Tumah and Tahara / Ritual Impurity and Purity

Those who touch the corpse of any human being shall be impure for seven days.

If a person incurs guilt—When one has heard a public imprecation but (although able to testify as having either seen or learned of the matter) has not given information and thus is subject to punishment;

Or when a person touches any impure thing (be it the carcass of an impure beast or the carcass of impure cattle or the carcass of an impure creeping thing) and the fact has escaped notice, and then, being impure, that person realizes guilt;

Or when one touches human impurity (any such impurity whereby someone becomes impure) and, though having known about it, the fact has escaped notice, but later that person realizes guilt;

Flesh that touches anything impure shall not be eaten; it shall be consumed in fire. As for other flesh, only one who is pure may eat such flesh.

But the person who, in a state of impurity, eats flesh from יהוה’s sacrifices of well-being, that person shall be cut off from kin.

When a person touches anything impure, be it human impurity or an impure animal or any impure creature, and eats flesh from יהוה’s sacrifices of well-being, that person shall be cut off from kin.

the daman—although it chews the cud, it has no true hoofs: it is impure for you;

the hare—although it chews the cud, it has no true hoofs: it is impure for you;

and the swine—although it has true hoofs, with the hoofs cleft through, it does not chew the cud: it is impure for you.

You shall not eat of their flesh or touch their carcasses; they are impure for you.

But anything in the seas or in the streams that has no fins and scales, among all the swarming things of the water and among all the other living creatures that are in the water—they are an abomination for you

and an abomination for you they shall remain: you shall not eat of their flesh and you shall abominate their carcasses.

Everything in water that has no fins and scales shall be an abomination for you.

Now these you are to hold-detestable from birds —they are not to be eaten, they are detestable-things: the eagle, the bearded-vulture and the black-vulture,

But every [other] flying swarming-creature that has four legs, it is a detestable-thing for you!

Now from these^*from these: Despite the fact that some animals are prohibited for eating, one cannot become polluted through them by mere touch; only dead animals convey pollution. you can become tamei —whoever touches their carcass shall be tamei until sunset,

If an animal that you may eat has died, anyone who touches its carcass shall be impure until evening;

anyone who eats of its carcass shall wash those clothes and remain impure until evening; and anyone who carries its carcass shall wash those clothes and remain impure until evening.

ה׳ spoke to Moses, saying:

Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be impure seven days; she shall be impure as at the time of her condition of menstrual separation.—

On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.—

She shall remain in a state of blood purification for thirty-three days: she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until her period of purification is completed.

If she bears a female, she shall be impure two weeks as during her menstruation, and she shall remain in a state of blood purification for sixty-six days.

יהוה spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

When a person has on the skin of the body a swelling, a rash, or a discoloration, and it develops into a scaly affection on the skin of the body, it shall be reported to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests.

The priest shall examine the affection on the skin of the body: if hair in the affected patch has turned white and the affection appears to be deeper than the skin of the body, it is a leprous affection; when the priest sees it, he shall pronounce the person impure.

יהוה spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When any man has a discharge issuing from his member, he is impure.

When a man has an emission of semen,^*semen Heb. shikhvath zera‘, a metonymic or elliptical expression: “a laying down of [what can lead to] seed (i.e., offspring).” Cf. 18.20; 20.15. he shall bathe his whole body in water and remain impure until evening.

And [also] a woman with whom a man lies, [with] an emission^*emission: Lit. “laying” or “layer.” of seed: they are to wash in water, and will remain-tamei until sunset.

A woman—when she is one-with-a-flow, her flow being of blood from her “flesh,” seven days shall she remain in her [state of]^*(state of) being-apart: Cf. note to 12:2. discharge. Anyone who touches her is to remain-tamei until sunset.

Now a woman—when the flow of her blood flows for many days, when it is not the time of her discharge, or when it flows out over-and-above her discharge, all the days of her tamei flow she shall be like [during] the days of her discharge; she is tamei.

You are to have the Children of Israel avoid^*have … avoid: A form of the verb rendered “consecrate” in Num. 6. their tum’a, that they not die^*that they not die: Death would result, not from the pollution itself, but from carrying it into the sacred areas, and thus polluting them. from their tum’a when they make my Dwelling tamei that is in their midst.

The bright spot in a German appears as dull white, and the dull white spot in an Ethiopian appears as bright white. Rabbi Ishmael says: the children of Israel (may I be atonement for them!) are like boxwood, neither black nor white but of an intermediate shade. Rabbi Akiva says: painters have materials with which they portray figures in black, in white, and in an intermediate shade; let, therefore a paint of an intermediate shade be brought and applied around the outside of the nega, and it will then appear as on skin of intermediate shade. Rabbi Judah says: in determining the colors of negaim the law is to be lenient and not stringent; let,therefore, the negaim of the German be inspected on the color of his own body so that the law is lenient, and let that of the Ethiopian be inspected as if it were on the intermediate shade so that the law is also lenient. The sages say: both are to be treated as if the nega was on the intermediate shade.

Any doubtful nega is regarded as clean, except this case and one other. Which is that? If he had a bright spot of the size of a split bean and he was isolated, and by the end of the week it was as big as a sela, and it is doubtful whether it is the original one or whether another came in its place, he must be regarded as unclean.

The fathers of impurity are a: sheretz, semen, [an Israelite] who has contracted corpse impurity, a metzora during the days of his counting, and the waters of purification whose quantity is less than the minimum needed for sprinkling. Behold, these convey impurity to people and vessels by contact and to earthenware by presence within their airspace, But they do not convey impurity by being carried.

This is the ritual: When a person dies in a tent, whoever enters the tent and whoever is in the tent shall be impure seven days;

and every open vessel, with no lid fastened down, shall be impure.

What is the case of four? Vessels touching a corpse, a person [touching these] vessels, and [other] vessels [touching this] person, are defiled with seven days' defilement. The fourth, whether a person or vessels, is defiled with a defilement [lasting until the] evening. Rabbi Akiva said: I have a fifth, [if] a peg was fixed in a tent, the tent, the peg, a person touching the peg and vessels [touching] the person are defiled with seven days' defilement. The fifth, whether a person or vessels, is defiled with a defilement [lasting until the] evening. They said to him: the tent does not count.

There are two hundred and forty-eight limbs in a human body: Thirty in the foot, six for every toe, Ten in the ankle, Two in the shin, Five in the knee, One in the thigh, Three in the hip, Eleven ribs, Thirty in the hand, [that is] six to every finger, Two in the fore-arm, Two in the elbow, One in the upper arm and Four in the shoulder, [For a total of] one hundred and one on the one side [of the body] and one hundred and one on the other. Eighteen vertebrae in the spine, Nine in the head, Eight in the neck, Six in the key of the heart, And five around the genitals. Each one [of these] can defile by contact, carriage or overshadowing. When is this so? When they have upon them the appropriate amount of flesh, But if they do not have the appropriate amount flesh upon them, they can defile by contact and carriage but cannot defile by overshadowing.

As to any food that may be eaten, it shall become impure if it came in contact with water;^*if it came in contact with water That is, if the food then came in contact with the carcass of any animal named in vv. 29–30. as to any liquid that may be drunk, it shall become impure if it was inside any vessel.^*any vessel That is, one contaminated via contact with a carcass as in vv. 32–33.

If a sack full of produce was put by the side of a river or by the side of the mouth of a cistern or on the steps of a cavern, and [the produce] absorbed water, all [the produce] which absorbed the water comes under the law of ‘if water be put’. Rabbi Judah says: all [the produce] which faced the water comes under the law of ‘if water be put’, but all [the produce] which did not face the water does not come under the law of ‘if water be put’.

יהוה spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

This is the ritual law that יהוה has commanded: Instruct the Israelite people to bring you a red cow without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which no yoke has been laid.

You shall give it to Eleazar the priest. It shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.

Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.

The cow shall be burned in his sight—its hide, flesh, and blood shall be burned, its dung included—

and the priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson stuff, and throw them into the fire consuming the cow.

The priest shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water; after that the priest may reenter the camp, but he shall be impure until evening.

The one who performed the burning shall also wash those garments in water, bathe in water, and be impure until evening.

Another party who is pure shall gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a pure place, to be kept for water of lustration for the Israelite community. It is for purgation.

The one who gathers up the ashes of the cow shall also wash those clothes and be impure until evening. This shall be a permanent law for the Israelites and for the strangers who reside among them.

Those who touch the corpse of any human being shall be impure for seven days.

They shall purify themselves with [the ashes] on the third day and on the seventh day, and then be pure; if they fail to purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they shall not be pure.

Those who touch a corpse, the body of a person who has died, and do not purify themselves, defile יהוה’s Tabernacle; those persons shall be cut off from Israel. Since the water of lustration was not dashed on them, they remain impure; their impurity is still upon them.

According to biblical law, any water that is gathered may be used for immersion, as it is written: "A gathering of water" (Leviticus 11:36), of any kind; provided that there is enough of it to fill up the measure required for the complete immersion of a man's entire body. The sages have calculated the measure to be one cubit square by three cubits deep. This quantity holds forty seahs (sixty gallons) water, whether drawn or undrawn [from any kind of receptacle].

All seas are equivalent to a ritual bath (mikveh), for it is said, "And the gathering (ulemikveh) of the waters He called the seas" (Genesis 1:10), the words of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Judah says: only the Great Sea is equivalent to a ritual bath, for it says "seas" only because there are in it many kinds of seas. Rabbi Yose says: all seas afford cleanness when running, and yet they are unfit for zavim and metzoraim and for the preparation of the hatat waters.

And about the reason that water purifies everything impure, I would think on the side of the simple understanding that it is in order that a man see himself with the immersion as if he is created at that time, [just] like the whole world was water before man was upon it - as it is written (Genesis 1:2), "and the spirit of God floated upon the face of the waters." And through this comparison, he place upon his heart that [just] like he is renewed in his body, he also renew his actions for the good, fix his actions and be exacting in the way of God, blessed be He. And therefore the Sages said that the purification is not fit with water that is in a vessel, but rather only with living water - or collected [water], which is on the ground and, in any case, not in a vessel - in order to place in his heart the thought as if the world was entirely water, and [that] he is renewed with his emerging from them, as we said. But if the water was in a vessel - or even if it passed through a vessel - this matter that we said would not be set in the thought of the one immersing. As there is a limit to all that is in a vessel, which is the creation of the hands of man. And therefore when he immerses in a vessel, he will not think as if the whole world is water like at the beginning [of Creation], and that he is renewed at that time. 'And the one who accepts, will accept; and the one who refrains will refrain.'

It is obviously clear that the laws concerning defilements and purities are biblical decrees, and not things which the human mind can determine; they are classified as divine statutes. So too, immersion as a means of ridding oneself from defilement is included among the divine statutes. Defilement is not mud or filth to be removed with water, but is a matter of biblical decree; it depends on the heart's intent. Accordingly, the sages have declared: If a man immersed himself, but without a definite purpose in view, it is as though he had not immersed himself at all. Nevertheless, there is some ethical allusion to this: just as one who sets his mind on becoming clean becomes clean as soon as he has immersed himself, even though nothing new is produced in his physical being, so one who sets his mind on purifying himself from all the spiritual defilements, namely wrongful thoughts and evil traits, becomes clean as soon as he made up his mind to abstain from those notions, and brought his soul into the waters of reason. Indeed, Scripture declares: "I will pour clean water over you, and you shall be clean; from all your impurities and idolatries I will cleanse you" (Ezekiel 36:25).