[Avodah] Tahara

[Micha Berger]

The mishnah, Shabbos 23:5 and Semchos 1:1-3, as well as R' Yochanan and
Reish Laqish in Vayira Rabba 34:10, all assume meisim are to be washed
before qevurah. Similarly the Rambam (Aveilus 4:1). Seifer haChasidim 5:16
says that just as one is bathed when they enter the world, they are bathed
when they leave it. As in Qoheles (5:14), "kol umas sheba kein eileikh".

But that's all hadachah / reshitzah.

When did rechitzas hameis evolve into what we call today a
taharah? Nothing is becoming tahor, and yet we use a miqvah or a flow
of 9 qav of water. We are not just calling it "taharah", taharah defines
the matbeiah we're using. Also miqvah and 9 qav are metaharim different
kinds of tum'ah; I don't know a case of real taharah where a person who
doesn't have the ability to do one can become tahor through the other.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I have great faith in optimism as a philosophy,
micha at aishdas.org        if only because it offers us the opportunity of
http://www.aishdas.org   self-fulfilling prophecy.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                              - Arthur C. Clarke