KEEPING THE ENVIRONMENT PURE
The Torah’s religion focuses on nourishing the divine
presence, providing an environment worthy of God. In order to establish and
maintain a holy environment the Israelites had to do two general, yet multifaceted
tasks: keep the atmosphere free of impurity and keep the laws of God.
Holy shall you be for holy am I, the Lord your God.
--LEV. 19.2
For the Torah God is more than an idea or
spirit; God is a physical, though largely invisible presence. In
the Garden of Eden, God’s afternoon stroll startled the main and woman by its rustling
(Gen. 3.8). In Genesis 18, God and two of his messengers, or angels, visited
Abraham in human guise. God’s locus could be seen in the wilderness and in the mishkan
by the glowing aura or cloud that enveloped it. When the Israelites freshly
completed and consecrated the mishkan, this is how the Torah describes
the scene:
The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the aura of
the Lord filled the mishkan. Moses was not able to enter the tent of
meeting for there resided [shakan] upon it the cloud, and the aura of
the Lord filled the mishkan. Upon the rising of the cloud off the mishkan,
the Israelites journey, in all their journeys. But if the cloud does not rise,
the Israelites do not journey, until the day of its rising. For the cloud of
the Lord is upon the mishkan by day, and fire is by night upon it,
before the eyes of all the House of Israel, in all their journeys.
--EXOD. 40.34-38
God’s substance is pure, but his purity is sensitive to
invisible pollutants in the environment. God will always withdraw, as in an
allergic reaction, when too many pollutants are drawn too near. Animals brought
into the mishkan and the people who enter it must be examined for purity
by the priests. Some animals are flawed or tainted—impure—by nature, and human
beings can become tainted, requiring rites of purification. The concern for
purity surrounding God dominates chapters 11-15 of Leviticus, which delineate
the various sources of ritual pollution and their antidotes through acts of
purification. (Edward L. Greenstein, “Biblical Law,” in Back to the Sources:
Reading the Classic Jewish Texts, ed. Barry W. Holtz [New York: Summit
Books, 1994], 90, emphasis in bold added)