[Avodah] levels/gates of tuma?

[Ben Bradley]

'R Yaakov Haber (Ramat Bet Shemesh) notes that sha'ar doesn't mean level
and therefore "everyone" misunderstands the medrash by not just taking
it at face value.

RYH notes that this explains why the omer is ony 49 days to get from the
49 sha'arei tum'ah to 49 sha'arei qedushah and Matan Torah. If these were
indeed levels, then getting from -49 to +49 would require 98 or 99 days
(depending on whether there is a level 0).'


At the risk of being too baale batische perhaps a simpler explanation would suffice for this question. Kedusha is not the opposite of tuma, tahara is.  Tumah comes in different types - tumas meis, tumas metzora, tumas nida etc etc, and different levels - avi avos hatuma down to revi'i l'tuma for mei chatas. Tahara has no levels. You're either tahor or you're not, because tahara means absence of tuma, being back at the natural born state.
OTOH Kedusha and tuma can exist simultaneously eg a shechted kodshim animal can become tamei, but it stays kadosh.

Ok, midrabanon there's such thing as al taharas chulin, al taharas hakodesh, but that's a technical issue in tevila, not essential to tahara.

To put it another way Tahara is a prerequisite for becoming kadosh. Viz. tevilas nashim as a good example.
The earliest references I've seen don't say that bnei yisrael had to get to the 49th gate/level of kedusha (although maybe the Ari says otherwise?) They had to be at a state they could receive the Torah. Being rid of the tuma and thereby being tahor may have been the aim. The Torah then made then kadosh.
So 49 days of removing tuma would have been sufficient.
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