For the source text click/tap here: Avodah Zarah 23
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Rabbi Eliezer forbids purchasing a Para Aduma – a Red Heifer used in the process of purifying someone who was ritually defiled because of contact with the dead (see Sefer Bamidbar chapter 19) – from a non-Jew. The Sage, Sheila, explains that Rabbi Eliezer’s ruling is based on his reading of the passage (Bamidbar 19:2) that commands that Jewish people must “take” the animal, which is understood to mean that they must take it from a fellow Jew.
This explanation is challenged because there are other similar passages, for example when the Torah commands that contributions be taken from the people to build the mishkan – the Tabernacle – the same language is used, yet we know that some of the components used in the Temple were purchased from non-Jews. Rabbi Eliezer forbids purchasing a Para Aduma – a Red Heifer used in the process of purifying someone who was ritually defiled because of contact with the dead (see Sefer Bamidbar chapter 19) – from a non-Jew. The Sage, Sheila, explains that Rabbi Eliezer’s ruling is based on his reading of the passage (Bamidbar 19:2) that commands that Jewish people must “take” the animal, which is understood to mean that they must take it from a fellow Jew.
This explanation is challenged because there are other similar passages, for example when the Torah commands that contributions be taken from the people to build the mishkan – the Tabernacle – the same language is used, yet we know that some of the components used in the Temple were purchased from non-Jews.