Commentary for Parah 8:3

השורף פרה – the Red [Heifer].

Introduction In yesterday's mishnah the person spoke to his sandal/garment saying, "That which defiled you, did not defile me, but you did defile me."Today the garment provides his comeback.

ופרים – that are burned, such as a the bullock of Yom Kippur and the bull of the anointed priest [brought as a sin-offering by an anointed High Priest who unwittingly made an erroneous Halakhic decision] (see Tractate Horayot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 1) a bull for an unwitting communal sin [of an active transgression committed by the Jewish people, as a result of an erroneous halakhic decision handed down by the Great Sanhedrin] (see Tractate Horayot, Chapter 1, Mishnah 5), they defile clothing, for in all of them it is written [in regard to the Red Heifer] (Numbers 19:8): “[He who performed the burning] shall wash his garments [in water],” (see also Tractate Parah, Chapter 4, Mishnah 4 – that all who deal with the Red Heifer from the beginning to the end defile clothing and regarding the sacrifices of Yom Kippur, see Leviticus 16:28 and 16:26), but there is no difference regarding clothing that he touches, and the same law applies to all of the rest of the vessels. That we do not exclude anything other than a person and earthenware vessels alone, that do not defile if they come in contact with them.

The one who burns the red cow or bulls and he that leads away the scapegoat, defile garments. The Torah specifically states that the clothes of the one who burns the red cow are defiled (Numbers 19:8). The same is true with regard to a person who burns the bulls or goats on Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:28) or other cases of animals that are burned and of the one who leads the scapegoat to Azazel (the wilderness) on Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:26). All of these must wash their garments because they themselves defile their own garments.

The red cow and the bulls and the scapegoat do not themselves defile garments. Despite the fact that the person who performs these rituals is defiled, the animals themselves to do not defile garments.

ופרה ופרים עצמן ושעיר המשתלח – if they came in contact with clothing, they are ritually pure. And this is what the clothing said to the man: “Things that made you unclean could not have made me unclean, but you made me unclean.”

Behold [the garment] would say [to the person], "That which defiled you did not defile me, but you did defile me. This leads again to the personification of the garment it says to the person, that the cow, bull or goat that defiled you, didn't defile me. But you, Mr., did defile me!