The Affirmation of Life
The law of family purity also has a profound symbolic meaning, revealed when it is viewed in terms of the laws of “purity” and “impurity.”
It has already been mentioned above that the concepts of “purity” and “impurity” must not be confused with concepts of hygiene, since the former are spiritual concepts and have nothing to do with physical attractiveness or unattractiveness. The body of laws and regulations governing “purity” and “impurity” is among the most difficult and complex in the entire Talmud. Different kinds of “impurity” arise in different situations. However, whatever the causes of “impurity” or the duration of the period of “impurity,” whatever the laws prohibiting the eating of sacrificial meat or entering the Temple, every state of “impurity” finds its resolution in purification, and in each case a person returns to a state of “purity” in the appropriate way.
An essential element common to every process of purification is immersion in a mikveh, the culmination of the entire process.
What is the common principle that unites the different forms of “impurity,” and how does a mikveh annul “impurity,” returning a person to a state of “purity”?
The Whisper of Death
The answer to this question touches the very heart of Judaism and its attitude toward human life and its values; it makes us reflect once again on the essence of the law of family purity.
The Torah is a teaching of life. The Torah commanded reverence for life long before Albert Schweitzer began preaching this principle. “It is a tree of life to those who hold fast to it” (Proverbs 3:18) is said of the Torah. The Torah itself defines the meaning of the commandments by declaring: “And live by observing them” (Vayikra 18:5), and our Sages add: “live, and not die” (Sanhedrin 74a).
The first man was permitted to eat only fruit and vegetables and was forbidden to eat meat.
Only much later, after the Flood, did the Lord permit human beings to eat meat. The vegetarianism of earliest times vividly expresses Judaism's attitude toward the sanctity of life. While the priests of ancient Egypt (the country from which our people emerged after a long sojourn in a foreign land) devoted their lives to serving death—they staffed a kind of ritual funeral home—the priesthood of Israel sanctified life. A kohen (priest) is forbidden any contact with the dead, except for seven categories of close family members; he may not become impure by touching a dead person or even be under the same roof as one. To preserve or save a life, a Jew is permitted to transgress all the Torah's commandments, with the exception of three sins. The three sins about which it is said, “Die, but do not transgress!” are murder, idolatry, and “gilui arayot” (incest and sexual immorality).
The Torah undoubtedly regards life as one of the greatest values.
An analysis of the different kinds of “impurity” reveals what unites them: contact or a connection with death. The greatest “impurity” results from contact with a corpse or part of one. But other kinds of “impurity” are also connected with death, directly or indirectly. Leprosy, for example, is a form of “impurity”; it is a disease involving the gradual degeneration and death of parts of the body (see Bamidbar 12:12), and our Sages therefore teach that a leper is like a dead person. Someone with a bodily discharge is also impure, because an involuntary discharge of semen is a loss of potential life. If, however, the discharge is pus, such a condition undoubtedly also adversely affects the male reproductive organ—the source of life. This is also true of a woman during her period of “impurity,” because during this time she loses an egg that has not yet been fertilized, and this loss of potential life, this whisper of death, brings her into a state of “impurity.” Similarly, during childbirth a woman expels from her body an organism that is alive or was once alive, and she is therefore regarded as “impure.”
Water—the Flame of Life
“Taharah” (purification) is the opposite of the process of entering the state called “tumah” (“impurity”), and if “impurity” signifies death, then “purity” signifies life. The clearest evidence of this is the water of the mikveh, a symbol of the affirmation of life, for water is the most compelling symbol of life. “And the spirit of God hovers over the face of the waters” (Bereishit 1:2). Clear, pure waters are called “mayim chayim” in Hebrew—“living water.” The Torah teaches that waters covered the entire universe until the Creator separated the waters (Bereishit).
Life cannot exist without water. “Water truly is the source of life, not only for past generations, but here and now as well” (Sylvia Scapa, “What Is Water?”). All organic life, from protoplasm to human beings, is essentially water. A human embryo is 97% water, and an adult human is 60% water.
As a person ages, the amount of water in their body decreases, “as though water content were a measure of a person's vitality. It seems as though the flame of life is sustained by water” (L. V. Wolf, “Body Water”).
When an astronomer looks at a distant star and wonders whether there is life there, the first thing that interests him is whether its atmosphere contains water vapor. If it is indeed present, then life on that star is possible. Freudian psychologists consider the ocean or water that appears in a person's dreams or in myths a symbol of life—after all, a person is born from a vessel full of water, namely the placenta, which is filled with amniotic fluid.
It is therefore unsurprising that in the Shemoneh Esrei prayer we bless God for giving us rain, saying these words alongside the blessing about the resurrection of the dead. After drinking water, we recite the blessing: “…to give life to the soul of every living being…” Water, more than anything else, is essential to life, and it symbolizes life.
A member of another nation who decides to enter the covenant of our forefather Abraham, that is, to convert to Judaism, must immerse in a mikveh, because he is considered as though he has been born anew, like an infant who has just come into the world, and the idea of being born into a new life is emphasized by immersion in the waters of the mikveh. Immersion in the mikveh has brought about the birth of a new Jew. Thus the waters that symbolize life annul “impurity,” which is nothing other than the “whisper of death.”
In light of this symbolism, we can also understand the requirements for a mikveh.
Its water must be natural, such as well water or rainwater, rather than water drawn into vessels or drawn using a pump. What is the difference? This question has troubled people since ancient times. Yet in light of what has been said above, we can now understand the meaning of this distinction. By emphasizing that the water of a mikveh must be natural, we recognize that the Creator alone is the source of life, and that we turn to Him alone to ask that He grant life to us and our descendants. Human beings are not the rulers of life or the masters of their own destinies. Water that is drawn or pumped, water obtained by artificial means, does not purify, because it lacks the purifying power found in living water. Life comes from God.