Yochanan ben Zakkai Explains the Red Heifer's Decree

A certain idolater asked Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: These things that you do seem like a kind of sorcery. You bring a heifer and burn it, and pound it, and take its ashes; and when one of you is defiled by a corpse, they sprinkle two or three drops upon him, and one says to him, "You are purified!" He said to him: Has the spirit of madness ever entered into you in your days? He said to him: No. He said to him: Perhaps you have seen a person into whom the spirit of madness entered? He said to him: Yes. He said to him: And what do you do for him? He said to him: They bring roots and make smoke beneath him, and pour water upon it, and it flees. He said to him: Let your ears hear what you bring forth from your mouth. [So too this spirit is a spirit of impurity, as it is written, "And also the prophets and the spirit of impurity I will cause to pass from the land" (Zechariah 13:2). They sprinkle the waters of separation upon him, and it flees.] After he had gone out, his disciples said to him: This one you pushed off with a reed; to us, what do you say? He said to them: By your lives, the corpse does not defile, and the water does not purify; rather, [it is the decree of the King of the kings of kings]. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: A statute I have engraved for you, a decree I have decreed; you are not permitted to transgress my decree, as it is written, "This is the statute of the Torah" (Numbers 19:2). And why are all the offerings male, while this one is female? Rabbi Ayyvu said: A parable of the son of a maidservant who soiled the palace of the king. The king said: Let his mother come and wipe up the filth. So the Holy One, blessed be He, said: Let the heifer come and atone for the deed of the calf.