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  3. Ritual and Morality
  • Cited by 17
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      24 November 2009
      15 July 1999
      ISBN:
      9780511582707
      9780521495400
      9780521093651
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511582707
      Dimensions:
      (216 x 138 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.4kg, 246 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (216 x 140 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.32kg, 244 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Judaism, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Religion, Anthropology
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    Subjects:
    Judaism, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Religion, Anthropology
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    Book description

    The book describes in detail the ritual purity system of the Hebrew Bible, and its development into the system of the rabbis. Certain human conditions require purification before contact is made with holy foods or areas. Recent scholarly theories (Milgrom, Neusner, Douglas) are discussed, and new theories are proposed for the origin of the Red Cow and Scapegoat rites. It is argued that the impurities concerned all derive from the human cycle of generation, birth and death, from which the Sanctuary is to be guarded; not because it needs protection from demonic powers (as in other ancient purity systems), but because of the reverence due to the divine presence. While the priestly code of holiness displays traces of earlier conceptions, its ritual has lost urgent salvific force, and has become a protocol for the Temple and a dedicatory code for a priestly people; the sources distinguish it from universal morality.

    Reviews

    Review of the hardback:‘There is no doubt in my mind that it will replace all other treatments on the subject.’

    Professor Jacob Milgrom

    Review of the hardback:‘This concise, tightly-argued volume … makes important contributions to contemporary discussions of the motivations and significance of both the biblical and the rabbinic ritual purity systems.’

    Christine Hayes Source: The Jewish Quarterly Review

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