Living Torah Archives

While discussing the laws of the Red Heifer, Maimonides goes on to detail by whom each of them were ministered. Maimonides writes that the tenth and final Red Heifer will be ministered by Moshiach, “may he be revealed speedily – Amen, so may it be God’s will.”

Fundamentally, the commandment of the red heifer—sprinkling its ashes upon the impure to purify them—is most unusual. One of its laws, however, expresses an important and powerful lesson. When the ashes of a new red heifer are prepared, the ashes of the new cow are mixed with the old ones. This was done with all the red heifers—from the first red heifer of Moses to the heifer to be prepared by Moshiach in the near future.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, rabbi of Efrat, Israel, comes to the Rebbe with a concern about one of his children and ends up with a life-lesson from the super-rational commandment of the red heifer. (1991)

Moses could not fathom what procedure could possibly purify a person who had been ritually defiled by contact with death, until G‑d granted him a uniquely profound revelation. Although in exile the ritual of the Red Heifer cannot be performed, through learning about this mitzvah, a Jew can purify his body and soul.