Parshat Hukas

1. Num. 19:1-22: The Red Heifer and the preparation of what is often translated as the “water of sprinkling” or “the water of lustration”. The Hebrew actually reads as the “water of nidah/separation (Num 19:13). Commentators call this a classic example of a HUKKAH, a commandment for which there is no rational explanation, observed because it is divinely commanded. It may have reference to other, older pre-Mosaic rituals and cult practices.