Комментарий к Бамидбар 19:17

AND HE SHALL PUT UPON IT RUNNING WATER INTO A VESSEL. The meaning thereof is not that he should first put the ashes [of the Red Heifer] into the vessel and then put the water upon the ashes, for our Rabbis have taught⁵¹Sotah 16b. that if one places the ashes in the vessel first and then the water, it invalidates [the water, so that it may not be used as water of purification]. They derived this law from the expression, running water into a vessel, which implies that the running water [alone] should be put into the vessel [i.e., there should be nothing-such as the ashes — intervening between the water and the vessel]. Perhaps they deduced it because He did not say: “And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification into a vessel, and he shall put upon it running water.” But [since Scripture put it in the reverse order: And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification — and running water he shall put thereto in a vessel], the meaning of the verse is as follows: “and he shall put upon the ashes the running water which was [already] in the vessel,” meaning that he should mix the ashes with the water which was in the vessel until the water flows over them.⁵²Thus first he puts the running water into the vessel, then the ashes, and afterwards he mixes the ashes with the water so that the water which was in the vessel is on top.

ונתן עליו מים חיים אל כלי, “and put upon it spring water into a vessel.” A superficial reading of the plain meaning of the text would lead us to believe that the water is to be poured into the container already containing the ash of the red heifer. However, this is not so. Our sages derived from the text that if someone puts the ash into the container first before adding the water, the whole procedure has become invalid. They base this on the words מים חיים אל כלי, implying that something live must first be in the vessel, in other words that the ash must be mixed with the water, so much so that the water eventually is covering the ash completely. (Compare Temurah 12)

V. 17. ולקחו ,ולקחו לטמא וגו׳: es ist dazu jeder erwachsene Vollsinnige, wie bei אסיפת האפר (V. 9) fähig (Joma 43 a). ולקחו ונתן der Wechsel im Numerus lehrt, dass beide Handlungen nicht durch eine und dieselbe Person zu geschehen brauchen (daselbst). עפר ,מעפר וגו׳ ist in erster Linie Erdenstaub, bezeichnet aber auch Kön. II. 23. 4 ff. durch Verbrennen erzeugten Staub: Asche. Ebenso Dewarim 9, 21 verglichen mit Schmot 32, 20. Hier dürfte der Ausdruck mit bedeutsamer Absicht gewählt sein (siehe unten). — ונתן עליו מים חיים אל כלי: bezeichnet einen kombinierten Akt. מים חיים אל כלי bestimmt, dass erst das Wasser in das Gefäß gegeben wird. Wenn das Wasser in das Gefäß kommt, ist noch nichts anderes darin; ונתן עליו der Aschenstaub soll aber sodann so in das Wasser gegeben werden, dass er nicht auf dem Wasser schwimmend bleibe, sondern durch Umrühren sich mit dem Wasser mische und das Wasser über den Staub komme. כתיב עליו אלמא אפר ברישא וכתיב מים חיים אל כלי אלמא מים ברישא הא כיצר וכו׳ אל כלי דוקא עליו לערבן (Sota 16 b). Dieses Geben und Mischen des Aschenstaubes ins Wasser heißt: קידוש, das so gemischte Wasser heißt: מי חטאת, und wird das Wasser nur מי חטאת in dem Momente, in welchem die Asche ins Wasser gegeben wird. אין מי חטאת נעשין מי חטאת אלא עם מתן אפר (Temura 12a).