[Avodah] Noach and Lashon T'horah

[saul mashbaum]

I wrote:
To this we may add the process of the para adumah; in order to effect this tahara, the Kohen himself had to become tamei.I think that the haskafic implications of the fact that the Kohen had to defile himself in a minor way in order to effect a major purification of many people is obvious. 


RMBluke:

>>
This is actually a common fallacy that most people believe but is not true. Although the pasuk says "umazeh mei hanida yechabes begadav" seemingly saying that the Kohen who sprinkles becomes Tamei, Rashi there quotes the Gemara in Nidda that the Kohen who is Mazeh is actually tahor and only the nosey (the one who carries it) becomes tamei. In other words, the Kohen who performs the Tahara process on the person who is tamei does NOT himself become tamei. 
>>

RMBluke is correct: the person who sprinkles the mei chatat does not himself become tamei. My above observation that to effect tahara someone must himself become tamei is correctly connected to the one who *burns* the para adumah and prepares the ashes, not the one who sprinkles the water; note that I wrote "in order to effect this tahara, the Kohen himself had to become tamei" without specifying *which* Kohen. With this clarification, my statement stands.

Regarding the nosey who becomes tamei, as indicated in the gamara which appears in Yoma 14a as well as Nidda 9a, it is of interest that the Rambam in Para Adumah 15:1 stipulates that this applies only to one who carries the mei chatat *unnecessarily*, not for the purpose of hazaa; a nosey mei chatat in the course of the tahara process is not tamei. See the Kesef Mishna there who says that the Rambam derives this from the Tosefta, and mentions that the Rambam also so writes in Peirush HaMishnayot to Keilim 1:2. 

Saul Mashbaum