BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS AND RABBINIC INNOVATIONS
The Biblical Impurity System: An Outline
Impurity is a complex and multifaceted concept in the Hebrew Bible, and the appellation tame, “impure” or “unclean,” is used in the Bible in a variety of contexts and with different underlying meanings.6 In contrast, in the Mishnah the term impure is used in a rather restricted fashion, referring almost exclusively to the sources of ritual impurity denoted in the Priestly Code of the Pentateuch, and specifically in chapters 11–15 of the book of Leviticus and in chapter 19 of the book of Numbers.7 In what follows I will suggest a brief outline of the biblical system of ritual impurity as it is presented in these particular Priestly texts, since this is the only dimension of biblical impurity that the rabbis systematically develop.8
Generally speaking, in the Priestly Code impurity is depicted as a phenomenon that stems from several natural sources. These sources are not very many in number, and include the following:
| I. | Dead creatures. This category includes animal carcasses,9 dead creeping or crawling creatures such as rodents or insects,10 and human corpses.11 | |
| II. | Impure substances. The only bodily substance that is explicitly mentioned as impure in and of itself is semen, which renders both women and men who come into contact with it impure.12 In addition, it is mentioned that the ashes of the red cow, which are used for purification from corpse impurity, are a source of impurity.13 | |
| III. | Men and women who are in a physical state that renders them impure. This category includes women after childbirth,14 men and women with scale disease,15 men with abnormal genital discharges,16 and women with genital bleeding, whether normal (that is, menstrual) or abnormal.17 Such men and women remain in a state of impurity either until a designated number of days has passed (in the case of a parturient and a menstruating woman) or until their pathological physical condition has changed and an additional period of seven days has passed (in the case of persons with abnormal discharges and scale diseases). After the specified time has passed, these persons complete their purification process through various rites, which most commonly include washing in water and bringing sacrifices to the sanctuary (in the case of persons with scale disease, the purification rite is more elaborate). | |
| IV. | Afflicted objects. Garments and houses that are considered to be afflicted with a particular form of mildew (tzara’at) are seen as comparable to human beings afflicted with scale disease.18 |
If we leave the questions of what, exactly, “impurity” is and what renders these particular things “impure” aside, one practical facet of impurity is made abundantly clear in the biblical text: all these sources of impurity have an effect on their surroundings. These sources of impurity transform the ritual status of persons and objects that touch them, and sometimes also of spaces into which they enter or in which they reside, in such a way that these objects, persons, and spaces themselves become impure. It is thus important to distinguish between the aforementioned sources of impurity and the animals that are listed as forbidden for consumption,19 which are also referred to as “impure”: unlike the former, the latter are not said to have any effect on the one who eats them or touches them (while they are still alive). Eating a rabbit, for instance, is a breach of a divine decree, and therefore a transgression, but it does not bring about ritual impurity; in contrast, carrying an animal carcass is by no means a transgression, but it does render one ritually impure.
The Priestly Code presents different sets of effects in respect to each of the impurity sources mentioned above:
I.Dead Creatures:
–Animal carcasses render anyone who touches them or carries them impure for one day, as well as his or her garments. Purification is attained by washing in water.
–Dead creeping or crawling insects render anyone who touches them impure for one day, as well as any object, food, or liquid into or onto which they fall. Purification (which is possible for persons and objects but not for foods and liquids) is attained by washing in water.
–Human corpses render anyone and anything that touches them impure for seven days, as well as anyone and anything that shares the same confined space with them. Purification is attained by a multiphased ritual that includes washing in water and sprinkling with a mixture of water and the ashes of a red cow.
II.Impure substances:
–Semen renders persons and objects that have physical contact with it (including both men and women after intercourse) impure for one day, and purification is attained by washing in water.
–Persons who collect and handle the ashes of the red cow and the water into which it is mixed are impure for one day, as are their garments, and their purification is attained by washing in water.
III.Men and women who are in a physical state that renders them impure:
–Men and women with abnormal genital discharges and menstruating women render anything they sit, lie, or ride on impure, as well as anyone they touch, anything that touches them, and anyone that touches what they sat, rode, or lied on. All of those are made impure for one day and are purified by washing in water. Menstruating women also render men who have intercourse with them impure, and impurity contracted through this form of contact persists for seven days.
–The effects of parturient women and of persons with scale disease on their surroundings are not explicitly mentioned in the Priestly text. However, it is mentioned that parturient women are barred from the sanctuary and from the sancta, and that a person with scale disease is removed from the camp of Israel altogether.20 This indicates that persons in these bodily conditions were taken to have some sort of deleterious effect on their surroundings.21
IV.Afflicted objects.
Anyone who enters a house afflicted with mildew is rendered impure for one day, as are the objects in this house. The effect of afflicted garments on those who come into contact with them is not mentioned.
As a rule, in the biblical scheme impurity can only be contracted from one of the sources mentioned above. That is to say, a person or object can only become impure as a result of direct contact with one of the sources of impurity, but not as a result of contact with one who has touched one of the sources. For example, if Jill is menstruating and Jack touches her, Jack becomes impure; but Jack has no effect on whoever touches him. However, there are three notable exceptions to this rule: (1) objects on which a person with genital discharge sat, lied, or rode convey impurity in the same manner as this person himself or herself;22 (2) a man who had intercourse with a menstruating woman renders the litter he lies on impure;23 (3) persons or objects that had contact with a corpse convey impurity to whatever and whomever they touch.24 These exceptional three function as primary sources of impurity even though they contracted their impurity from another source. The power to convey impurity to others is manifested in the duration of the time of impurity: whereas whatever has the ability to convey impurity to others is impure for at least seven days, whatever contracted impurity but has no power to convey it further is impure for one day only. The question why specific sources of impurity convey impurity in some ways and others in other ways need not concern us here. What I would like to stress, however, is that ritual impurity is conceived and described in the Hebrew Bible as a conduit through which one thing transforms another.
This basic view of impurity as the deleterious effect of one of the sources mentioned above on a thing or a person that had contact with it remained at the foundation of the ritual system of purity and impurity as this system continued to develop in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. Nevertheless, as extant rulings and accounts regarding purity from the