“And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.”
And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer — cedar from Lebanon's heights, hyssop of humility, scarlet the color of blood and sin: ancient Israel combined symbols of majesty, lowliness, and redemption. These three elements burned with the heifer's ashes suggest that purity requires the integration of heaven's majesty, earth's humility, and blood's redemptive power. The combinations recur in other purification rites (Leviticus 14), establishing a symbolic vocabulary.
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