VACCA ROSSA. - A particular rite ordained by God during the Israelites' journey from Sinai to Kadesh.
A "red heifer, without blemish, without any defect, which had never borne the yoke" (Num. 19:2) was to be led to Aaron and, in the presence of Eleazar, son of Aaron (in which fact one should see an ancient precedent for the existence, attested later [2 Kings 23:4; 25:18], of a substitute for the high priest), slaughtered outside the camp; with its blood seven sprinklings were to be made in the direction of the "tent of meeting"; then the animal was to be burned whole, and cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool threads (for tying the bundles) were to be added to the pyre: the ashes collected and deposited in an appointed place in the camp were to be at the people's disposal "to make the water of purification" (Num. 19:2-10), naturally mixing the ashes with water.
The principal details of the rite allude to a gift of life in opposition to death: the female sex of the animal, giver of life; its freedom from the yoke, symbol of freshness of strength (cf. Deut. 31:3; 1 Sam. 6:7); the red of the animal and of the cords, an allusion to blood, in which life circulates. A similar symbolism is found among other Eastern peoples for sacrificial and apotropaic rites; likewise the "purificatory" use of the ashes. The archaic features of the complex are evident. There is no record of the rite's continuity, but the reference made to it in the Epistle to the Hebrews in a most beautiful application to the Blood of Christ (Heb. 9:13-14), as to a practice rather than to a text, argues for the affirmative.
Bibliography
Giovanni Rinaldi