Polluted
a person who touches any such shall be unclean until evening, and shall not eat of the holy gifts unless he has bathed his body in water. Leviticus 22:6
Until – Eve Levavi Feinstein points out that the biblical idea of pollution (ritual and moral) is quite similar to our present idea of environmental pollution. She writes: “the quality described by the Hebrew word tum’ah was as real to the biblical authors as environmental pollution is to many of us. . .”[1] What she means is that it exists as a real, even if unseen, entity, and, if left unattended to, will eventually infect that land and all who live in it. Tum’ah is not simply an imaginary religious concept, a product of an over-zealous theological mind. It is as real as the bacteria in the water, the mercury levels in the ocean, and the CO2 in our air. Restoring God’s kingdom is not just about living a morally clean life. It is also about cleaning the world. Morality doesn’t stop when you leave the bedroom.
Notice that the infection of impurity is communicable and reversible. In ancient Israel, pollution was as real as measles—infectious and dangerous—but treatable. The results could be undone with the proper steps. It’s unlikely that you and I follow those steps when we experience ordinary bodily functions (unless, of course, you and I are being strictly Torah observant), but the communicable and disastrous elements are the same for us as they were for the ancient Israelites. We live with seen and unseen pollution. It can be reversed, but if we don’t recognize it as impurity in both the natural and religious sense, we may become victims even if we were not participants. Doesn’t God’s principle concerning the possible pollution of priests also equally apply to each one who occupies the planet? There is no escape from the detritus of human life, but there is renewal—if we pay attention.
Environmentalists point out that 5000 people die every day from contaminated water. That 1 billion people on the plant do not have access to clean drinking water. That 14 billion pounds of garbage is dumped into the ocean every year. That 1 million seabirds and 100 million mammals die from pollution every year. That the Mississippi River dumps 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen (mostly from fertilizers) into the Gulf of Mexico each year. That more than 3 million children under the age of 5 die every year from pollution. That there are more than 73 kinds of pesticides in our drinking water. That in India, the Ganges water is gradually becoming septic, especially due to the dumping of half burnt dead bodies and enshrouded babies. That the tsunami in Japan during the year 2011, created debris of 70 miles, which consists of cars, plastic, dead bodies and radioactive waste—and is now landing on Pacific coastlines in the Americas. The list could go on. You weren’t a participant, but you are a victim. And just like the unseen pollution of ancient Israel, your land will suffer until the pollution is treated—naturally and religiously.
“Until” is the Hebrew word ʿad. There is a time frame for pollution repair. This word is also translated “to all eternity,” and “world without end.” Let us hope that “until” doesn’t mean this in our world. But it could.
Topical Index: until, ʿad, pollution, Leviticus 22:6
[1] Eve Levavi Feinstein, Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 10.
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