Corpse uncleanness

Last updated
Part of Judaic series of articles on
Ritual purity in Judaism
  Menora.svg
Purification methods
Hierarchy
Sources of Impurity

Corpse uncleanness (Hebrew: tum'at met) is a state of ritual uncleanness described in Jewish halachic law. It is the highest grade of uncleanness, or defilement, and is contracted by having either directly or indirectly touched, carried or shifted a dead human body, [1] or after having entered a roofed house or chamber where the corpse of a Jew is lying (conveyed by overshadowing).

Contents

Corpse uncleanness is first described in the Books of the Law conveyed by Moses to the nation of Israel, and where, for example, in Numbers 31:19, [2] is the requisite to allow for a seven-day purification period after making physical contact with a human corpse.

Grades of uncleanness

The Mishnah describes several grades of uncleanness. The human corpse itself is the most severe of them all, known as the "Father of fathers of all uncleanness" (prime origin). The person who touches a human corpse contracts a lower grade of uncleanness, known as the "Father of uncleanness" (Avi HaTum'ah). [3] Once he has been defiled, if he touches any other human being, or foods and drinks, he renders them unclean (defiled) at a second remove, making them contract the First-grade level of uncleanness. [4]

A dead human's bone the size of a barley grain, and a dead human's severed flesh the size of an olive's bulk are enough to convey corpse uncleanness when touched or carried. [5] [6] They do not, however, convey defilement by overshadowing. [7]

During the time of the Second Temple, those persons who were defiled by the dead and who had not yet purified themselves by the ashes of the red heifer followed by immersion in a ritual bath were prohibited from entering the Court of the Israelites (inner court), located on the Temple Mount. [8] [9] Today, in Jewish law, the same stringency is said to apply. [10]

Defilement by overshadowing

Defilement by overshadowing (tumat ohel) applies to cases where the deceased person was of Israelite ancestry, but does not apply to corpses of Gentiles, unless physically touched. [11] Where there were two houses divided by an adjoining wall and the corpse lay in one house (i.e. "overshadowed" by that house), if there was a hole or crevice in the dividing wall the size of a handbreadth in diameter, or what is approximately 8 cm. (3.1 inches) to 9 cm. (3.5 inches) (Hebrew : פותח טפח), defilement by the corpse passes to the other house as well. [12] Any opening less than this defiles by a rabbinic decree. All liquids that came in contact with the airspace of that house are considered contaminated and must be poured out. [13]

The laws of overshadowing apply to a fully-grown human corpse, as well as to an aborted fetus. [14] It may also apply to wherever there is a quantity of at least two-handfuls of "rottenness" from a decayed corpse (bones and flesh). [14] It also applies to any human limb cut away from a living person, and where that same severed limb is whole, as at the time of creation, with flesh, ligaments (sinews) and bones. [15] In such instances, it is as though it were a complete human corpse, defiling through touch, or through carrying, and by way of overshadowing. [15] However, a human bone the size of a barley-grain is not enough to convey corpse uncleanness by overshadowing. [16]

A quarter-log of blood (equivalent to the volume of 1½ eggs) from any dead human is enough to convey corpse uncleanness to a house if it came within the house. [17]

Defilement by way of overshadowing is passed on to humans and to vessels that are in the airspace of the house where the corpse lies, but when the corpse is removed from the house, the house by overshadowing no longer defiles other humans or other vessels newly brought into that house. [15] The house, without the corpse, is clean and requires no purification. [15]

Priestly laws

A Jew who is descended from a line of the priestly class known as Kohen is not allowed to intentionally come into contact with a dead body, nor approach too closely to graves within a Jewish cemetery. An ordinary priest of Aaron's lineage is, however, permitted to contract corpse uncleanness for any of his seven closest relatives that have died (father, mother, brother, unwedded sister, son, daughter, or wife), [18] including a married sister by a rabbinic injunction. [19]

Jewish priests were especially susceptible to contracting corpse uncleanness, due to the unmarked graves in foreign lands. Since they were required by a biblical injunction to eat their bread-offering ( Terumah ) in a state of ritual purity, and they could hardly know if they had trampled upon an unmarked grave, this prompted the early rabbis to decree a general-state of defilement upon all foreign lands. [20] Public roads in the land of Israel, however, were assumed to be clean from corpse defilement, unless one knew for certain that he had touched human remains. [21]

Purification

The impurity that is caused by the dead is considered the ultimate impurity, one which cannot be purified through the waters of an ablution alone (mikvah). Human corpse uncleanness requires an interlude of seven days, accompanied by purification through sprinkling of the ashes of the Parah Adumah, the red heifer. [22] However, the law is inactive, since neither the Temple in Jerusalem nor the red heifer are currently in existence, though without the latter, a Jew is forbidden to ascend to the site of the former. All are currently assumed to possess the impurity caused by touching a corpse. [23]

Purification was required in the nation of Israel during Biblical times for the ceremonially unclean so that they would not defile God's tabernacle and put themselves in a position where they would become liable to extirpation (the act of being cut-off from Israel). An Israelite could become unclean by handling a dead body. In this situation, the uncleanness would last for at least seven days, until he could be purified again. Part of the cleansing process would be washing the body and clothes, and the unclean person would need to be sprinkled with the water of purification, [24] without which he remains in a state of uncleanness and passes on defilement by touch to other persons. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or a nazarite is a man or woman who voluntarily took a vow which is described in Numbers 6:1–21. This vow required the nazirite to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dirham</span> Unit of currency in several Arab and Islamic states

The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, and is the name of a currency subdivision in Jordan, Qatar and Tajikistan. It was historically a silver coin.

Joseph ibn Migash or Joseph ben Meir HaLevi ibn Migash or Yosef Ibn Meir Ha-Levi Ibn Megas or José ben Meir ibn Megas was a Rabbi, Posek, and Rosh Yeshiva in Lucena. He is also known as Ri Migash, the Hebrew acronym for "Rabbi Joseph Migash".

A terumah, the priestly dues or heave offering, is a type of offering in Judaism. The word is generally used for offerings to God, but can also refer to gifts to a human.

In Jewish religious law, ṭum'ah and ṭaharah are the state of being ritually "impure" and "pure", respectively. The Hebrew noun ṭum'ah, meaning "impurity", describes a state of ritual impurity. A person or object which contracts ṭum'ah is said to be ṭamé, and thereby unsuited for certain holy activities and uses until undergoing predefined purification actions that usually include the elapse of a specified time-period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tithes in Judaism</span> Religious donations in Judaism

The tithe is specifically mentioned in the Books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The tithe system was organized in a seven-year cycle, the seventh-year corresponding to the Shemittah-cycle in which year tithes were broken-off, and in every third and sixth-year of this cycle the second tithe replaced with the poor man's tithe. These tithes were akin to taxes for the people of Israel and were mandatory, not optional giving. This tithe was distributed locally "within thy gates" to support the Levites and assist the poor. Every year, Bikkurim, terumah, ma'aser rishon and terumat ma'aser were separated from the grain, wine and oil. Initially, the commandment to separate tithes from one's produce only applied when the entire nation of Israel had settled in the Land of Israel. The Returnees from the Babylonian exile who had resettled the country were a Jewish minority, and who, although they were not obligated to tithe their produce, put themselves under a voluntary bind to do so, and which practice became obligatory upon all.

The House of Hillel and House of Shammai were, among Jewish scholars, two schools of thought during the period of tannaim, named after the sages Hillel and Shammai who founded them. These two schools had vigorous debates on matters of ritual practice, ethics, and theology which were critical for the shaping of the Oral Law and Judaism as it is today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tabun oven</span> One of several styles of clay ovens used in the Middle East

A tabun oven, or simply tabun, is a portable clay oven, shaped like a truncated cone. While all were made with a top opening, which could be used as a small stove top, some were made with an opening at the bottom from which to stoke the fire. Built and used even before biblical times as the family, neighbourhood, or village oven, tabun ovens continue to be built and used in parts of the Middle East today.

Kil'ayim are the prohibitions in Jewish law which proscribe the planting of certain mixtures of seeds, grafting, the mixing of plants in vineyards, the crossbreeding of animals, the formation of a team in which different kinds of animals work together, and the mixing of wool with linen in garments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dough offering</span> Biblical injunction to separate a tithe from bread

In Judaism, the dough offering is an assertive command requiring the owner of bread dough to give a part of the kneaded dough to a kohen. The obligation to separate the dough offering from the dough begins the moment the dough is kneaded, but may also be separated after the loaves are baked. This commandment is one of the twenty-four kohanic gifts, and, by a biblical injunction, is only obligatory in the Land of Israel, but from a rabbinic injunction applies also to breadstuffs made outside the Land of Israel.

In the realm of tumah and taharah terminology, the term Av HaTumah is a rabbinic term for a person or object that is in a state of tumah, second in severity only to corpse uncleanness. Anything suffering from Av HaTumah, such as carrion, the blood of a menstruate woman, seminal fluid, etc., can render those persons who touch it defiled at a further remove, known as a "first-grade level of uncleanness."

Impurity of the land of the nations is a rabbinic edict stipulating a specified degree of tumah (impurity) on all lands outside the Land of Israel. The demarcation lines of foreign lands effectually included all those lands not settled by the people of Israel during their return from the Babylonian exile during the Second Temple period, and was meant to dissuade the priests of Aaron's lineage from venturing beyond the Land of Israel where graves were unmarked, and who may inadvertently contract corpse uncleanness and thereby eat their bread-offering (Terumah), unawares, in a state of ritual impurity and becoming liable thereby to kareth. The declaration with respect to foreign lands includes also the "virgin soil" of those lands, and was, therefore, a safeguard meant to prevent the priests from inadvertently transgressing the Law of Moses.

Dina d'malkhuta dina is a principle in Jewish religious law that the civil law of the country is binding upon the Jewish inhabitants of that country, and, in certain cases, is to be preferred to Jewish law. The concept of dina de-malkhuta dina is similar to the concept of conflict of laws in other legal systems. It appears in at least twenty-five places in the Shulchan Arukh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Handwashing in Judaism</span> Jewish ritual of purifying ones hands by washing them

Jewish law and custom prescribe ritual hand washing in a number of situations. This practice is generally known by the Hebrew term נטילת ידיים‎, which literally means taking up of the hands.

In Jewish halacha, the techum shabbat, or simply techum, is a limited physical area in which a Jew is permitted to walk on foot on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. In general, this area is calculated by measuring 2000 cubits in every direction from the place where a person was located when Shabbat began.

Sicaricon, lit. 'usurping occupant; possessor of confiscated property; the law concerning the purchase of confiscated property', refers in Jewish law to a former act and counter-measure meant to deal effectively with religious persecution against Jews in which the Roman government had permitted its own citizens to seize the property of Jewish landowners who were either absent or killed in war, or taken captive, or else where Roman citizens had received property that had been confiscated by the state in the laws prescribed under ager publicus, and to which the original Jewish owners of such property had not incurred any legal debt or fine, but had simply been the victims of war and the illegal, governmental expropriation of such lands from their rightful owners or heirs. The original Jewish law, made at some time after the First Jewish-Roman War with Vespasian and his son Titus, saw additional amendments by later rabbinic courts, all of which were meant to safe-guard against depriving the original landowners and their heirs of any land that belonged to them, and to ensure their ability to redeem such property in the future.

Relative hour, sometimes called halachic hour, temporal hour, seasonal hour and variable hour, is a term used in rabbinic Jewish law that assigns 12 hours to each day and 12 hours to each night, all throughout the year. A relative hour has no fixed length in absolute time, but changes with the length of daylight each day - depending on summer, and in winter. Even so, in all seasons a day is always divided into 12 hours, and a night is always divided into 12 hours, which invariably makes for a longer hour or a shorter hour. At Mediterranean latitude, one hour can be about 45 minutes at the winter solstice, and 75 minutes at summer solstice. All of the hours mentioned by the Sages in either the Mishnah or Talmud, or in other rabbinic writings, refer strictly to relative hours.

Biblical mile is a unit of distance on land, or linear measure, principally used by Jews during the Herodian dynasty to ascertain distances between cities and to mark the Sabbath limit, equivalent to about ⅔ of an English statute mile, or what was about four furlongs. The basic Jewish traditional unit of distance was the cubit, each cubit being roughly between 46–60 centimetres (18–24 in) The standard measurement of the biblical mile, or what is sometimes called tǝḥūm šabbat, was 2,000 cubits.

In Judaism, the eight sheratzim, typically translated as the "eight creeping things", are animals described in Leviticus 11:29–30, which have special laws in regard to ritual impurity and Shabbat.

Mandatory war, is a technical term found in Hebrew classical literature and denoting a war that requires the entire nation of the Jewish people to rise-up and to become actively engaged-in because of an existential threat to the Jewish nation. The aim is to thwart the enemy advances against the nation of Israel, without the necessity of enslaving and exterminating the enemy, or of annexing the enemy's territory. It is to be distinguished from a "voluntary war", that is to say, a battle waged of free choice, which requires the approbation of the Sanhedrin. It is also to be distinguished from a "religious war", which is restricted to those nations mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, such as Amalek and the nations of Canaan. The biblical command, in the case of the Canaanite inhabitants, was to exterminate them and to annex their territory, whereas others who made peace with Israel could be enslaved and forced to pay tribute.

References

  1. ↑ Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (Hil. Tum'ath Met 1:7)
  2. ↑ Numbers 31:19
  3. ↑ Mishnah, Kelim 1:1 (in Danby's edition of the Mishnah, p. 604)
  4. ↑ Babylonian Talmud ( Avodah Zarah 37b), citing Numbers 19:22: "And whatsoever the unclean person touches shall be unclean." The rabbis decreed that if a person defiled by the dead had touched another person, the person who had been touched is under a seven-day period of defilement, and cannot eat of Terumah or hallowed things until that period had expired (cf. BT Nazir 42b).
  5. ↑ Maimonides (1965). Mishnah, with Maimonides' Commentary (in Hebrew). Vol. 2. Translated by Yosef Qafih. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook. p. 130., s.v. Nazirut 7:2. Cf. Babylonian Talmud, Baba Kama 25b; Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (Hil. Tum'ath Met 2:4)
  6. ↑ Mishnah (Ohelot 2:3 [p. 652])
  7. ↑ Maimonides (1967). Mishnah, with Maimonides' Commentary (in Hebrew). Vol. 3 (Ohelot 2:3). Translated by Yosef Qafih. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook. p. 153. OCLC   13551391.
  8. ↑ Aharon HaLevi, Sefer ha-Chinuch , section # 362, on Numbers 5:1–3; Flavius Josephus, The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley: 1895, s.v. Antiquities 3.11.3. The Mishnah (Kereitot 2:1) mentions four persons designated as "lacking in the atonement" (Hebrew : מחוסרי כפרה), e.g. the leper, the man who had a repetitive and uncontrollable seminal flux, the woman who had a profuse menstrual flow of blood for several days beyond her period of natural purgation, the woman after childbirth (postpartum). Such people remain in a state of uncleanness until they have immersed and brought their sacrificial animals for atonement. Persons who are defiled by corpse uncleanness are similar to them, in that they, too, remain in a perpetual state of uncleanness until they can be sprinkled twice with the water of purification and immerse in a ritual bath (Sifrei on Numbers 5:1-3).
  9. ↑ Mishnah, Kelim 1:8 (in Danby's edition of the Mishnah, p. 606). There is more lenient teaching in the Midrash HaGadol (Be'shelach) where it was learnt from Moses who carried with him the bones of Joseph that persons defiled from the dead were permitted to enter the Court of the Israelites and of the Levites (Moses being a Levite), but not the Court of the Priests.
  10. ↑ Ovadiah Yosef, Questions & Responsa Yabia' 'Omer, part 5, responsum # 15, end of letter "beth" ( OCLC   959573257); ibid, responsum # 26; Ovadiah Yosef, Questions & Responsa Yeḥaveh Da'at, part 1, responsum # 25 ( OCLC   13159493); Yitzhak Yosef, Yalqūt Yosef, Section Mo'adim, Hil. Chol Ha-Mo'ed, §4 ( OCLC   16128842)
  11. ↑ Babylonian Talmud (Yevamot 61a); Maimonides, Mishne Torah (Hil. Tum'ath Met 1:13; 9:4), ibid. (Hil. Avel 3:3); Tur / Shulhan Arukh (Yoreh De'ah 372:2)
  12. ↑ Mishnah ( Ohalot 13:4–5)
  13. ↑ Numbers 19:14–15
  14. 1 2 Meiri (2006). Daniel Bitton (ed.). Beit HaBechirah (Chiddushei ha-Meiri) (in Hebrew). Vol. 3. Jerusalem: Hamaor Institute. pp. 10–11. OCLC   181631040., Mo'ed Ḳaṭan 5b, s.v. כבר ביארנו‎.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Adani, Samuel ben Joseph (1997). "Abridged principles of halacha (chapter 3)". Sefer Naḥalat Yosef (in Hebrew). Ramat-Gan: Makhon Nir David. p. 17a. OCLC   31818927. (reprinted from Jerusalem editions, 1907, 1917 and 1988)
  16. ↑ Meiri (2006). Daniel Bitton (ed.). Beit HaBechirah (Chiddushei ha-Meiri) (in Hebrew). Vol. 3. Jerusalem: Hamaor Institute. p. 11. OCLC   181631040., Mo'ed Ḳaṭan 5b, s.v. כל אלו מטמאין באהל‎.
  17. ↑ Meiri (2006). Daniel Bitton (ed.). Beit HaBechirah (Chiddushei ha-Meiri) (in Hebrew). Vol. 7. Jerusalem: Hamaor Institute., s.v. Sanhedrin 4b; Maimonides (1974). Sefer Mishneh Torah - HaYad Ha-Chazakah (Maimonides' Code of Jewish Law) (in Hebrew). Vol. 5. Jerusalem: Pe'er HaTorah., s.v. Hil. Tum'at met 4:1
  18. ↑ Sefer ha-Chinuch ("Book of Education"), section # 263, Jerusalem: Eshkol Publishers; Leviticus 21:1–3
  19. ↑ Babylonian Talmud (Mo'ed Ḳaṭan 20b)
  20. ↑ Maimonides (1967). Mishnah, with Maimonides' Commentary (in Hebrew). Vol. 3 (Ohelot 2:3). Translated by Yosef Qafih. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook. p. 153. OCLC   13551391., Maimonides, s.v. וארץ העמים
  21. ↑ Maimonides (1965). Mishnah, with Maimonides' Commentary (in Hebrew). Vol. 2 (Eduyoth 8:4). Translated by Yosef Qafih. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook. p. 222., Eduyoth 8:4, s.v. ודיקרב למיתא מסאב (in commentary).
  22. ↑ Numbers 19:11, 19:16
  23. ↑ Rutta, Matt (30 March 2008). "Shemini/Parah (The smell of burning death)". Rabbinic Rambling. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
  24. ↑ Rowman, Altamira (2004). The Inclusive Hebrew Scriptures: The Torah. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 241. ISBN   0-9644279-6-6 . Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  25. ↑ Sifrei on Numbers 19
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.