Holy (Red) Cow!

Why is its appearance such a big story in Israel?

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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Congratulations, all you movie fans who correctly identified Tell Me Why's most recent Mystery Person as British actor Leslie
Howard. Mr. Howard, born to Hungarian-Jewish parents, starred as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind.
Thank you to the many readers who sent in additional information about Mr. Howard, especially concerning his death. Appar-
ently, there's quite a lot of debate on the matter. In his massive work on World War II, Winston Churchill suggests that German agents
mistakenly believed he was on board the downed passenger plane on which Mr. Howard riding. Yet in his biography of his father,
Ronald Howard insists this was not the case.
Those who correctly identified Mr. Howard were Dorothy Babich, Jim Berger, Bobbie Berkowitz, Marvin Davidson, Ross John
Fazio, Sheila Freedman, Michael Goodman, Betty Hirschfield, Hannah Klein, Marshall Korby, Pauline Maness, Art Parnes, Pearl
Shapiro, Margaret Shipp, Pat Solomon, Phyllis Stroh and Gerald Ziskind.
And now! For our latest question:
Which European political leader, on a military campaign in the Land of Israel (Palestine), made the following statement to Jew-
ry in 1798: "Thousands of years of conquest and tyranny have deprived you of your ancestral lands. Yet for all the time you have
somehow continued to exist as a nation. Long ago when the prophets, Joel and Isaiah, saw the approaching destruction of their
fatherland, they also foretold the day it would be restored. Now at last that day has dawned. Arise with gladness, ye heirs of Pales-
tine. A great nation calls on you to take on what has been conquered and to remain as masters there, defending it against all corn-
ers. Hasten! Now is the moment which may not return for generations to claim back the rights you have been deprived of for thousands
of years, to live again as a nation among nations."
Send your guess to Tell Me Why, C/0 The Jewish News, 27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034. Submissions will be ac-
cepted through July 18. No phone calls.

The laws regarding the red
Q: I recently saw a report about
the birth of a red cow in Israel that heifer are cited in the Torah in
seems to have everyone in a dither. parshat Chukat, all of Numbers
19. The specific procedures for
The religious are elated, the anti- identifying the para aduma, the
religious say the cow is a threat to burning of the cow, the prepa-
peace. Why is a red cow so impor- ration of the water and the
qualifications of those who will
tant?
A: The red cow, para aduma do the slaughtering, burning
in Hebrew (usually cited in and other procedures are cov-
English as the "red heifer"), is ered in the tractate Para, in the
essential in Judaism for im- order of Tohorot in the Mish-
parting a state of ritual purity. nah.
The rabbis describe the law
The cow, together with cedar-
wood, hyssop and a red thread, of the red heifer as the quin-
was burned and reduced to ash- tessential chok, decree of the
es. A mixture of the ashes and Torah, for which we can find no
water, when sprinkled on a rationale, other than it is a Di-
Jew, rendered him or her tahor. vine commandment.
There are some people in Is-
(This is usually translated as
"ritually pure," but since the rael who see the birth of this pu-
concept of tahara does not ex- tative para aduma as a sign
ist in Western thought, it is es- from heaven that the Jews
should destroy the Muslim
sentially untranslatable.)
A Jew could be required to be structures on the Temple
in a state of tahara for a vari- Mount in Jerusalem and re-
ety of reasons. For example, build the Jewish Temple. Rea-
when the Temple stood, only sonable people think otherwise.
those Jews who were tahor
could bring the Pesach sacrifice
Q: Prior to 1900, were Jewish
(and every Jew is required to politicians in Russia allowed to op-
participate in Pesach).

erate in the secular environment,
or were they merely representatives
to the general society?
From reader M. N. in Southfield.
A: For most of Russian his-
tory no one, including. Jews,
had political rights. The situ-
ation changed in March 1855,
when Alexander II became
czar. He instituted several re-
forms that gave his subjects
rights they had never enjoyed.
In 1861 he emancipated the
serfs (for which he was known
as the Czar Liberator). He also
instituted reforms that gave
limited rights to his Jewish
subjects.
The reforms recognized spe-
cial classes of Jews, based on
economic status, and thus most
of the rights went to the wealth-
iest Jews. Russian society gen-
erally was divided into classes,
such as clergy, military and
merchants. The merchant class
itself was stratified by "guilds."
The Jews with the greatest
privileges were members of the
first guild (pierogildni kupietz).
They had no restrictions on
where they could live (i.e., they
could reside outside the Pale)
and they also could serve in the
government.
Among Alexander II's other
"great Reforms" was granting
local self-government. Upper-
class Russian citizens, includ-
ing Jews, organized and ran
local dumas , or councils. ❑

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