Parah 3:2-3

Parah 3:2

There were courtyards in Jerusalem built over rock with hollow spaces under them that served as a buffer against a grave in the depths. They used to bring pregnant women to give birth and raise their children there. They also brought oxen, upon whose backs doors were placed, and the children sat on these doors with stone cups in their hands. When they reached the Shiloach (the name of a stream), they would get down, fill the cups with water, then climb back up and sit on the doors again. Rabbi Yosi said that each child would lower his cup and fill it from where he was.

Parah 3:3

When they arrived at the Temple Mount, they got down from the ox. Under the Temple Mount and its courts there was a hollow space that served as a buffer against a grave in the depths. At the entrance to the courtyard there was the jar of the cow’s ashes. They would bring a male sheep and tie a rope between its horns, with a stick and a bushy branch tied with the end of the rope. This was thrown into the jar and the sheep was struck so that it was startled backwards. One of the children would take the ashes that spilled out and put some so that they could be seen on the water. Rabbi Yosi said that we shouldn’t give the Tzedukim (Sadducees) the opportunity to accuse the Jews of deception. Rather, the child just took the ashes (directly from the jar) and sprinkled it himself.