Tumah and taharah

The Hebrew terms tumah and taharah refer to ritual “impurity and purity” under Jewish law. The Hebrew noun tum'ah (טָמְאָה) “impurity” describes a state of ritual impurity. A person or object which contracts tumah is said to be tamei (Hebrew adjective, “ritually impure”), and thereby unsuited for certain holy activities and utilisations (kedusha in Hebrew) until undergoing predefined purification actions that usually include the elapse of a specified time-period.

The contrasting Hebrew noun taharah (טָהֳרָה) describes a state of ritual purity that qualifies the tahor (טָהוֹר ritually pure person or object) to be used for kedusha. The most common method of achieving taharah 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 tumah and taharah were generally followed by the Israelites, particularly during the First and Second Temple Period, and to a limited extent are a part of applicable halakha in modern times.

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Author: Wikipedia

Keywords: Tumah, Taharah, Childbirth, Child birth, Unclean, Uncleaness, Uncleanness, Defiled, Ritual washing, Dead body, Ritual purity, Defiled by a dead body, Corpse, Mosaic law, Law of Moses, ritual purification

Bible reference(s): Genesis 35:2, Exo 19:15, Lev. 5:2, Lev. 7:19, Lev. 7:21, Lev. 10:10, Lev. 11:4-8, Lev. 11:26, Lev. 11:27, Lev. 11:28, Lev. 11:29, Lev. 11:31, Lev. 11:35, Lev. 11:38, Lev. 11:47, Lev. 13:11, Lev. 13:15, Lev. 13:36, Lev. 13:44, Lev. 13:45, Lev. 13:46, Lev. 13:51, Lev. 13:55, Lev. 14:40, Lev. 14:41, Lev. 14:44, Lev. 14:45, Lev. 14:57, Lev. 15:2, Lev. 15:25, Lev. 15:26, Lev. 15:33, Lev. 20:25, Lev. 22:4, Lev. 27:11, Lev. 27:27, Num. 5:2, Num. 9:6, Num. 9:7, Num. 9:10, Num. 18:15, Num. 19:13, Num. 19:15, Num. 19:17, Num. 19:19, Num. 19:20, Num. 19:22, Deut. 12:15, Deut. 12:22, Deut. 14:7, Deut. 14:8, Deut. 14:10, Deut. 14:19, Deut. 15:22, Deut. 26:14, Jos. 22:19, Jdg. 13:4, 2 Chr. 23:19, Job 14:4, Eccl. 9:2, Isa. 6:5, Isa. 35:8, Isa. 52:1, Isa. 52:11, Isa. 64:6, Jer. 19:13, Lam. 4:15, Ezek. 4:13, Ezek. 22:5, Ezek. 22:10, Ezek. 22:26, Ezek. 44:23, Hos. 9:3, Amos 7:17, Hag. 2:13, Hag. 2:14

Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Tumah and taharah,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

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