Life and death, sex and God : can the wisdom of ancient purity laws be relevant to the Church today?

Abstract

For any discourse on ancient purity to be of any use today, it should be turned on its head. Nowhere can it be more evident that ritual laws speak of ritual purity, not (or not always) moral purity, than in two “leftovers”: one in Judaism, the other in Latin Catholicism. In Jewish traditions, when the rabbis were discussing what we would call canonicity, it is the canonical book that “soils (or defiles) the hands” as appears in the discussion on the Song of Songs and Qoheleth, and tradition requires the washing of hands both before and after touching of the Bible for reading. The Talmud understands, quite unironically, that the books defile the hands because they are sacred. It is therefore not merely a question of respect for the sacred book – which could explain cleansing before, but something that goes beyond as clear from the cleansing after the reading. [extract]