (in a ritual bath);” according to the plain meaning of the text, the person gathering in the ash is required to do this, whereas the person depositing it outside the camp is not required to do this before aJi the stages of the ritual have been concluded. Seeing that it is physically impossible to collect the ashes in such a manner that none of is blown away by the wind, and contaminates the garments of the person handling it in the process, and the ash itself is holy, and it might end up in a ritually contaminated area, the person handling it will require immersing his clothing in a ritual bath earlier, similar to what the Torah described in connection with the sin offering in Leviticus 6,20: ואשר יזה ממנו מדמה על הבגד תכבס, “and anything he sprinkles from it (by mistake) on his garment you must immerse in a ritual bath in holy location” What was written there also applies to other kinds of animals whose bodies had to be burned for one reason or another, (because their meat was not consumed in time, etc.) and therefore it is clear that the same procedure is required here, even though it has not been specifically spelled out.

Die פרה אדומה-Institution zerfällt in zwei Teile: die Herstellung der אפר הפרה und deren Anwendung zur טהרת טמא מת. Die Herstellung ist mit dem וכבס וגו׳ geschlossen, die Anwendung beginnt im folgenden Verse. Beide Teile, hier V. 10 und ebenso V. 21, schließen mit dem Ausspruch: והיתה לבני ישראל וגו׳ והיתה להם לחקת עולם, ein Ausspruch, dem wir nur noch bei der Institution des י׳׳כ (Wajikra 16, 29 und 34) begegnen und (Bamidbar 10, 8) bei der Institution der von den כהנים zu handhabenden חצוצרות. Wie daher in diesen Stellen das Prinzip der כפרה und das Prinzip der Gesetzesbasis aller Autorität und aller Heileshoffnung in Israel durch den Ausspruch והיתה לכם לחקת עולם als eine ewige Grundnorm proklamiert ward, so muss auch der Gedanke der פרה אדומה-Institution ein solches Grundprinzip des jüdischen Lebens betreffen, das eben durch den wiederholten Ausspruch והיתה וגו׳ zu ewiger Geltung seine Sanktion erhält, und es muss dieser Gedanke zugleich ein solcher sein, der zu der ausdrücklichen Bemerkung seiner auch für גרים ausnahmlosen Geltung Veranlassung gab (siehe unten).

וכבס האוסף, “why did this detail have to be written here at all? If the person who only sprinkles blood with the hyssop contaminates his clothing when any of the blood touches his garments, and he therefore has to purify it in a ritual bath, is it not logical that the same rule applies to the person collecting the ash of the red heifer, who is far more likely to have had his clothing come into touch with some of that ash?” We would have to answer that we apply the rule that penalties can not be decreed by the Torah unless they had been spelled out. Using logic is not enough for this. (Sifri). An alternate interpretation: The Torah teaches us here about the concept of tumat hesset, that though a ritually contaminated person may even involuntarily transfer such contamination by just moving objects by body movements without touching them with his hands. Although concerning other holy objects, once they have been reduced to ashes, their holiness has ceased, and the ash cannot confer impurity, in the case of the red heifer this is not so. This is in order to warn us not to come into contact with it, other than for its purpose to help a ritually contaminated person to regain purity when the procedures outlined in this chapter have been followed meticulously.

וכבס האוסף את בגדיו, “and the person who has collected this ash has to immerse his garments in a ritual bath.” If even his clothing has to undergo purification in a ritual bath, how much more so does his body have to undergo such a process! We also know this from the Torah having written: וטמא עד הערב, “he remains ritually impure until evening,” i.e. after having immersed himself in a ritual bath, (verse 19) where he is declared as ritually pure as a result of the sun having set. We find a parallel to this sequence in verse 19 where the stages are: “the ritually pure person will sprinkle water containing the ash of the red heifer on the ritually impure person, who will proceed to immerse his clothing in a ritual bath and wash with water, as a result of which he will regain his ritual purity in the evening.”