This is Thy Hour, O Soul!

This graded impurity of the sanctuary and its purgation leads to the second principle: A sin committed anywhere will generate impurity that, becoming airborne, penetrates the sanctuary in proportion to its magnitude. Israel's neighbors also believed that impurity polluted the sanctuary. For them, however, the source of impurity was demonic. Therefore, their priests devised rituals and incantations to immunize their temples against demonic penetration. Israel, however, in the wake of its monotheistic revolution, abolished the world of demonic divinities. Only a single being capable of demonic acts remained-the human being. The humans were even more powerful than their pagan counterparts: they could drive God out of God's sanctuary.

And G-d spoke to Moses, saying: ... A woman who shall seed and give birth (Leviticus 12:1-2) Rabbi Simlai said: Just as man's creation was after that of cattle, beasts and birds, so, too the laws concerning his [ritual impurity and purity] come after those concerning [the impurity and purity of] cattle, beasts and birds. Thus it is what is written (Leviticus 11:46-47), "This is the law of the beasts and of the fowl and of every living creature... to differentiate between the impure and the pure"; and immediately thereafter, "A woman who shall seed..." Why was man created last among the creations? So that if he is not meritorious, we say to him: "A gnat preceded you, a snail preceded you." (Midrash Rabbah; Rashi)

Why did the Israelites eagerly bring their animals to the sanctuary to be offered on the altar to God? Early in the history of the ancient Near East the belief prevailed that the sacrifice was food for the worshiped god. This premise is imprinted on the architecture of the tabernacle, Israel's earliest sanctuary (fig. 2). The outer shrine was God's private dining room. The candelabrum (menorah) provided light; the incense altar, aroma; the bread loaves on the display table, the laden dining table. The innermost (most holy) room was God's resting place. It contained the ark (God's footstool) flanked by two winged seraphim (God's steeds) representing God's flying throne. The throne, however, was unoccupied by an image. The tabernacle represented the people's belief that the sacrifices might bring God to visit his earthly home to respond to the prayers of his people

Despite all of the changes that are manifested in the evolution of Israel's impurity laws, the objective remains the same: to sever impurity from the demonic and to reinterpret it as a symbolic system reminding Israel of the divine imperative to reject death and choose life.

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