Parah () is the name of a treatise in the Mishnah and the Tosefta, included in the order Tohorot. The Pentateuchal law (Num. ) decrees that a red heifer, "wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke," shall be burned and her ashes mixed with spring water, that the compound so obtained may be used to sprinkle and cleanse every one who becomes unclean. The burning of the heifer and the preparation of the ashes, as well as the fetching of the water and its mixture for sprinkling, were attended by strict ceremonies. The treatise Parah contains a detailed description of these ceremonies, as well as various regulations concerning the purity of the water for sprinkling and its different effects. In most editions the treatise is the fourth in the mishnaic order Tohorot, and is divided into twelve chapters, containing ninety-six paragraphs in all. Contents Chapter 1: Contents. Age of the red heifer and of the young heifer (comp. Deut. ); explanation of the word "shelashit" as three-year-old, and of "reba'i" as four-year-old (§ 1); age of the different sacrificial animals, and the different names which some of them bear according to their ages (§§ 2–4). Chapter 2: Whether the red heifer may be purchased from a non-Jew (§ 1); cases in which her horns and hoofs are black (§ 2); the defects, and the burdens carried which make the red heifer unavailable (§§ 3–4); cases in which she becomes unsuitable on account of some white or black hairs (§ 5). Chapter 3: Preparation of the priest who is to burn the red heifer (§ 1); prevention of any possible defilement, by rearing in houses built over hollow rock; the children who fetch the water from Siloam (§§ 2–4); seven red heifers said to have been prepared in all: one by Moses, one by Ezra, and five in the time after Ezra (§ 5); a special passage was constructed for the priest and the red heifer from the Temple mount to the Mount of Olives, where she was burned (§ 6); the elders of the people went ahead to the Mount of Olives, where a miḳweh was erected. There the priest was made ritually unclean, and was then obliged to immerse himself immediately, thus directly rebuking the Sadducees, who insisted that the priest who performed the ceremony should be absolutely pure, a state which he could attain only