💾 Archived View for scholasticdiversity.us.to › scriptures › jewish › t › Ramban%20on%20Numbers%2019… captured on 2024-07-09 at 03:22:15. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
14 [1] WHEN A MAN DIETH IN A TENT. The meaning thereof is: “When a man dies, and he is now [lying] in a tent” [even though he may have died outside the tent and was later on brought in]; or it may be that Scripture speaks about the usual circumstances [and people usually die inside a building], but the same law applies if he died outside and they brought him into the tent. *All that come into the tent and all that is in the tent* — this includes the vessels therein and the tent itself, as He said [further on], *and he shall sprinkle upon the tent and upon all the vessels and upon the persons that were there*. Scripture mentions *the tent* in order to let us know that the tent itself is rendered unclean for seven days, and [in order to become clean again] requires sprinkling [with the waters of purification]. Furthermore, the Israelites were tent-dwellers in the wilderness and Scripture spoke of the usual [circumstances at that time], because the commandment applied [both] immediately and for later generations; but the same law applies to a house and to everything that “covers” [a corpse], namely that they convey uncleanness to all the vessels and persons that are there, except that a house which is [permanently] attached to the ground cannot itself become impure [unlike a tent which is also defiled].
Now Scripture stated [that] a corpse [conveys] impurity by contact and by an *‘ohel,’* but does not mention [that it also conveys impurity to the person who] carries it. Our Rabbis, however, deduced it by a *kal vachomer* from [the law of] a dead animal, and have included it in [the law of] uncleanness of seven days, just like [one who] touches [a corpse]. This is also in accordance with the plain meaning of Scripture, for He mentioned in the case of one who dies [of his own accord] or was killed that he who touches him becomes unclean for seven days, and [requires] sprinkling [with the waters of purification]; and it is already known that [the word] “touching” in the Torah refers to actual personal contact, and to contact through another object, that is, by carrying it [in which case he is “touching” the object carried by means of the intervening object].
Version: Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976
Source: https://www.nli.org.il/he/books/NNL_ALEPH002108945/NLI
License: CC-BY