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This chapter deals mostly with the details of how the cohen is put in a non-tumah-susceptible place, and sprinkled daily for a week (with previous red heifer ashes), to make sure he's definitely not tumah (as he might've previously come into contact with a dead body, for instance). There's a lot of detail involved, including how the water the ashes are mixed with is brought (a rather elaborate ceremony, it sounds). Once he's ready, they (elders, cow, cohen) all go to Har ha-Zeitim, where the actual burning happens. And there are details about how they go, and the order of the going. And there are details about which woods are preferable for the pyre, and how the animal faces when it is killed, and how a bit of the blood is sprinkled. Afterward, there's a discussion of the ashes that are definitely parah, and ones that are mixed with wood, and what to do with chunks of coal. When the ashes are finally ready, they're divided into three parts, that are stored in different places, and used in different ways: to make sure the next cohen doing parah adumah is tahor, to make cohanim with tumah tahor, and to make the rest of us who are tumah tahor. Oh, and there's a side note about how there have been 7 red heifers, and a debate as to who exactly did them. But there does seem to be agreement as to the final number :-).

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