The Red Heifer Mystery Revealed to Moses and Rabbi Akiva

"And they shall take to you a red heifer" (Numbers 19:2). Lulianus bar Tiberis in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak Katriko, and Rabbi Azaryah said it in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak and Rabbi Yose bar Chanina: The Holy One, blessed be He, said, "Moses, to you I reveal the reason of the heifer, but for others it is a decree." For Rabbi Chuna said: "When I take the appointed time, I will judge with fairness" (Psalms 75:3). "And it shall come to pass on that day, there shall not be light, but heaviness and congealing" (Zechariah 14:6) - it is written "they shall congeal" [the matters now hidden shall thicken and become clear]. Things that are concealed from you in this world are destined to be clear to you, like this clear crystal. This is what is written: "And I will lead the blind in a way they did not know, in paths" (Isaiah 42:16). It is not written "the things I will do," but rather "these I have done and have not forsaken them" (ibid.) - I have already done them for Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues. For Rabbi Acha said: Matters that were not revealed to Moses at Sinai were revealed to Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues, as it is written, "and his eye has seen every precious thing" (Job 28:10) - this is Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Yose bar Chanina said: He hinted to him that all the heifers would be voided, but yours would endure. Rabbi Acha in the name of Rabbi Yose bar Chanina: When Moses ascended to the heights of heaven he heard the voice of the Holy One, blessed be He, sitting and engaging with the portion of the heifer and saying a teaching in the name of one who taught it. Rabbi Eliezer says: a calf in its first year and a heifer of two years. Moses said before the Holy One, blessed be He, "Master of the worlds, the upper and lower worlds are in Your domain, and You sit and say a teaching in the name of flesh and blood?" The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, "Moses, a righteous man is destined to arise in My world who will one day open with the portion of the heifer first - Rabbi Eliezer says: a calf in its first year and a heifer of two years." Moses said before Him, "Master of the worlds, may it be Your will that he come from my loins." He said to him, "By your life, he is from your loins!" This is what is written: "and the name of the one was Eliezer" (Exodus 18:4) - and the name of that singular one [is hinted as] Eliezer. There we learned: Abba Shaul says, the ramp of the heifer the high priests made from their own funds, and not one of them would bring out his heifer on the ramp of his fellow, but would tear it down and rebuild it from his own. Rabbi Acha in the name of Rabbi Chanina: more than sixty myriads of talents of gold were spent on it, and all of them were proud of it. But did not the teaching say: Shimon the Righteous made two heifers, and it was not on the ramp by which he brought out the first that he brought out the second - can you say of that righteous one that he was proud? Rabbi Avun in the name of Rabbi Lazar: It was out of honor [literally esteem] for the heifer. A certain gentile asked Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, saying to him, "These things you do appear like sorcery: you bring a heifer, slaughter it, burn it, pound it, take its ashes, and when one of you is defiled by a corpse they sprinkle on him two or three drops and say to him, you are purified!" He said to him, "Has a restless spirit never entered that man?" He said to him, "No." He said to him, "And have you not seen someone after a restless spirit entered him?" He said to him, "Yes." He said to him, "And what do you do?" He said to him, "We bring roots and make smoke beneath him and pour water upon it, and the spirit flees." He said to him, "Do your ears not hear what your mouth speaks? So too this spirit is a spirit of impurity, as it is written, 'and also the prophets and the spirit of impurity' (Zechariah 13:2)." When the gentile left, his disciples said to him, "Our master, this one you pushed off with a reed - what do you answer to us?" He said to them, "By your lives, it is not the corpse that defiles nor the water that purifies, but it is a decree of the Holy One, blessed be He. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, I have engraved a statute, I have decreed a decree, and you are not permitted to transgress My decree: 'This is the statute of the Torah' (Numbers 19:2)."