when they sprinkled the water of purification on the unclean, the spirit of uncleanness fled. But when the idolater had gone, Rabban Johanan's disciples told Rabban Johanan that they saw that he had put off the idolater with a mere makeshift, and asked him what explanation Rabban Johanan would give them. Rabban Johanan told his disciples that the dead did not defile nor the water purify; God had merely laid down a statute, issued a decree, and commanded that we not transgress the decree, as says: "This is the statute of the law." Expounding upon the commandment of the Red Cow in Rabbi Jose ben Hanina taught that God told Moses the reason for the commandment, but to everyone else it would remain merely a statute. Noting that “This is the statute (, chukat) of the Law,” uses the same term as “This is the ordinance (, chukat) of the Passover,” a Midrash found the statute of the Passover and the statute of the Red Heifer similar to one another. The Midrash taught that “Let my heart be undivided in your statutes,” refers to this similarity, and asked which statute is greater than the other. The Midrash likened this to the case of two ladies who were walking side by side together apparently on an equal footing; who then is the greater? She whom her friend accompanies to her house and so is really being followed by the friend. The Midrash concluded that the law of the Red Cow is the greater, for those who eat the Passover need the Red Cow's purifying ashes, as says, “And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the purification from sin.” All other communal sacrifices were of male animals, but the Red Cow was of a female animal. Rabbi Aibu explained the difference with a parable: When a handmaiden's boy polluted a king's palace, the king called on the boy's mother to clear away the filth. In the same way, God called on the Red Cow to come and atone for the incident of the Golden Calf. A Midrash taught that when God so pleased, God called for atonement for the Golden Calf through a female agent, as in “That they bring you a red heifer (, parah), faultless, wherein is no blemish . . . ,” and when God so pleased, God called for that atonement