Rashi read the instruction of , "sprinkle the water of purification upon them," to refer to the water mixture made with the ashes of the red cow described in . Rashi taught that they had to undergo this sprinkling to purify those of them who had become ritually impure because of contact with the dead. And Rashi reported an interpretation by Rabbi Moses HaDarshan (the preacher) that since the Levites were submitted in atonement for the firstborn who had practiced idolatry when they worshipped the Golden Calf (in ), and calls idol worship "sacrifices to the dead," and in Moses called one afflicted with skin disease (, "tzara'at") "as one dead," and required those afflicted with skin disease to shave, therefore God required the Levites too to shave.