THE RED HEIFER

The ritual of the red heifer occurs in the third book of the Torah, known as “Bamidbar”, or “Numbers.”  It appears in chapter 19, verses 1-21.

It refers to a process whereby someone who has been contaminated by exposure to a dead person may become purified.  This contamination is of a spiritual nature.  There is no visible manifestation from the loss of heavenly powers.  The exposure to death affects the soul, making ia person’s spirit incomplete. 

A human soul only attaches to a body that is alive.  The living human being supports the soul by giving it a mechanism to be in the physical world.  The soul provides spiritual power and context.  The material and the impalpable interact to elevate the life of the person.  These complementing aspects are necessary for the totality of a person.

When exposed to a dead person, the earthly life becomes alienated and distanced from the spiritual.  This makes living more difficult because an intrinsic support system has lost part of its connection and capability.  These two aspects of our existence must have their bond strengthened.

The ritual of the red heifer restores the relationship between the body and the soul.  There is something unique about this solemn ceremony being performed on this unique animal that accomplishes the task at hand.  It is, in many ways, a very unusual ritual.  That fact is important to its effectiveness.  There are many things in life that work, even though we do not understand them.  As we learn about the world, more questions are revealed than answers.  This fact is always apparent to anyone who delves deeply into any field of knowledge.

There is a great mystery and contradiction surrounding the ritual of the Red Heifer.  As it confers purity on the one who had been contaminated, it simultaneously engenders spiritual impurity in the person administering the ritual.  There is great unfairness in this result.  Also, there seems to be lack of logic how the same ritual can cause opposite effects to different actors.

I offer the following resolution to this spiritual conundrum.  What is observable in the nature of our earthly existence also gives insight into the heavenly reality.  These complementary worlds have essentially parallel patterns.  (A fundamental characteristic of the universe is patterns.)  Thus, they interact when drawn together, leading to repair and ultimate achievement for both.

Consider oxygen.  Oxygen is life-giving.  The oxygen molecule consists of two atoms of oxygen held together by a high-energy bond.  This bond is broken after the blood hemoglobin delivers the oxygen to each cell in the body.  The energy from this bond is then taken up by the cell and used to metabolize food.  Thus, does the process of life continue.  

Once the energy bond is broken, the oxygen molecule is split into two negatively charged oxygen atoms.  This ionic material circulates in the blood.  These atoms are called free radicals.  They are toxic to our bodies.  Indeed, they cause the aging process by harming our tissues.

In effect, that which causes life, also causes death.  The energy from the oxygen molecule fuels the living process of life.  Then its waste material leads to death.  These normal processes of life are intricately interwoven with the end.  Both are active and intentional.

Death has neither of these attributes.  It is a state of deterioration with no active processes.

Life is a state of active maintenance and repair.  The nature of life is to support and further itself.  We do this by breathing and eating.  Life-giving activities naturally create harmful byproducts.  This waste material contributes to illness and aging.  

Thus, metabolism is a two-way street.  Buildup and breakdown originate together.  Life consists of opposing processes of healing and hurting that coexist.  Both are actively pursued.  Death is just death.  Absence of life is a passive non-enterprise.

The soul also functions in a seemingly contradictory manner.  When a person pulls her soul into her life, everything becomes enhanced.  When the spirit is pulled away from the material, health and well-being suffer.  Upon a person’s demise, the heavenly power detaches from the physical body. 

When a person is exposed to the body of a deceased individual, the soul becomes spiritually contaminated.  The spirit has become damaged by this contact.  Another way to phrase the problem is that the soul has become impure. 

The soul has acquired a characteristic of death.  This means that the heavenly force of the person’s spirit begins to deteriorate.  The spirit becomes alienated from its two-way street.  It is analogous but not the same as the decaying process every living being experiences upon cessation of life’s maintaining metabolism.  From the moment of demise, decomposition begins.   

The soul requires being “tutored” in the nature of life.  The essence of life is to have these opposing processes.  The spirit needs to be reeducated from the static destruction of dying back to the active flow of living.

The nature of physical life is to promote both living and dying.  There is no contradiction in this reality.  Dying contains neither of these phenomena.  When a living creature has expired, there is no drawing it back.

However, when the soul is exposed to death, its acquired impurity can be overcome.  The ritual that removes the spiritual impurity happens in the physical world.  That world is the only one open to manipulation.  The Red Heifer ceremony bridges the earthly and heavenly spheres to meet its goals.

Thus, the ritual of the Red Heifer, albeit utilizing the cow as a medium, alters the spiritual consequences.  Along the way, it acts in a parallel fashion to oxygen: giving and taking.  It achieves the same contradictory results as oxygen, but on the spiritual plane.  It is a process that both bestows and uproots spiritual purity and well-being.  We understand from the Torah that the Ritual of the Red Heifer accomplishes this objective.

The red heifer ritual is the spiritual equivalent to the oxygen molecule.  Both cause healing and harm (spiritual versus physical, respectively) at the same time and by the same mechanism.  The red heifer mechanism is the singular ritual to purify a soul.  The splitting of the oxygen molecule is the unique action to give life to a body.  In the nature of creation, both remove a little bit of what they give.

A full life pairs our physical and spiritual powers.  If the body is diseased, it cannot contribute optimally to life.  If the soul is damaged, it loses some of the heavenly vitality.  Either situation allows deterioration of the whole.  Healthy lifestyle habits help to heal an illness.  Repairing spiritual impurity allows the soul to fulfill its promise.