Take the Levites . . . and
purify them. If there is no biblical theology of original sin, there is, at
least among the Priestly writers, a technology to deal with original impurity.
The dangerous inner zone of the sanctuary can be entered only when a person has
undergone an elaborate sequence of acts to rid himself of the impurity that is
intrinsic to profane life: thus the Levites must be sprinkled with expiation
water, have their body hair shaven, their garments washed, and a special
sacrifice intended to remove even inadvertent offense (ḥata’t) offered up for them. (Robert
Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
2019], 1:504)
