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 now we are able to understand the controversy between the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the matter of the burning of the Red Heifer. The Sadducees, adhering as they did to the old Halakah, and basing their arguments on the plain meaning of Scripture, said: When is a man purged of his uncleanness? After sunset. Ṭebilah alone does not render him pure. As the priest who burns the Red Heifer must be pure, and we are apprehensive lest by accident he come under the head of, or lest his brother priests have touched him, in which case the ṭebilah (ablution) would not have the immediate effect of purging him and qualifying him to burn the Heifer—therefore the Sadducees considered it necessary to defer that burning until after sunset.

The Pharisees, however, who had adopted the principle that, if one took the prescribed bath, he is rendered pure without waiting for the sun to set, said the priest may burn the Heifer before sunset, immediately after ṭebilah.

As for the pomp wherewith the ceremony of the Red Heifer was surrounded, the purpose of the Pharisees was

VOL. VIII.