tohorah

tohorah, in Judaism, the system of ritual purity practiced by Israel. Purity (tohorah) and uncleanness (tumʾah) carry forward Pentateuchal commandments that Israel—whether eating, procreating, or worshiping God in the Temple—must avoid sources of contamination, the principal one of which is the corpse (Numbers 19). 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.

All Israel was to follow the prohibitions on unclean food, and those forbidding sexual relations during a woman’s menstrual period or when either partner was affected by the uncleanness of the sexual organs. In addition, Leviticus outlines several injunctions that apply only to the Temple priests and their families. Thus, when the priestly caste ate their rations of the crops set aside for them and their portion of the animal meat sacrificed at the altar, they were to do so in a condition of cultic cleanness. They accordingly immersed themselves in ritually “fit” immersion pools of water before eating. When ordinary people came to the Temple, they too observed the rules of cultic cleanness, and therefore the priestly prohibitions applied to all Israelites during the times of participation in the Temple cult. That consideration could affect many at the time of the Pilgrim Festivals, i.e., Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. (It should be noted that before 70 ce some sects—the Pharisees, the Essenes, and those people represented by the law codes found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, for example—kept the rules of cultic purity in eating food even when at home. This practice, however, was not widespread.)

With the destruction of the second Temple and the de-emphasis in the importance of animal sacrifice and therefore also of the priestly caste, certain purificatory rituals could no longer be performed. One such instance is the the ceremony of the red heifer (Numbers 19.) This ceremony was meant to purify Israel of corpse uncleanness, and in its abeyance all Israel bears this impurity. But, even though after 70 ce, in the absence of the Temple, attaining cultic cleanness no longer pertained, uncleanness rules governing food and sexual relations continued to apply. An important distinction must be made, however, that in matters of public worship it was only in the Temple, not the synagogue, that considerations of cleanness applied; thus, no one would refrain from attending or participating in synagogue worship by reason of having contracted uncleanness. In present day Judaism, rather, the biblical regulations regarding cultic purity are observed primarily in the case of menstrual uncleanness, which governs when sexual intercourse may take place, and the cleanness of hands, which always are ritually washed prior to meals. Through this latter ritual, observant Jews understand themselves to consume all food as though it were in the sanctified status of a Temple offering, so that their home table can be imagined as the Temple altar itself, a locus of the divine presence.

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The Mishnah greatly amplified the Pentateuchal definition of what is affected by uncleanness, how uncleanness is transmitted, and the way in which uncleanness is removed. The Mishnah’s Division of Purities treats the interplay of persons, food, and liquids. Dry inanimate objects or food are not susceptible to uncleanness (Leviticus 11:34, 37). What is wet is susceptible. So liquids activate the system. What is unclean, moreover, emerges from uncleanness through the operation of liquids, specifically, through immersion in fit water that is of requisite volume and in natural condition. Liquids thus also deactivate the system. Therefore, water in its natural condition, not affected by human intervention, is what concludes the process by removing uncleanness. (See mikveh.)

The uncleanness of persons, furthermore, is also signified by body liquids (or flux) in most cases. (Additionally, the uncleanness that comes from contact with a corpse is conceived to be a kind of effluent, a viscous gas, but is thought to flow like a liquid; Mishnah tractate Ohalot.) Utensils for their part only receive uncleanness when they form receptacles that are able to contain liquid (Mishnah Tractate Kelim). So the invisible flow of fluidlike substances or powers transmits uncleanness and the visible fluid of fit water purifies.

Some of these prohibitions may have been borrowed by Israel from other cultures, and they no doubt had a multiplicity of meanings. In Judaism as it has evolved, however, what is unclean has come to be perceived as abnormal and disruptive of the economy of nature, and what is clean is normal and constitutive of the economy and the wholeness of nature. What is unclean is restored to a condition of cleanness through the activity of nature alone (e.g., naturally flowing water that has collected in sufficient volume to afford immersion). Procreation and sustenance of life define what is at stake in the condition of cleanness, en route to the state of sanctification, as in the hierarchical statement by Rabbi Phineas ben Yair in the Mishnah tractate Sotah 9:15: Rabbi Yair says, “Heedfulness leads to cleanliness, cleanliness leads to cleanness, cleanness leads to abstinence, abstinence leads to holiness, holiness leads to modesty, modesty leads to the fear of sin, the fear of sin leads to piety, piety leads to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit leads to the resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection of the dead comes through Elijah, blessed be his memory, amen.”