page_title: Ritual purification
section_title: Judaism
hierarchical_section_title: Ritual purification / Judaism
caption_attribution_description: English: Staircase found in the Gamla ruin (Golan Heights)
context_page_description: Ritual purification is the ritual prescribed by a religion by which a person is considered to be free of uncleanliness, especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification may also apply to objects and places. Ritual uncleanliness is not identical with ordinary physical impurity, such as dirt stains; nevertheless, body fluids are generally considered ritually unclean.
  Most of these rituals existed long before the germ theory of disease, and figure prominently from the earliest known religious systems of the Ancient Near East. Some writers connect the rituals to taboos.
  Some have seen benefits of these practices as a point of health and preventing infections especially in areas where humans come in close contact with each other. While these practices came before the idea of the germ theory was public in areas that use daily cleaning, the destruction of infectious agents seems to be dramatic. Others have described a 'dimension of purity' that is universal in religions that seeks to move us away from disgust, and to uplift us towards purity and divinity.
context_section_description: The Hebrew Bible mentions a number of situations when ritual purification is required, including during menstruation, following childbirth (postpartum), sexual relations, nocturnal emission, unusual bodily fluids, skin disease, death (corpse uncleanness), and animal sacrifices. The oral law specifies other situations when ritual purification is required, such as after performing excretory functions, meals, and waking. The purification ritual is generally a form of water-based ritual washing in Judaism for removal of any ritual impurity, sometimes requiring just washing of the hands, and at other times requiring full immersion; the oral law requires the use of un-drawn water for any ritual full immersion - either a natural river/stream/spring, or a special bath (a Mikvah) which contains rain-water.
  These regulations were variously observed by the ancient Israelites; contemporary Orthodox Jews and (with some modifications and additional leniencies) some Conservative Jews continue to observe the regulations, except for those tied to sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem, as the Temple no longer fully exists. These groups continue to observe many of the hand-washing rituals. Of those connected with full ritual immersion, perhaps the quintessential immersion rituals still carried out are those related to nidda, according to which a menstruating woman must avoid physical contact with her husband, especially avoiding sexual contact, and may only resume contact after she has first immersed herself fully in a mikvah of living water seven days after her menstruation has ceased.
  In December 2006, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of Conservative Judaism re-affirmed the traditional requirement that Conservative women ritually immerse following menstruation. In doing so, it adopted multiple opinions regarding details, including an opinion re-affirming traditional (Orthodox) practices and concepts, an opinion adapting certain leniencies, including counting seven days from start of menstruation, rather than its end, and an opinion re-formulating the theological basis of the practice, basing it on concepts other than ritual purity. See the Niddah article for details. Classical ritual immersion and associated requirements are generally not observed by Reform Judaism or Reconstructionist Judaism, with the exception that both generally include immersion as part of the ritual for Conversion to Judaism, although Reform Judaism does not require it.
  Tumat HaMet ("The impurity of death"), coming into contact with a human corpse, is considered the ultimate impurity, one which cannot be purified through the waters of the mikvah alone. Tumat HaMet required an additional purification process through sprinkling of the ashes of the Parah Adumah, the Red Heifer. However, the law is considered  inactive to a great degree, since neither the Temple in Jerusalem nor the red heifer is currently in existence, though without the latter, a Jew is forbidden to ascend to the site of the former. One of the main current implications of Tumat HaMet is the  prohibition to cause impurity to foods that are holy according to Jewish law, such as terumah in the Land of Israel. Meaning that one is forbidden to touch such terumah unless one of two criteria are met: the food is dry and was never wetted with water or another of the seven liquids. the food had previously been wetted and touched by an impure Jew before or after it was imbued with the holiness of terumah. Regardless, it is regarded as forbidden today for any person to eat trumah, in part as a consequence of the widespread prevalence of Tumat HaMet. All are currently assumed to possess the impurity of death. However, someone who is a Kohen, one of the priestly class, is not allowed to intentionally come into contact with a dead body, nor approach too closely to graves within a Jewish cemetery.
  Purification was required in the nation of Israel during Biblical times for the ceremonially unclean so that they would not defile God's tabernacle and put themselves in a position to be cut off from Israel. An Isr
caption: Ancient ablution pool (mikvah) unearthed at Gamla
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