Parah, Chapter 4, Mishnah 1. This chapter turns to the many ways in which the preparation of the parah adumah can be spoiled: a flaw in the kohen's intention, a flaw in the kohen himself, a flaw in his garments. Our mishnah begins with intention, and then moves through a series of disqualifications, each one followed by a Tanna who disagrees and rules the parah fit.
The mishnah opens with the slaughter: "Paras chatas sheshechatah shelo lishmah." A chatas cow, which is the parah adumah, whose shechitah was carried out without the kohen having in mind the purpose for which this particular cow stands. The same defect can occur at the later stages: "kibel vehizah shelo lishmah," the blood was collected and sprinkled while his thought was directed elsewhere. And so with a divided thought, "o lishmah veshelo lishmah," or in the reverse order, "o shelo lishmah velishmah." In every one of these cases the ruling is "psulah," the cow is unfit.
The rule underlying all of these cases is that each of the avodos, the shechitah, the collecting of the blood and the sprinkling, must be done with the kohen's thought fixed on this cow as what it is. The two combined cases in the mishnah describe one single act carried out with a split mind: he began the act with this cow's own purpose in view and in the middle turned his thought toward some other offering, or he began with a different offering in view and only then turned his thought back to the cow. Which came first makes no difference. In both directions she is disqualified, since the proper thought must accompany the act from its start to its finish.
"Rabbi Elazar machshir." Rabbi Elazar rules that it is fit. His reasoning is that the parah adumah is not truly comparable to a sin offering brought upon the altar, since all of its services are performed outside the Sanctuary. On that basis Rabbi Elazar holds the cow fit in each of the cases that follow as well.
"Veshelo rechutz yadayim veraglayim, psulah." And if the kohen prepared it without having washed his hands and feet, it is unfit. "Rabbi Eliezer machshir." Rabbi Eliezer rules that it is fit.
The mishnah continues: "Veshelo beKohen Gadol, psulah." A parah prepared by anyone other than the Kohen Gadol is invalid. "Rabbi Yehudah machshir," Rabbi Yehudah holds that such a parah is fit.
A verse lies at the root of this argument. Concerning the very first parah adumah the Torah instructs, "and you shall give it to Elazar the kohen." At that time Elazar ben Aharon served as segan, the second in rank beneath his father, and was not yet Kohen Gadol. The first opinion in the mishnah takes this as a special dispensation limited to that one cow in the wilderness: that cow alone was placed in the hands of a segan, whereas every parah of all later generations requires the Kohen Gadol and nobody else. Rabbi Yehudah derives the reverse. Since Scripture assigned that cow to Elazar, who at the time held only the rank below the high priesthood, we learn that in every generation the avodah may be done by the Kohen Gadol or equally by a common kohen.
"Umechusar begadim, psulah." If the kohen doing the avodah was missing part of his priestly attire, the parah is invalid. Should even one of the four garments of a common kohen have been absent from him, what he did does not count.
"Uvichlei lavan haysah naasis." The entire procedure was carried out in the white garments. Even in the case where the Kohen Gadol himself did the avodah, he did not don the special vestments of his own office for it. He served in the set of four white garments worn by any kohen, and in those garments the whole preparation of the parah was performed.