Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

Aramaic Literature - Part 17 - The Mishnah

To begin with a follow-up to last week’s column, there are two books that are both informative and entertaining regarding the Black Plague. The first is Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror. It is a history of the fourteenth century, and as such contains a fair amount of discussion concerning the outbreaks of the plague that devastated Europe in the latter half of the fourteenth century, The second, John Kelly’s The Great Mortality, focuses on the plague itself, tracing the movement of the disease from its beginnings in the Far East to its end in Scandinavia. The death estimates vary, but on average the plague probably killed 30% to 40% of all Europeans, and it was centuries before the European population once again achieved pre-plague levels.

Following the Tohoroth section of the division Tohoroth is the treatise Mikwaoth (immersion pools). Literally the word means “gathering places” from the word miqweh “and the waters that were gathered together he called seas” (Genesis 1:10). These are the “baths” of “baptismal pools” that receive so much attention in modern discussions of Jewish baptism rituals and the development of Christian baptism. According to this treatise, there are six grades of pools. Ranking from least to most efficacious, they are: 1) ponds containing less than forty seahs of water (approximately 60 gallons); 2) rain-ponds while it is still raining; 3) ponds that contain forty seahs or more of water; 4) a well the water level of which is increased by drawn water; 5) “smitten water” that is, “water that is salty or from a hot spring (Danby, p. 733, n. 9); and 6) living waters, that is a flowing stream. These pools or streams were used for washing in order to render the unclean clean (see again the cleansing rituals in Leviticus 12-15. If is determined that there was insufficient water in the pool, then the cleansing ritual was determined to be inadequate, and had to be repeated. These pools may also be rendered unclean by the admission of certain items into the pool, or touching the water that entered the pool.

All seas qualify as mikwaoth on the basis of Genesis 1:10. In addition, “if a wave was sundered [from the face of the sea] and contained forty seahs and it fell upon a man or upon vessels [that were unclean], they become clean” (5.6). In addition, the land of Israel is considered clean, and its pools are considered clean. This of course reflects the situation when many Jews were living outside the bounds of Israel. Thus a trip to Israel and an immersing in a pool there would certainly be sufficient to render one clean.

It was also necessary for there to be nothing between the body and the water for the immersion to be valid (Danby, p. 742, n. 5). Interestingly, a woman’s pubic hair was considered to interpose between the water and the body, as was the hair of a man’s beard (9.2), but a man’s pubic hair did not (9.3), though this latter was a somewhat disputed point.

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