18
votes
Meaning of the phrase "all Holy Scripture defile the hands."
I have no time to read the article - and therefore do not endorse anything they write.
The Rabbis instituted that Holy Books like a Sefer Torah would defile the hands.
Why?
Because people would ...
- 42.8k
14
votes
Accepted
Is a Kohen Allowed to Receive an Organ Donation?
Quoted from the book Healing in Halacha By Rabbi Micha Cohn (page. 245-247 Mosaica Press 2016)
Rav Moshe Feinstein (Iggros Moshe Yoreh Deah 1:230), wrote on the
opinions of a contemporary Rabbi ...
- 15.4k
8
votes
Could a Cohen burn a body to escape the impurity?
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Recall that a Cohen -- even a Cohen Gadol -- is obligated to contact a dead body if that's the only way it will receive a proper burial -- this is known as meis mitzva.
So in your ...
- 131k
8
votes
Accepted
Newlyweds: Only four days before Hefsek Tahara?
This opinion is cited in the Taz YD 193 sk 4 and 196 sk 5. The idea is roughly that for hymenal bleeding, which only effects a Niddah Derabanan, there is no need to be stringent to add a 5th day. ...
- 97.4k
8
votes
Removing Niddah status without a mikvah
Shulchan Arukh (YD 201:1) writes:
אין האשה עולה מטומאתה ברחיצה במרחץ ואפילו עלו עליה כל מימות שבעולם
עדיין היא בטומאתה וחייבים עליה כרת עד שתטבול כל גופה בבת אחת במי מקוה
או מעיין שיש בהם מ' ...
- 97.4k
8
votes
Why does water purify?
R Aryeh Kaplan in his beautiful book Waters of Eden (also part of his Anthology vol. 2) writes this is a chok and cites Bamidbar Rabbah 19:8
By your lives, a dead person doesn't make things impure, ...
- 48.1k
8
votes
Accepted
Why don’t Sheretzs made into a Streimel convey tumah?
Once a hide is tanned, even a bit, it no longer conveys impurity (Chullin 9:2).
- 97.4k
8
votes
Accepted
All men today are safek zav?
Tzitz Eliezer X:1 and Minchat Yitzchak V:1 both quote the opinion of Chazon Nachum Kelim 1:6 that nowadays one needs to treat himself as a zav, and use this as part of their arguments to prohibit ...
- 41.8k
7
votes
Does urine leakage render one ritually impure?
First step what is the problem of the urine?
Gemoro Berachoth 22B
ת''ר היה עומד בתפלה ומים שותתין על ברכיו פוסק עד שיכלו המים וחוזר ומתפלל להיכן חוזר
But it is during the micturition: and in ...
- 22.7k
7
votes
Jews were on 49th level of Tumah. Says who?
Here is a picture of the Zohar with the perush masok midvash on bottom. It is zohar charash yisro on daf lamed tes amud aleph in the original Zohar print.
- 71
7
votes
Accepted
Does food under bed become tamei?
Such an idea is found in a passage in Pesahim (112a) which states that a ru'ah ra'ah rests on food and drinks placed under a bed. Elsewhere, ru'ah ra'ah is explained by Rashi as meaning a malevolent ...
- 35.4k
7
votes
When can I attend service (Shabbat) after seminal emission?
The problem, as I understand it, is that your struggle is causing you to be distanced from normal, healthy mitzva behavior. Dr. Yocheved Debow writes about this phenomenon in her guide for educators.. ...
- 131k
7
votes
May a Kohen bury limbs of his 7 krovim (first degree relatives) which were removed during their lifetime?
YD 373:9
אין הכהן מיטמא לאבר מן החי מאביו, ולא לעצם מעצמות אביו. וכן המלקט
עצמות אינו מיטמא להם אע"פ שהשדרה קיימת.
חסר ממנו כל שהוא -- אפי' הוא מונח אצלו -- אינו מיטמא לו; שאינו מיטמא
אלא לשלם.
...
- 97.4k
7
votes
Accepted
Why didn't people conceal Tzaraat?
According to Sefer HaChinuch (Positive Commandment 169) there is an obligation incumbent upon someone afflicted with suspected tzara'at to show it to a kohen:
שמצוה היא עלינו שכל מי שיהיה מצרע ...
- 41.8k
6
votes
Accepted
Can mikvah water become tamei?
Water in a Mikvah does not become Tamei. (Actually, Tamei water is the only food/drink which can become Tahor again, and this is by connecting it to a Mikvah (Mishna, Beitza 2:3).)
See the first ...
- 97.4k
6
votes
Accepted
Why can you buy dry fruit from an Am Ha'aretz?
The Tosfos Yom Tov actually answers your question!
(Source from Sefaria.org)
ואינו לוקח ממנו לח. כתב הר"ב אבל יבש וכו' ונאמן עם הארץ לומר הפירות הללו לא הוכשרו וכו'. הכי תני בירושלמי. וטעמא דהא ...
- 4,245
6
votes
Accepted
When can I attend service (Shabbat) after seminal emission?
Regarding attending prayer services, the issue is not the ritual impurity. The issue is that Ezra promulgated a decree that a ba'al keri (one who had an emission) cannot recite Torah, prayers, etc. ...
- 49.1k
6
votes
Accepted
What is the process for purifying your home if you believe it may have been previously used for pagan worship?
This is explicitly addressed in Avodah Zarah 3:7:
שְׁלשָׁה בָתִּים הֵן. בַּיִת שֶׁבָּנוּי מִתְּחִלָּה לַעֲבוֹדָה זָרָה, הֲרֵי זֶה אָסוּר. סִיְּדוֹ וְכִיְּרוֹ לַעֲבוֹדָה זָרָה וְחִדֵּשׁ, נוֹטֵל מַה ...
- 34.1k
6
votes
Accepted
Machshirin 1:6: Chazon Ish's defence's of Bartenura's peirush
The Chazon Ish (2:2) is saying that moisture leaving the mouth is an intrinsic part of the act of blowing from the mouth. The fact that you blew intentionally means that the moistening was part of the ...
- 24k
6
votes
Accepted
Do the items a Baal Keri touch become impure?
Rambam in Hilchot She'ar Avot HaTum'ah 5:1 rules that a ba'al keri has the status of a rishon le-tuma'h.
As such, he would only impart impurity to food or drink which he touches, but not anything else ...
- 41.8k
6
votes
Accepted
IDF ceremony on the Temple Mount
R Shlomo Goren and his autobiography (With might and strength) explains that he was at the Dome of the Rock the day it became liberated and saw it as a special one-time opportunity. He writes he went ...
- 48.1k
6
votes
If one plants tamei terumah, is the gedulin [product] also tamei?
The Mishnah in Terumos 9:7 says that they become regular teruma but can’t be eaten as a chumra:
שְׁתִילֵי תְרוּמָה שֶׁנִטְמְאוּ, שְׁתָלָן, טָהֲרוּ מִלְּטַמֵּא, וַאֲסוּרִין מִלֶּאֱכֹל עַד שֶׁיָּגֹם ...
- 10.6k
5
votes
Accepted
Why make the Kohen burning the Para Aduma rabbinically impure?
The Ritva asks this very question on Yuma daf 2a and answers it.
לפיכך בשעת שריפתה היו נוגעין בו כדי לטמאו: ואף על גב דטומאה זו אינה אלא מדרבנן הא אית בה הכירא לצדוקין שיודעין היו דלדידן טהרת ...
- 11.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Do permanently unmarried women need to go to the mikvah?
There is a Tannaic dispute whether or not going to mikveh at the earliest time possible is an independent mitzvah (טבילה בזמנה מצוה או לאו מצוה) (see e.g. Yoma 8a). According to this opinion, a woman ...
- 58.4k
5
votes
How to deal with the command of Vayikra/Leviticus 15:19
Yes, indeed, even an infant becomes impure.
The mishna in Taharos 3:8 says
תינוק הנמצא בצד העיסה ובצק בידו רבי מאיר מטהר וחכמים מטמאין שדרכו של תינוק לטפח
A child/infant found next to dough, and ...
- 58.4k
5
votes
A wife wants to stop going to the mikva. What does that mean for the husband?
You might explain it to your wife like this:
Judaism makes the most important things in life mandatory rather than optional. It is not optional for a Jew to pray. It is not optional for him to have ...
- 19.6k
5
votes
Is flying over Har Habayis allowed?
This question assumes that it's forbidden to enter certain parts of the Har Habayit nowadays, since we are all Ritually Unclean, which is how the Rambam paskens. For the record, the ראב"ד argues. (...
- 42.8k
5
votes
Why sprinkle on the third day?
R' Samson Raphael Hirsch, in his grand exposition of the symbolism in the red heifer procedure1, relates the third and seventh days of the procedure to the Third and Seventh Days of Creation and to ...
- 47.8k
5
votes
Until when were the red heifer ashes still in use?
Sefer Hatteruma addresses this issue (closely imitated in Hilchot Erets Yisra'el attributed to the Tur). They bring a few examples that prove that the ashes of the red cow were still in use after the ...
- 24k
5
votes
Accepted
Why is marble not considered a stone?
Rambam is based on Nega’im 12:2, which states (based on Vayikra 14:45) that a house needs to be composed of stone, wood and earth in order to contract tzara’at impurity, and that marble does not count....
- 41.8k
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