This sheet on Deuteronomy 23 was written by Chayva Lehrman for 929 and can also be found here
The physicality of Torah is hardly foreign to us, and chapter 23 embodies it thoroughly. From one verse to the next, we encounter prohibitions from the sexual appetite (e.g. not marrying one’s father’s wife, a ban on cult prostitution, etc.) to the gastronomic (when visiting a field or vineyard, only eat what your stomach can hold).
As the latter is metabolized, the subsequent bodily function is addressed (verses 13-14): “Further, there shall be an area for you outside the camp, where you may relieve yourself. With your gear you shall have a spike, and when you have squatted you shall dig a hole with it and cover up your excrement.”
As a long-distance hiker, I have personal appreciation for a biblical “Leave No Trace” proof-text. (If only I could have posted it in those crowded campgrounds in the Smokies.) But of course, it’s not really about biblical bathroom usage. Toilets and their contents have always been considered highly impure. In Judea in the 8th-7th Century BCE, King Hezekiah put toilets in areas that held polytheistic altars to deter their worship. When destroying the golden calf, Moses ground up the calf’s gold and forced the Israelites to eat it, so that, according to some commentators, their bodies will turn the idol into waste. What is truly at stake - or at the spike, if you will - is the purity of divine spaces.
The 13th century rabbi, the Chizkuni, explains the deuteronomic mitzvah by noting the differentiation of space inside and outside the camp. Inside the camp, there are structures to contain impurity and protect the Ark of the Covenant. However, when one has been sent out of the camp, as stated in verse 12, one must act to contain one’s impurities.
It is simple enough, when in community, to know what is considered sacred and what is abominable. Regardless of one’s feelings on where the lines are drawn, they are usually clear. But when we find ourselves in uncharted territory, as times change or as we find and create new communities, we must be proactive in determining that which is not acceptable, and burying it.
As the latter is metabolized, the subsequent bodily function is addressed (verses 13-14): “Further, there shall be an area for you outside the camp, where you may relieve yourself. With your gear you shall have a spike, and when you have squatted you shall dig a hole with it and cover up your excrement.”
As a long-distance hiker, I have personal appreciation for a biblical “Leave No Trace” proof-text. (If only I could have posted it in those crowded campgrounds in the Smokies.) But of course, it’s not really about biblical bathroom usage. Toilets and their contents have always been considered highly impure. In Judea in the 8th-7th Century BCE, King Hezekiah put toilets in areas that held polytheistic altars to deter their worship. When destroying the golden calf, Moses ground up the calf’s gold and forced the Israelites to eat it, so that, according to some commentators, their bodies will turn the idol into waste. What is truly at stake - or at the spike, if you will - is the purity of divine spaces.
The 13th century rabbi, the Chizkuni, explains the deuteronomic mitzvah by noting the differentiation of space inside and outside the camp. Inside the camp, there are structures to contain impurity and protect the Ark of the Covenant. However, when one has been sent out of the camp, as stated in verse 12, one must act to contain one’s impurities.
It is simple enough, when in community, to know what is considered sacred and what is abominable. Regardless of one’s feelings on where the lines are drawn, they are usually clear. But when we find ourselves in uncharted territory, as times change or as we find and create new communities, we must be proactive in determining that which is not acceptable, and burying it.
(יד) וְיָתֵ֛ד תִּהְיֶ֥ה לְךָ֖ עַל־אֲזֵנֶ֑ךָ וְהָיָה֙ בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֣ ח֔וּץ וְחָפַרְתָּ֣ה בָ֔הּ וְשַׁבְתָּ֖ וְכִסִּ֥יתָ אֶת־צֵאָתֶֽךָ׃
(14) With your gear you shall have a spike, and when you have squatted you shall dig a hole with it and cover up your excrement.
Chayva Lehrman is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York
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