What are the Jewish rites of purification? The purification ritual is generally a form of water-based ritual washing in Judaism for removal of any ritual impurity, sometimes requiring just washing of the hands, and at other times requiring full immersion; the oral law requires the use of un-drawn water for any ritual full immersion - either a natural river/.
What is the ritual of purification in Judaism?
The purification ritual is generally a form of water-based ritual washing in Judaism for removal of any ritual impurity, sometimes requiring just washing of the hands, and at other times requiring full immersion; the oral law requires the use of un-drawn water for any ritual full immersion - either a natural river/. Click to see full answer.
What was the purpose of the purifying cloth of the Jews?
Of the purifying - Of the "washings" or ablutions of the Jews. They were for the purpose of washing the hands before and after eating Matthew 15:2, and for the formal washing of vessels, and even articles of furniture, Luke 11:39; Mark 7:3-4. Two or three firkins - It is not quite certain what is meant here by the word "firkins."
What is ritual washing in Judaism?
Both traditional religious and secular scholars agree that ritual washing in Judaism was derived by the Rabbis of the Talmud from a more extensive set of ritual washing and purity practices in use in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, based on various verses in the Hebrew Scriptures and received traditions.
What is the significance of purity in Judaism?
The primary context in which the idea of purity plays a fundamental role is in the so-called priestly source of the Book of Leviticus and its concern for the ritual life of the sanctuary. Purity ( taharah ) and impurity ( tum'ah ) are primarily functional concepts and connote the status of a person or an object with respect to the Temple.
What is a rite of purification?
purification rite, any of the ceremonial acts or customs employed in an attempt to reestablish lost purity or to create a higher degree of purity in relation to the sacred (the transcendental realm) or the social and cultural realm.
How did the Jews purify themselves in the Old Testament?
Water was used in ancient Israelite rituals so that an unclean person could be purified (e.g. Lev 15:5; Ezek 36:25) and a fountain was an important source of fresh water needed for this ritual purification (Lev 14:5, 50). Zechariah 12, the previous chapter, is concerned with lamentation and death.
What are some ways in which purity and impurity are defined in Judaism?
The Hebrew term ṭāhôr/ṭāhārâ, like its Ugaritic cognate, can at times mean “shining,” or “radiance.” More generally, however, purity is conceptualized as the absence of contagion and purification involves the removal of dirt, pollution, or contaminating matter.
What is a mikvah bath?
A mikvah is a pool of water — some of it from a natural source — in which observant married Jewish women are required to dip once a month, seven days after the end of their menstrual cycle. The ocean is a mikvah. A lake can be a mikvah. More commonly, it's indoors and looks like an oversized bathtub.
What is religious purity?
Real purity comes as a result of believing that the Lord Jesus died in your place to ransom you from impurity. Pure living increases as you work together with the Holy Spirit to live as a redeemed child of God. Purity describes who you are and what you do.
Why is purity important in Judaism?
As in biblical literature, uncleanness is taken as a sign of separation from God, and purity is a prerequisite for approaching God, or of receiving the Torah, an extension of cultic symbols to rabbinism, as was commonplace.
What is ritual impurity in the Bible?
The distinction between ritual and moral impurity in the Hebrew Bible is also considered. Ritual impurity is a contagious but generally impermanent sort of defilement, while moral impurity results from what are believed to be immoral acts. Moreover, the dietary laws between ritual and moral impurity are shown.
What is purity and impurity?
PURITY AND IMPURITY, RITUAL (Heb. וְטָהֳרָה טֻמְאָה, tumah ve-toharah), a symbolic system according to which a pure person or object is qualified for contact with the Temple and related sancta (holy objects and spaces) while an impure person or object is disqualified from such contact.
Why do Jews Rock when they pray?
According to the mystical text Zohar, a person's soul emanates from divine light. Every time a Jew engages with the Torah, the light of his or her soul ignites, which is why he or she moves like the flame of a candle.
When can a woman go to the mikvah?
When Do You Go? The first time women traditionally go to the mikveh is before their wedding; I went the night before mine with the women in my family along for moral support. I go to the mikveh every month after my cycle ends, and I went for good luck in my ninth month of each pregnancy.
What is a frum woman?
The New York Times defines the word frum as 'religiously observant'. For boys and men, covering the head is an identifier of religiosity. For women, being frum includes adherence to the laws of tzniut, such as modest dress covering the arms and legs. For married women, a head covering is another indicator.
What is the purity of the Jewish religion?
The concept of purity represents one of the cornerstones of Jewish religiosity from its earliest articulation in biblical literature. Indeed, the ideal of attaining purity by purification from the various kinds of impurities enumerated in the Book of Leviticus forms an integral part of the notion of holiness in that book, as well as in later Jewish sources. At the same time, purity is not a uniform concept. On the contrary, the idea of purity is mobilized in numerous thematic, literary, and chronological contexts, ranging from ritual to purely metaphysical or spiritual. It plays a fundamental role in constructions of gender identity in Jewish culture, just as gender is a structural element of the various manifestations of the conceptualization of purity. Not so much a linear development of a uniform idea, from ritual to spiritual, purity is rather a concept which acquires different layers of meanings and can be variously drawn on.
What does it mean to be in a status of purity in the Temple?
A person needs to be in a status of ritual purity in order to enter the Temple area. If the person or an object has been affected by a source of impurity they need to undergo a process of ritual purification before they can again enter the Temple or be put to use for work related to the Temple.
What is the meaning of purity in the Book of Leviticus?
Purity ( taharah ) and impurity ( tum'ah ) are primarily functional concepts and connote the status of a person or an object with respect to the Temple. A person needs to be in a status of ritual purity in order to enter the Temple area. If the person or an object has been affected by a source of impurity they need to undergo a process of ritual purification before they can again enter the Temple or be put to use for work related to the Temple.
What is the ongoing interest of the Rabbinic scholars in the subject?
The ongoing interest of the rabbinic scholars in the subject is warranted by the continuous applicability of at least some of its aspects, prominently the unconditional prohibition of menstrual sex in the Holiness Code. It is this prohibition that perpetuates the interest in the legal discussions of menstrual impurity.
What is the impurity of transgressive behavior?
Impurity of Transgressive Behavior. However, aside from the concept of ritual purity, biblical law elsewhere and prophetic literature — most prominently Ezekiel — draw on the concept of purity in ways that extend beyond the functional, ritual context.
Is purity a uniform concept?
At the same time, purity is not a uniform concept. On the contrary, the idea of purity is mobilized in numerous thematic, literary, and chronological contexts, ranging from ritual to purely metaphysical or spiritual. It plays a fundamental role in constructions of gender identity in Jewish culture, just as gender is a structural element ...
Who argued that the biblical writers perceived impurity as the "actualized form of evil forces operative in the
In contrast to Milgrom, Baruch Levine argues that biblical writers perceived impurity as the "actualized form of evil forces operative in the human environment" (Levine, 1974, p. 78). As an anthropologist, Mary Douglas takes a different approach altogether to make sense of the biblical notion of ritual purity.
What were the Jewish laws of purity?
Jewish Laws of Purity in Jesus’ Day. The sages were required to interpret the biblical commandments , including those dealing with ritual uncleanness of menstruants. Rabbinic regulations about impurity caused by menstruation form the background to several stories in the gospels. T he Hebrew Scriptures and other early Jewish writings place ...
What is the Talmud's commentary on menstruation?
Furthermore, the Babylonian Talmud devotes hundreds of pages to commentary on the laws of menstruation in the tractate Niddah, including numerous accounts of how the rabbis judged the “purity” of various stained cloths that had been presented for their examination (Niddah 20 b ).
Where is the teaching on menstruation found in the Bible?
The main foundational teaching on menstruation in the Hebrew Scriptures is found in Leviticus 15:19-33. In addition, the sixth division of the Mishnah, Tohorot (Cleannesses) contains a tractate titled Niddah (The Menstruant). Furthermore, the Babylonian Talmud devotes hundreds of pages to commentary on the laws of menstruation in ...
What does the Talmud say about women during their menses?
The social separation of women during their menses is further emphasized in the Talmud. The Mishnaic sages taught that women were exempt from religious ordinances whose fulfillment depended upon a certain time of the day or the year (Mishnah, Berachot 3:3; Kiddushin 1:7).
Did Jesus bathe in water?
By the time of Jesus, bathing in water was an established part of the pur ification process following menstruation, but nowhere in the Bible is there mention of the menstruant bathing in water. Instruction on purification through the use of the mikveh (ritual bath) by menstruants may be traced to the time of the sages.
When do you wash your hands at Passover?
According to halakha or custom, the hands are washed on a number of occasions. These include before and after eating a meal with bread; upon awaking in the morning; after using the toilet; before eating karpas in the Passover seder; and before prayer. On some of these occasions, the water must be poured from a cup; on others, it may also be delivered by any means such as a faucet. On some of these occasions, a blessing is recited; on others, it is not.
Where did ritual washing originate?
Both traditional religious and secular scholars agree that ritual washing in Judaism was derived by the Rabbis of the Talmud from a more extensive set of ritual washing and purity practices in use in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, based on various verses in the Hebrew Scriptures and received traditions. There is disagreement, however, about the origins and meanings of these practices.
What is the skin condition in the Torah?
The Torah prescribes rituals addressing the skin condition known as tzaraath and unusual genital discharges in a man or women ( Zav / Zavah ), which required special sacrifices and rituals in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem including immersion in a mikveh.
What is the Bible's law on washing a corpse?
No explicit regulations are expressed in the bible concerning the treatment of a corpse itself, although historic rabbinical sources saw an implication that the dead should be thoroughly washed per Ecclesiastes, as children are washed when born; according to Raavyah, a prominent rishon, argued that the corpse should be cleansed carefully, including the ears and fingers, with nails pared and hair combed, so that the corpse could be laid to rest in the manner that the person had visited the synagogue during life. Washing of corpses was not observed among the Jews living in Persian Babylon, for which they were criticised as dying in filth, without a candle and without a bath; at the time, the non-Jewish Persians were predominantly Zoroastrian, and consequently believed that dead bodies were inherently ritually unclean, and should be exposed to the elements in a Tower of Silence to avoid defiling the earth with them.
How many times did the High Priest bathe himself?
The biblical regulations of Yom Kippur require the officiating Jewish High Priest to bathe himself in water after sending off the scapegoat to Azazel, and a similar requirement was imposed on the person who led the scapegoat away, and the person who burned the sacrifices during the rituals of the day. The Mishnah states that the High Priest had to immerse himself five times, and his hands and feet had to be washed ten times.
What is seminal discharge?
Men experiencing a seminal discharge, including through regular marital intercourse, were prohibited from entering the Temple in Jerusalem and required to immerse in a mikveh, remaining ritually impure until the evening. The Talmud ascribes to the Great Assembly of Ezra a Rabbinic decree imposing further restrictions on men ritually impure from a seminal discharge, including a prohibition on studying Torah and from participating in services.
What are the purity laws?
Most of the purity laws relat e to rites in the Temple. But the territory of the Temple was at least metaphorically expanded beyond the Temple confines, and ritual cleanliness was not limited to the bounds of the Temple but spread through the Jewish community. The laws affected ordinary people.
Why did Jews use stone vessels?
In the first century C.E., Jews commonly used stone vessels in observance of Jewish purity laws. Photo: Courtesy Yonatan Adler. “Stone vessels played an integral role in the daily religious lives of Jews during [the first century C.E.],” explained archaeologist Yonatan Adler, Senior Lecturer at Ariel University, in a press release.
What were the vessels in the Stone Age made of?
While vessels—from tableware to cooking pots to storage jars—were usually made of clay in antiquity, Jews throughout Judea and Galilee in the first century C.E. used vessels made of stone. Archaeologist Yitzhak Magen explains why in “Ancient Israel’s Stone Age” in BAR:
What is ritual impurity?
Ritual impurity might result from contact with the dead, loss of menstrual blood, loss of semen through nocturnal emission, or leprosy. Immersion in the waters of the mikveh provided a means of transforming an individual from a state of ritual impurity to a state of purity. After the Destruction of the Temple, the rabbis curtailed most ...
What is the purpose of the Mikveh bath?
The mikveh, or ritual bath, derived from ancient notions of purity and impurity. While the need for women to purify themselves after menstruation or childbirth was connected to ancient blood taboos, it remained a regular part of Jewish practice for centuries. In modern times, the practice of ritual immersion has been rejected by some as patriarchal ...
Why did the congregations build mikvehs?
Throughout the nineteenth century, several congregations throughout America made the building of a mikveh a priority, indicating that communal leaders wanted to encourage the practice of niddah and at least some women continued to observe family purity.
Why do women bathe in the waters of the Mikveh?
Jewish law prescribes that women immerse themselves in the waters of the mikveh following their menstrual periods or after childbirth in order to become ritually pure and permitted to resume sexual activity. The observance of this ritual has declined in modern times, but it still remains a key element in Jewish ritual practice.
Where was the Mikveh printed?
Print of the mikveh in the Ashkenazi synagogue in Amsterdam, 1783. Print by Pieter Wagenaar. Before the destruction of the Temple, when ritual purity was intimately connected with the Land of Israel and Temple practices, the laws of purity and impurity ( tumah and taharah) were much more far-reaching than in contemporary times.
What is a mikveh?
Photograph by Stevan Arnold. ©2012 Reed College and Laura Arnold Leibman. The mikveh is a ritual bath designed for the Jewish rite of purification. The mikveh is not merely a pool of water; it must be composed of stationary, not flowing, waters and must contain a certain percentage of water derived from a natural source, such as a lake, an ocean, ...
Is impurity a matter of hygienic cleanliness?
Women’s state of impurity during their menstrual periods is not a matter of hygienic cleanliness but rather a legal definition of ritual purity. Nevertheless, the laws of niddah reflect primitive blood taboos and the sense of fear and danger surrounding menstruation.
Ritual Impurity and Purification in Biblical and Jewish Law
- The primary context in which the idea of purity plays a fundamental role is in the so-called priestly source of the Book of Leviticus and its concern for the ritual life of the sanctuary. Purity (taharah ) and impurity (tum'ah) are primarily functional concepts and connote the status of a person or an object with respect to the Temple. A person nee...
Impurity of Transgressive Behavior
- However, aside from the concept of ritual purity, biblical law elsewhere and prophetic literature—most prominently Ezekiel —draw on the concept of purity in ways that extend beyond the functional, ritual context. In a number of prophetic and poetic passages, it has a clearly metaphoric function (e.g., Ps. 51, Lam. 1:8, Is. 1:15–17). But elsewhere certain human transgres…
Post-Biblical Judaism
- Various Jewish groups during the last two centuries bce and first century ce draw on the conceptualization of purity for boundary making purposes, among them prominently the sectarians who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. On the one hand, these sectarians make use of ritual purity laws to differentiate themselves from other Jews, by adding more laws and interpret…
Bibliography
- Cohen, Shaye. "Menstruants and the Sacred in Judaism and Christianity." In Women's History and Ancient History, edited by Sarah B. Pomeroy, pp. 273–299. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1991. Cohen, Shaye. "Purity and Piety: The Separation of Menstruants from the Sancta." In Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue, edited by Susan Grossman and Rivka Haut, pp. 103–117. Philadelp…
Overview
Full-body immersion (Tvilah)
- By the time of Jesus, bathing in water was an established part of the purification process following menstruation, but nowhere in the Bible is there mention of the menstruant bathing in water. Instruction on purification through the use of the mikveh (ritual bath) by menstruants may be traced to the time of the sages. An entire tractate of the Mish...
Hebrew Bible
Washing the hands
In Judaism, ritual washing, or ablution, takes two main forms. Tevilah (טְבִילָה) is a full body immersion in a mikveh, and netilat yadayim is the washing of the hands with a cup (see Handwashing in Judaism).
References to ritual washing are found in the Hebrew Bible, and are elaborated in the Mishnah and Talmud. They have been codified in various codes of Jewis…
Reason for contemporary observance
There are several occasions on which biblical or rabbinical regulations require immersion of the whole body, referred to as tvilah. Depending on the circumstances, such ritual bathing might require immersion in "living water" - either by using a natural stream or by using a mikveh (a specially constructed ritual bath, connected directly to a natural source of water, such as a spring).
History and commentary
The Hebrew Bible requires immersion of the body in water as a means of purification in several circumstances, for example:
And when the zav is cleansed of his issue, then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes; and he shall bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.
Mikveh in symbolic experience and biblical typology
According to halakha or custom, the hands are washed on a number of occasions. These include before and after eating a meal with bread; upon awaking in the morning; after using the toilet; before eating karpas in the Passover seder; and before prayer. On some of these occasions, the water must be poured from a cup; on others, it may also be delivered by any means such as a faucet. On some of these occasions, a blessing is recited; on others, it is not.
See also
Both Orthodox and Conservative Judaism currently have multiple views on the reason for contemporary observance of ritual washing and immersion obligation.
In Orthodox Judaism, opinion is generally split between a view that maintains that those Biblical rules related to ritual purity that are possible to observe in the absence of a Temple and a red heifer remain in force, and Jews remain Biblically-obligated to observe such of them as they can, and …