Parah, Chapter 3, Mishnah 3. Our chapter follows the preparations for the parah adumah, and specifically the safeguards devised to ensure that the children who drew the spring water, and the water itself, would remain entirely untouched by tumah. The previous stage described those children riding on doors placed over the backs of oxen so that no hidden grave beneath the road could defile them. Our Mishnah continues the journey from the moment they arrive at the Har Habayis, and then describes the striking method by which the ashes of the parah adumah were removed from their container and mixed with the water.
The Words of the Mishnah
"Ba'u lehar habayis veyardu. Har habayis veha'azaros tachtehen chalul, mipnei kever hatehom." They reached the Har Habayis and dismounted. Beneath the Har Habayis and beneath the courtyards there was a hollow space, constructed on account of the possibility of an undiscovered grave in the depths. Once the children were standing on that ground there was no longer any need for the doors and the oxen, since the hollow beneath interrupts the tumah and prevents it from rising.
The Mishnah then turns to what awaited them: "Uvefesach ha'azarah," at the doorway of the azarah, there "hayah mesukan," stood prepared and set aside, a "kelal shel chatas," a stone vessel holding the ashes of the parah adumah. Which doorway is meant? Not an inner one, but the gate set on the eastern side of the ezras nashim, the one that faces outward in the direction of the cheil.
"Umevi'in zachar shel recheilim, vekoshrin chevel bein karnav, vekoshrin maklel umasbe'ach berosho shel chevel, vezorek letoch hakalal, umakeh es hazachar venirta la'achorav." A ram was brought over, and a cord was looped around its horns. To the far end of that cord they attached a stick, and onto the stick a leafy, bushy twig whose splayed fibers were able to pick up the fine ashes. This stick was dropped down into the kalal. Then someone struck the animal, and it shied and lurched backward.
"Venotel umekadesh kedei sheyera'eh al pnei hamayim." As the sheep jerked backward the stick was pulled out of the kalal, bringing ashes with it. The child then took those ashes and performed the kiddush, placing them into the water, with enough ashes that they would be plainly visible floating on the surface of the water.
Why the Elaborate Procedure
Every element here (the cord, the stick, the frightened ram) existed for a single purpose: so that no person's hand would have to reach down into the kalal and lift the ashes out. The ashes came up, so to speak, of their own accord.
Rabbi Yose's Objection
"Rabbi Yose omer," Rabbi Yose voices an objection. "Al titnu makom," do not hand an opportunity "litzdukim lirdos," to the Tzedukim to jeer and to claim they have the upper hand, as if we needed a staged contrivance, a bit of showmanship, in order to bring up the ashes. To his mind the whole apparatus is unnecessary. "Ela hu notel umekadesh": let the child reach in himself, lift out the ashes with his own hand, and put them into the water. That suffices completely, for this is a child who has been shielded from every tumah since birth and whose taharah is beyond doubt.
The Mishnah thus preserves two attitudes side by side: the impulse to add safeguard upon safeguard around the ashes of the parah adumah, and Rabbi Yose's insistence that our practice not be made to look like sleight of hand before those who seek to discredit the words of the Chachamim.