One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
תְּמוּרָה · טֻמְאַת מֵת
Substitution 4, Defilement by a Corpse 1-2
Sefer Korbanot closes and Sefer Taharah opens · Holiness that arrives in the womb without a word being said, the three channels through which a human corpse conveys impurity, and the exact measures at which a fragment of a body is still treated as the body
3
Channels through which a corpse conveys impurity: touch, carrying, ohel
248
Limbs in a man, each of flesh, sinews and bones; 251 in a woman
18
Vertebrae in an intact backbone; one short and it counts as loose bones
125
Bones that form the majority of the number; 124 does not
Temurah 4Offspring, and the last word of Sefer Korbanot
- Offspring inherit the offering, and the third generation is forfeited. The offspring of a peace offering is a peace offering in all respects, and the offspring of a thanksgiving offering is sacrificed like one except that it requires no bread, since the verse speaks of bread brought on the slaughtering of the thanksgiving offering itself. The offspring of the offspring is not sacrificed at all, because his conduct shows he is delaying the offering in order to raise herds, and he is penalized. (4:1)
- Sin offerings downward, and the fetus counted as consecrated. The offspring of a sin offering, and needless to say the offspring of its substitute, is consigned to death; and a four month fetus found alive inside a slaughtered sin offering may be eaten like the meat of the sin offering, since offspring of consecrated animals while in the womb are like the consecrated animals themselves. (4:2, 4:3)
- Guilt and burnt offerings run in opposite directions. The offspring of a substitute for a guilt offering, and its offspring until the end of time, pasture until blemished, are sold, and the proceeds buy freewill offerings; the male offspring of a substitute for a burnt offering, and its offspring until the end of time, are themselves offered as burnt offerings. (4:4, 4:5)
- Firstborn and tithe keep their offspring off the altar. The offspring of a substitute for a firstborn or of a tithe offering are never offered but pasture until blemished and are then eaten, the firstborn's belonging to the priest and the tithe's to the owner; offspring born by Caesarian section, or as a tumtum, androgynus, hybrid or tereifah, are redeemed and a fit animal is brought with the money. (4:6, 4:8)
- No article moves from one holy purpose to another. Changing consecration from one holy purpose to another violates a prohibition without lashes, whether for the altar or for the upkeep of the Temple, so money given for the Sanctuary is not spent on the altar; a firstborn may still be consecrated to the altar while in the womb, but the fetus of an already consecrated animal may not, since such offspring are consecrated in the womb while a firstborn is consecrated only on emerging. (4:11, 4:12, 4:13)
RememberThe book of offerings ends by telling you its own subject: all of these ordinances exist to subjugate the evil inclination and improve one's character.
Tum'at Met 1Touch, carrying, and the shelter
- Seven days, and three channels. A human corpse conveys an impurity of at least seven days by touch, by carrying, and by ohel; touch and ohel are explicit in the Torah, while carrying is derived from the Oral Tradition by inference from an animal carcass, and the Rambam holds it to be Scriptural rather than Rabbinic. (1:1, 1:2)
- What the law will accept as touch. Touch means the body itself, flesh, hand, foot or tongue, and it appears to the Rambam that nails and teeth count too, being connected to the body; but a source of impurity skewered on a needle and inserted into the throat or the womb without touching flesh leaves the person pure, since contact with the inner organs is not touch. A scab over a bruise is skin, the underdeveloped hair of a child is not. (1:3, 1:4)
- Carrying needs no contact at all, and moving is carrying. A person is impure for carrying though he never touched, even with a stone between them, even if someone else lifted it onto him, even if it hung from a string or a hair he raised the slightest degree. Moving is carrying: anything that conveys impurity when carried conveys it when moved, so a man who shifts the far end of a beam with a corpse on it is impure. (1:6, 1:7)
- Hidden parts, swallowed objects, and vessels that stay clean. Carrying works in the hidden parts of the body where touch does not, until the object reaches the stomach, after which the person may immerse and be pure while it is still inside him. Only a human being becomes impure by carrying, never keilim: ten containers stacked on a palm with impurity in the top one leave the man impure and every container pure but the one that was touched. (1:8, 1:9)
- Ohel belongs to the human corpse alone. No other source of impurity conveys through a shelter. A person or a k'li stretched over the corpse, or the corpse over them, or both under one roof, are impure, and even a needle qualifies. A hand, a fingertip or a nose inserted into the shelter makes the whole person impure, and joining a hand to the lintel counts as entering. The corpse of a gentile conveys by touch and carrying but not by ohel, and a gentile does not contract corpse impurity at all. (1:10, 1:11, 1:13)
RememberNothing is conveyed until the person has actually died, and then a fingertip across a doorway is enough.
Tum'at Met 2How much of a body is still a body
- An olive of flesh, and why that measure. A stillborn conveys impurity like an adult corpse, and an olive sized portion of flesh conveys impurity like an entire corpse, moist or dried like a shard. Netzal, flesh decomposed into a putrid liquid, counts as flesh only if it coagulates, since coagulation shows it came from the corpse. The Sages explained the measure: at the onset of his conception a man's body is the size of an olive. (2:1, 2:2)
- A limb from a living person has no minimum and no tolerance. Such a limb is treated as an entire corpse provided it is intact as it came into being, with flesh, sinews and bones; a kidney or a tongue does not qualify, having no bone. If even the slightest amount of bone is missing the entire limb is pure, and flesh alone or a bone alone separated from a living person is pure. (2:3)
- The census, and the four bone categories. A man has 248 limbs and a woman 251, teeth excluded, and a woman's three extra limbs do not convey through a shelter. Four things convey impurity as an entire corpse: an intact backbone, an intact skull, the majority of the body's structure, and the majority of the number of bones. One vertebra short of eighteen, a piece of skull the size of a sela missing, or 124 bones instead of 125, and they are ordinary bones. (2:7, 2:8)
- A fourth of a kav is the threshold for the shelter. Where there is no backbone, skull, majority of structure or majority of number, a fourth of a kav of bones conveys impurity like an entire corpse by touch, by carrying and through a shelter; less than a fourth of a kav, down to a bone the size of a barley corn, conveys impurity by touch and carrying and not through a shelter. Rekev, bones decomposed in the grave, conveys at two handfuls by carrying and shelter but never by touch. (2:9, 2:11)
- Blood, and the structures around the grave. A revi'it of a corpse's blood conveys impurity like the corpse itself, since Scripture speaks of the soul of a man and elsewhere says the blood is the soul, while blood from a living person is pure. A grave conveys by touch and shelter, and so, by Rabbinic law, do the gollel that covers the corpse and the dofek that supports it, though whatever supports the dofek is pure. A plowed field holding lost bones is a beit hapras, and its earth, like the earth of the Diaspora, is impure by touch and carrying. (2:12, 2:13, 2:15, 2:16)
RememberThe chapter keeps asking, at every smaller scale, whether this is still a person, and down to a barley corn it keeps answering yes.