Original Meaning. Cleansing from the impurity of death. * Even though ritual impurity contracted from a corpse by a live person was secondary, it was serious. This makes sense in light of the rationale underlying the ancient Israelite system of physical ritual impurities: Mortality involved in the birth-death cycle of human beings is opposed to divine holiness, which is characterised by life. What could represent mortality more than a corpse?
At first glance it is peculiar that the full prescription for remedying the prominent impurity of corpse contamination does not appear until Numbers 19, after several passages have referred or alluded to the problem of this kind of impurity (Lev 10:4–5; 21:1–4, 11; Num 6:6–7, 9–12; 8:5–21), and Numbers 8:7 has even mentioned the “water of purification.” However, placement of the remedy for corpse contamination in chapter 19 is appropriate in view of the expanding prominence of death in the narrative. By now thousands of Israelites have perished by divine judgments, and the entire adult generation of non-Levites is doomed to die in the desert, except for Caleb and Joshua.
The fact that corpse contamination was considered such a powerful impurity posed a problem for remedying it: The impure person could not come to the sanctuary in order to sacrifice a purification offering, so ritual decontamination had to take place outside the sacred precincts. Also, because priests were to avoid corpse contamination (Lev 21:1–4, 11), the purification rite needed to be administered by a layperson.
To remedy corpse contamination subject to these constraints, Numbers 19 prescribes a unique procedure consisting of two parts.
1. An unusual ritual outside the camp, officiated by a priest, involved burning a reddish cow, thereby producing a supply of ashes to be stored for future use (19:1–10a).
2. When an Israelite needed cleansing, a few of the ashes were mixed with water as a “ready-made, instant” purification offering, and a layperson sprinkled them on the affected individual (19:10b–22). This economical approach had the additional advantage that it spared grieving Israelites the burden of expensive sacrifices after they had just buried their dead.
Red cow purification offering. Verses 1–10a provide instructions for acquiring sacrificial ashes. The victim supplied by the community is to be female, like other purification offerings for the benefit of individual commoners. It must be a cow, the largest female sacrificeable animal, so that it will supply a maximum quantity of ashes. It must be reddish to evoke the colour of blood. Like other sacrificial victims, it must be unblemished. Additionally, even though the ritual is outside the camp, the cow must not have been used as a work animal.
The son of the high priest is to supervise the sacrificial slaughter of the cow (19:3) and then “take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting” (19:4).
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The NIV Application Commentary on the Bible: One-Volume Edition; by Christopher A. Beetham; Nancy L. Erickson
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors of ‘the NIV Application Commentary on the Bible’ and do not necessarily represent those of the Christadelphians
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Tohorah, in Judaism, the system of ritual purity practised by Israel. Purity (tohorah) and uncleanness (tumʾah) carry forward Pentateuchal commandments that Israel — whether eating, procreating, or worshipping God in the Temple — must avoid sources of contamination, the principal one of which is the corpse (Numbers 19).
In the Jewish laws it is clearly defined what is pure and what is not pure, or has the state of being ritually “impure” and “pure”, respectively.
A person or object which contracts ṭum’ah is said to be ṭamé (טמא Hebrew adjective, “ritually impure”), and thereby unsuited for certain holy activities and uses (kedushah, קְדֻשָּׁה in Hebrew) until undergoing predefined purification actions that usually include the elapse of a specified time-period.
The contrasting Hebrew noun ṭaharah (טָהֳרָה) describes a state of ritual purity that qualifies the ṭahor (טָהוֹר; ritually pure person or object) to be used for kedushah. The most common method of achieving ṭaharah is by the person or object being immersed in a mikveh (ritual bath). This concept is connected with ritual washing in Judaism, and both ritually impure and ritually pure states have parallels in ritual purification in other world religions.
The laws of ṭum’ah and ṭaharah were generally followed by the Israelites and post-exilic Jews, particularly during the First and Second Temple periods, and to a limited extent are a part of applicable halakha in modern times. {Wikipedia}
There are other prohibitions in addition to avoiding the presence of death. Leviticus 11 presents the catalog of foods that are clean or unclean; Israelites may eat of the former, but not the latter. Leviticus 12 goes over the uncleanness that results from childbirth; Leviticus 13–14 deal with a skin ailment (once identified with leprosy), that scripture deems analogous to the condition of the corpse; and Leviticus 15 covers the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual period (a Niddah), a woman whose uncleanness is brought about by other excretions, and the uncleanness of a man brought about by analogous excretions. Leviticus also outlines lesser forms of uncleanness; e.g., that which results from seminal fluid. {Encyc Brit.}
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Additional reading
- Today’s thought “Ritual impurity and rituals” (March 09)
- Today’s thought “A house of prayer” (March 27)
- God’s promise for his people
- Shabbat HaGadol in preparation for Pesach
- Soar to Places Unknown
From guestwriters 