The tamei-tahor-ritual-purity tag has no wiki summary.
15
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1k views
Why are women unclean longer after giving birth to a girl?
I read that women are unclean for two weeks after giving birth to a girl and seven days after giving birth to a boy. What does it tell us?
13
votes
3answers
283 views
Can you become “more tamei”? If not, why do we worry about it today?
Without the temple and access to the ritual of the red heifer, we're all tamei (ritually impure) today with no way to fix it. Yet we work to avoid situations that would make us tamei (e.g. kohanim ...
11
votes
3answers
244 views
Why do plastic bags and not fuselages protect against impurity?
In a picture on this article, we see a kohen who has enclosed himself in a plastic bag so as to avoid becoming impure as a result of flying over a cemetery. Why is it that a pressurized fuselage does ...
11
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2answers
129 views
Does an improperly slaughtered animal render the Shochet impure?
In Vayikra 11:39 it says:
לט. וְכִי יָמוּת מִן הַבְּהֵמָה אֲשֶׁר הִיא לָכֶם לְאָכְלָה הַנֹּגֵעַ בְּנִבְלָתָהּ יִטְמָא עַד הָעָרֶב:
39) If an animal that you [normally] eat, dies, one who ...
10
votes
2answers
102 views
How is a kohen allowed to go outside Israel?
There is a decree which says that all the land outside of Israel is Tamei (as there is a ch'shash that the non-Jews bury their dead outside of official cemeteries).
If so, how are Kohanim allowed to ...
10
votes
1answer
190 views
Plastic gloves in Halacha
If someone touches something while wearing gloves (i.e. waterproof rubber gloves), does that halachically count as touching? Practical examples include:
Touching a neveilah, whether or not you ...
9
votes
1answer
96 views
What does a tahara accomplish for a dead person?
What does a tahara, the process of washing and dressing a dead person, accomplish spiritually for the meis?
8
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4answers
1k views
Does the act of masturbation cause a change in one's spiritual/religious status vis-a-vis what he may and may not do?
Obviously masturbation is a very serious sin. However, if someone has already transgressed that sin, does his status change vis-a-vis things like learning Torah or davening? Does he need to go to a ...
6
votes
1answer
64 views
Do cremated remains contaminate with tumas mes?
If a body is cremated, do the ashes transmit tumah as do other human remains, or does cremation render the body no longer tamei?
6
votes
1answer
89 views
Why did Aharon request that Hashem declare Miriam pure?
Rashi says that one of the meanings of Aharon's prayer regarding Miriam ("Let her not be like the dead, which comes out of his mother's womb with half his flesh consumed!"; Bamidbar 12:12) was that ...
6
votes
1answer
101 views
Can/Should a Kohen Disqualify Himself from Birchas Kohanim because of Tumah?
Is it proper for a kohein to disqualify himself from duchaning if he feels that he is ritually unpure at that particular moment?
6
votes
1answer
118 views
Jews were on 49th level of Tumah. Says who?
There is a well known idea that when the Jews left Egypt during the Exodus, they were on the "forty-ninth level of tumah". Many explanations are given for this and it is expounded upon at length by a ...
6
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0answers
57 views
Would a genetically engineered red heifer be usable?
Assuming that a non-Jew chose to create a genetically engineered parah adumah (red heifer) and further assuming it met all the halachic requirements --no two black hairs, hadn't been used for work ...
6
votes
0answers
69 views
What is the significance of the skull of Araunah the Yevusi?
Araunah the Yevusi sells the land upon which the beis hamikdash will eventually be built to Dovid HaMelech (II Shemuel 24:18). Subsequently his skull is found underneath the mizbeach at least twice ...
5
votes
1answer
168 views
Is a bat kohen allowed to go to cemetery?
Besides the permitted reasons for male kohen, is a bat kohen allowed to go to cemetery for other reason?
5
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2answers
104 views
Touching the forearm when putting on Tefilin
If one has touched his forearm while placing the arm-Tefilin (I see that it's a very common case), is he obligated to wash his hands immediately, as he has to say a Beracha on the head-Tefilin? If so, ...
5
votes
1answer
57 views
How to handle cadavers
My fiance is going to university, working towards a degree in dentistry. For about a year, she will be required to handle cadavers in the classes. First of all, is this forbidden in Torah? Secondly, ...
5
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0answers
55 views
Was Naaman tamei from tzaraas?
In Melachim Bet 5:10 we read:
וַיִּשְׁלַח אֵלָיו אֱלִישָׁע, מַלְאָךְ לֵאמֹר: הָלוֹךְ, וְרָחַצְתָּ שֶׁבַע-פְּעָמִים בַּיַּרְדֵּן, וְיָשֹׁב בְּשָׂרְךָ לְךָ וּטְהָר.
And Elisha sent a ...
5
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0answers
72 views
Dictionary of symbology in Kodshim and Taharot
I'm wondering if anyone has ever put together a book that lists all the different elements that can come up in the realms of Kodshim and Taharot (e.g. bulls, the number seven, water, slaughtering, ...
4
votes
1answer
257 views
Kohen flying over a cemetery?
Is there a problem with a kohen flying in an airplane that may fly over a Jewish cemetery? If so, how can a kohen be sure that a flight does not go over a Jewish cemetery?
4
votes
2answers
135 views
Cohen And the Bodies Exhibit
Can a Cohen Visit the Bodies Exhibit or is Tumah: Ritual Impurity a concern?
4
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1answer
159 views
Kohen following a Mes into a tunnel
We know a Kohen can not be in the same ohel as a dead person. From what I learned, a moving vehicle does not block the tumah from coming into the car/van/plane etc. So, if one is traveling in a ...
3
votes
2answers
205 views
Food cooked by woman during Niddah?
If according to my Bible translation - please correct me if it is wrong - anything a woman in niddah or a state of tumah, or 'impurity', touches or sits on becomes 'impure', can food cooked by her be ...
3
votes
3answers
182 views
Do permanently unmarried women need to go to the mikvah?
Is the purpose of a woman's going to the mikvah so that she can permit herself to a man (be he her husband or any potential husband), or is it for her own sake? The nafqa mina is that of a woman who ...
3
votes
1answer
67 views
Why does Rebbe Yehoshua need a passuk?
The Gemara (Nazir 65b) says that Rabbi Yehoshua learns from the passuk of לטהרו או לטמאו that the case of ספק שיער לבן קדם ספק בהרת קדמה the halacha is טהור. The question is why he needs a passuk to ...
2
votes
1answer
115 views
The Chanuka Miracle of the Oil and Tumah Hutra Btzibur
In the events of Chanukah, why did they need the miracle of the oil? After all, they did not need pure [Tahor] oil, as the Gemara says Tumah Hutrah beTzibur, meaning if everyone is Tumay then you can ...
2
votes
0answers
25 views
Why do we get “so did they do” for the commandment of expelling tamei people in Parashat Naso?
Parashat Naso, in Numbers 5:1-3, presents a commandment to "send from the camp" anyone who is tamei due to either tzara'at or a zav-type discharage. After that, we have Verse 4, affirming that the ...
2
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0answers
75 views
Scach (Sukkah roof) and “Beis Kibbul”
It says in Shulchan Aruch (OC Siman 629 Sif 3) that one may cover a Sukkah with "chitzim" (arrows) that don't have a "beis kibbul". However if they do have a "beis kibbul" then it's not valid for ...
1
vote
2answers
73 views
What happened to Tohorot?
As I understand it, all of Tohorot has been reduced, in modern practice, to Niddah and some hand washing. The entire structure of transmittable 'uncleanliness' is inoperative. Why is it inoperative? ...
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2answers
162 views
0
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3answers
705 views
How, if at all, can “frum” Jewish men justify their consorting with prostitutes?
A friend of mine is a part-time magistrate in Sullivan County, New York. He often hears cases of hasidic men being caught with prostitutes. Moreover, he tells me that the cases of STDs among hasidim ...
