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Ritual Purity Laws of Judaism, Table of Contents

 

 

Laws of Religion

Laws of Judaism

Concerning Ritual Purity and Cleanliness

 

2.  General Considerations – Ritual Purity and Impurity

from the Biblical Books of Moses (Torah)

and the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah)

 

 

General Considerations – Ritual Purity and Impurity

From the Biblical Books of Moses (Torah)

 

Among the ways a person becomes ritually impure are touching a corpse,[1] having signs of leprosy,[2] emission of semen,[3] bodily discharge,[4] menstruation or other prolonged vaginal bleeding[5] and childbirth.[6] Touching human impurity also makes a person impure, but only when the person realizes he has done so.[7]

 

Remedies for a person’s being ritually impure include bathing,[8] washing one’s clothes[9] and waiting until evening.[10]  A person who became impure by touching someone or something impure was required to confess and make a sacrificial offering to a priest to gain forgiveness for the sin.[11] After a battle, the metal things taken from the enemy that could withstand fire were to be put through fire and then purified with water. Everything else was to be purified only with water.[12]

 

Both pure and impure persons may eat meat.[13]

 

The priestly descendants of Aaron were required to be pure when they were near the hallowed things or ate the holy offerings – heave offerings, wave offerings, oil, new wine, grain and first fruits. (Editor’s note: Heave offerings, etc., are described on the page Laws of Judaism Concerning Food – 14. Offerings of Food). If a priest was made impure by leprosy, by a bodily discharge, by a corpse, by an emission of semen or by touching a creeping thing that makes a person impure, then he could only eat the holy offerings if he washed his body and waited until sunset.[14] Similarly, three days before revealing himself to all the Israelites at Mount Sinai, the Lord instructed Moses to have the people purify themselves by washing their clothes and staying away from their wives.[15]

 

Only a ritually pure person was permitted to eat a peace offering sacrifice. If an impure person, specifically someone who had touched something impure such as an unclean animal or human impurity, ate a peace offering, he would be cut off from his people.[16] A person who was impure due to touching a human corpse would defile the Tabernacle (and, later, the Temple in Jerusalem) and would be cut off from his people.[17] If meat that was presented as a sacrifice for a peace offering touched anything impure, it was required to be burned and not eaten.[18]

 

The Lord told the Israelites to follow his commandments, but not to add anything to them or remove anything from them.[19]

 

General Considerations – Ritual Purity and Impurity

Jewish Law (Halakha) from the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah)

 

Contents

 

Overview

 

Sources of Impurity

 

Useful Objects Susceptible to Impurity

 

Consequences of Ritual Impurity

 

Types of Punishment for Transgressions

 

Removing Ritual Impurity by Immersion

 

Modifying the laws

 

 

Overview (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah).  Maimonides says that all the rules concerning what is ritually pure and what is ritually impure apply only in relation to the Temple in Jerusalem (which was destroyed in the year 70 A.D.) and the Hallowed Things within the Temple and to the heave offering and second tithe. Eating and drinking ordinary foods that are ritually impure are completely permissible.[20] It is permitted to touch impure things and thereby become impure.[21]

 

(Editor's note: As stated by Maimonides’ text summarized in the previous paragraph, the Biblical prohibitions and purification requirements that fall upon those who are impure do not apply today. However, certain specific practices derived from the laws of ritual purity are still followed. For example, descendants through the male line of Aaron (the priests) still avoid proximity to corpses.[22] Sexual intercourse is not performed with a menstruating woman (niddah) until the purification ritual of immersion in a pool of water (mikveh) is completed after the menstrual period.[23] Washing one's hands is performed before and after eating foods for which a blessing is required.[24] Also tableware of metal or glass that is purchased from a non-Jew will still be ritually immersed before being used for eating or drinking.[25] Of course, these rules are followed only by those Jews who still maintain strict observance of the traditional laws, which is now a small minority among all Jews.)

 

All Jews are now considered to be ritually impure. One type of ritual impurity, namely, corpse impurity, can no longer be purified[26] since the Temple (in Jerusalem) is no longer standing and thus the ashes of the red heifer, essential for removing corpse impurity, cannot be obtained. The ritual to produce the ashes of the red heifer needed to lift corpse impurity has not been conducted since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and, according to Maimonides, will not be conducted again until the coming of the Messiah.[27]

 

Purity and impurity do not refer to soil or filth. Rather, these are conditions that are based on the laws of Scripture and a person’s intent.[28] In fact, in many cases, washing one’s hands or immersing one’s body in water will not make a person pure for all purposes unless the act is accompanied by the intention to become pure.[29] Similarly, a food can only become impure if it is first made wet by one of seven specified liquids – water, dew, oil, wine, milk, blood or honey – and susceptibility to becoming impure occurs only if the wetting of the food happens with the approval of the owner.[30]

 

 

Sources of Impurity (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). Certain ritually impure things are Fathers of Impurity. Impurity is transferred from any Father of Impurity in various ways, including by contact with a person, garment or useful object susceptible to impurity.[31] Fathers of Impurity include: a person or a useful object that has been made impure by a corpse;[32] a person,[33] garment[34] or house[35] with leprosy; a man or woman with irregular genital flows; a menstruating woman; a woman following childbirth; a couch, seat, or saddle in which any of these last three have sat;[36] flesh of a dead animal (one not properly ritually slaughtered);[37] a creeping thing;[38] the semen of a Jew;[39] and idols, their accessories, and wine libations and offerings made to them.[40] Impurity is also transferred to, and by, liquids such as urine and spittle that come from a person who transfers impurity to others, including a person who has consumed impure food or liquid.[41]

 

The only living people who can be ritually impure are Jews; living non-Jews, like cattle, cannot be impure.[42] However, the Sages decreed that all non-Jews transfer impurity like a Jewish man with irregular genital flows, who is a Father of Impurity. Therefore, all non-Jews as well as their menstrual blood, blood resulting from childbirth, irregular genital flows, spittle, urine and objects they lie or ride upon as well as anyone who has had sexual intercourse with a female non-Jew are Fathers of Impurity and transmit impurity to other people and useful objects. However, the semen of a non-Jew is pure and does not transmit impurity.[43]

 

Following the transfer of impurity, an Offspring of Impurity only transfers impurity further to food and liquids, not to any other thing or to a person.[44] Maimonides explains the detailed rules concerning when impurity is transferred and when it is not. For example, a person who is touching or has touched something that transfers impurity by touching but not if it is carried will transfer impurity to food that he touches but not to his clothing or to other people.[45] However, if a person is touching or carrying something that transfers impurity both by touching and by being carried, his clothing becomes impure as well as any food that he touches.  But when the person is no longer in contact or carrying the item making him impure, he transfers impurity to food but not to clothing that he touches.[46]

 

Eating ritually impure food or drinking an impure liquid makes a person impure until he immerses himself.[47] A person who is impure because of eating ritually impure food makes any food or liquid he touches impure. Such a liquid then will make any food or liquid it touches, but not other things, impure.[48]

 

It is assumed that a person's hands are impure and must be washed before he touches heave offering. Heave offering that is touched by unwashed hands must, therefore, be burned.[49] Touching a scroll of Holy Scriptures makes a person's hands impure and such impure hands transfer impurity to heave offering or liquid upon contact. Similarly, if heave offering touches the Holy Scriptures, it becomes impure.[50]

 

 

Useful Objects Susceptible to Impurity (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). Only certain objects (called "utensils" in the Moznaim and Yale translations of the Mishneh Torah) can become impure. These are useful objects made of cloth, sacking, leather, bone, metal, wood, or earthenware.[51] Since all products from the sea are pure, nothing from the sea, including things made of bones of fish or other sea creatures or from cloth woven from any product of the sea, can become impure.[52] Similarly, things made from bones of birds (other than those made of a vulture's wing), cannot become impure[53] and Maimonides expresses the personal opinion that this is also true of things made from the skin of birds.[54] Objects made of animal feces, stone or unfired clay are always pure.[55] Certain wooden things are also not susceptible to impurity, such as those that are flat[56] and wooden chests above a certain specified size.[57]

 

Only objects that have been completely constructed for use can become impure; unfinished objects are always pure.[58] If an object breaks when in an impure state it becomes pure because it has lost its structure and usefulness.[59]

 

Some examples of useful objects that can become impure include knives, scissors, kettles, cupboards,[60] swords, knives,[61] keys,[62] needles,[63] stools, objects with a receptacle for holding other items, objects intended for lying or riding upon,[64] baskets,[65] musical instruments,[66] belts,[67] shoes,[68] jewelry[69] and cloth garments or any piece of cloth measuring at least three handbreaths square.[70] These are just examples and there are many, often complex, rules that affect when these and other useful objects are susceptible to impurity.[71]

 

Tableware of metal or glass that is purchased from a non-Jew must be immersed before being used for eating or drinking.[72] (Editor's note: This is one of the laws relating to ritual purity that is still observed in our times.)

 

Earthenware vessels are different from all other useful objects in that they do not become impure by being touched by something, or someone, that is impure. They only become impure by having an impure thing in their internal space or by being moved by a person with irregular genital flows or a woman who is menstruating or has recently given birth. Vessels made of other susceptible materials become impure by contact but not through their internal space without being touched.[73]

 

 

Consequences of Ritual Impurity (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). Any person who was impure and who would make others impure was required to call out that he was impure.[74]

 

It was forbidden to eat heave offering that was impure.[75] A heave offering that was a dry food that had not been made susceptible to impurity could be eaten without washing one's hands.[76] (Susceptibility incurred by wetting is discussed on this page above.) However, dry Hallowed Things were susceptible to becoming impure because of the reverence they deserve, so it was forbidden to touch them with unwashed hands.[77] Hallowed Things in relation to impure foods and liquids means offerings made at the Temple.[78]

 

While heave offering or Hallowed Things that had been made impure had to be burned, Maimonides explains in detail what the procedures were if it was uncertain whether or not heave offering or Hallowed Things had become impure. Depending on the circumstance of the doubt, they had to either be burned or else held in suspense – neither burned nor eaten.[79]

 

A person who was ritually impure was prohibited from the Temple and surrounding areas, with the degree of exclusion depending upon the type of impurity. The most impure people, namely, the lepers, were banished from all of Jerusalem.[80] Those with irregular genital flow (flux) and women who were menstruating or had recently given birth were excluded from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.[81] Others who were impure were not permitted to be in specific areas around and within the Temple. The prohibited areas varied according to the reason for their exclusion: those with corpse impurity, non-Jews, those who had sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman,[82] a person who had immersed himself that same day (but was not yet ritually pure because the sun had not yet set), a person who had immersed and waited until sunset but had not completed a purification ritual necessary for bringing atonement and complete purification.[83]

 

A leper who entered Jerusalem was to be subjected to flogging;[84] if he went on the Temple Mount the flogging was increased to 80 lashes.[85] Those with irregular genital flow and women who were menstruating or had recently given birth who entered the Temple Mount were liable for a flogging since they had violated a negative commandment of the Torah.[86] A person impure due to contact with a human corpse or one who had immersed but not waited for sunset was subject to a flogging for disobedience for entering a place in the Temple area forbidden to him.[87] One whose impurity was based on rabbinic law rather than on Scripture (Torah) and one who consumed impure food or drink before entering the Temple were subject to flogging for disobedience, as was an impure person who put his hand inside the Temple.[88]

 

Those whose impurity necessitated immersion according to the law of Scripture and who intentionally entered certain forbidden parts of the Temple area were also subject to excision (karet – which entails a flogging), while those whose uncleanness resulted from decrees of the Sages did not incur this punishment.[89] However, even though a person who had touched a useful object that had contracted impurity from a corpse, or a person who had touched another person who had touched such an impure useful object, was not subject to (Torah-based) punishment for entering the Temple, he was to be flogged for disobedience to the Oral Law^*. [90] Penalties of excision, flogging and flogging for disobedience were also variously incurred by those who brought into the Temple a creeping thing, an impure person, an impure useful object or impure clothing.[91]

 

A person who was impure due to leprosy[92] or corpse impurity[93] was forbidden from sending an offering for sacrifice in the Temple. However, a person whose impurity was due to a creeping thing, or an uncircumcised man, could send a sacrifice to be offered for him.[94]

 

There is a warning to all Jews against being ritually impure during the three feasts, but no punishment ensues for being impure even on those days.[95] (The three feasts are the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:14-17).)

 

A priest who performed a service in the Temple while ritually impure was subject to the punishment of death at the hand of Heaven, which included a flogging.[96] However, rather than bring such a priest to trial, his fellow priests would take him outside the Temple and split his head open.[97] There were, however, certain circumstances in which priests or others who were impure from a corpse could participate in the offering of sacrifices at the Temple, though those who were impure for other reasons could not.[98]

 

There are a number of other cases in which a priest was forbidden to conduct a service in the Temple.[99] A priest who failed to wash his hands and feet before performing a service in the Temple rendered the sacrifice invalid and incurred the penalty of death at the hand of Heaven.[100] A priest who had ever worshipped another god was permanently forbidden from conducting a service in the Temple.[101] A similar permanent prohibition was placed on any priest who had worshipped the God of Israel in a temple other than the Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.[102]

 

If a priest performed a religious service in the Temple after having consumed more than a specified amount of wine, he was liable for death at the hand of Heaven (which included a flogging) and the service he performed was not valid. If he was intoxicated from something other than wine, then the penalty was flogging. Maimonides expresses the personal opinion that a drunk priest with long hair or torn clothing who entered or departed from the place where the altar was in the Temple would be subject to a flogging even if he had not performed a service.[103]

 

A priest whose hair had not been cut for thirty days or more was also subject to death at the hand of Heaven for performing a service in the Temple.[104] One who was mourning for a relative who died that same day was also forbidden from ministering in the Temple, but was not subject to flogging for doing so.[105] There were many types of bodily blemishes, disfigurements and injuries that made it forbidden for a priest to come near the altar in the Temple or to participate in a service of offering.[106]

 

 

Types of Punishment for Transgressions (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). Maimonides discusses several types of punishment for transgressions of the law: flogging (for Torah transgressions), flogging for disobedience (which could be administered for disobedience only to the rabbinic Oral tradition^*,[107] as opposed to the written Torah), execution ordered by a court, extinction (or excision – karet in Hebrew), death at the hand of heaven and summary execution by a fellow Jew.

 

Flogging (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). According to Maimonides, violation of a negative commandment (“You shall not…”) of the Torah is usually punishable by flogging.[108] Flogging can only be meted out by a court if witnesses testify that the transgressor was warned of the violation and its penalty and then proceeded to perform the forbidden act in knowing disregard of the warning.[109] Thus, if a person commits a forbidden act, the punishment of flogging,[110] cannot be imposed if the accused refused to explicitly acknowledge the warning before committing the prohibited act. However, refusal to acknowledge such a warning is cause for a flogging for disobedience (discussed below).[111]

 

Flogging is still a valid form of punishment at the present time and may be administered anywhere (either within or outside the Land of Israel)[112] Floggings imposed by courts outside the Land of Israel are seen as flogging for disobedience.[113]

 

Flogging is to be performed on bare skin of the chest and back[114] using a lash containing straps of calf and donkey hides,[115] administering as many strokes as the person can bear, but not exceeding thirty-nine for any single transgression.[116]

 

Flogging for disobedience (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). Flogging for disobedience, which can be incurred for violating the Oral Law^*[117] rather than a negative commandment of the Torah, leaves the number of lashes to the discretion of the court.[118] Flogging for disobedience is to be performed on bare skin of the chest and back[119] using a lash containing straps of calf and donkey hides.[120]

 

If a person commits a forbidden act, the punishments of flogging,[121] the flogging of a person subject to extinction (karet – discussed below)[122] or the death penalty[123] cannot be imposed if the accused refused to explicitly acknowledge the warning before committing the prohibited act. However, refusal to acknowledge such a warning is cause for a flogging for disobedience.[124]

 

Death penalty (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). Death penalty cases can only be tried when the Temple (in Jerusalem, which was destroyed in the year 70 A.D.) is standing[125] and when the Sanhedrin (the highest Jewish court) meets there.[126] The Sanhedrin was exiled from the Temple forty years prior to the destruction of the Temple.[127] The reestablishment of the Sanhedrin in the rebuilt Temple, which will permit the restoration of all the laws (including resumption of the death penalty)[128], will occur when King Messiah arrives [129].

 

The death penalty[130] can only be meted out by a court if witnesses testify that the transgressor was warned of the violation and its penalty and then proceeded to perform the forbidden act in knowing disregard of the warning. However, refusal to acknowledge such a warning is cause for a flogging for disobedience.[131]

 

A person who performs an action punishable by the death penalty three times after refusing to acknowledge proper warnings is placed in a cell until he dies.[132]

 

Extinction (karet) and death at the hand of heaven (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). Punishments prescribed for certain transgressions are extinction (also translated as excision, extirpation or a soul being cut off from his people; karet in Hebrew) and death at the hand of heaven, rather than flogging.

 

Punishment by extinction (karet) or by death at the hand of heaven for violating a negative commandment includes flogging.[133] In fact, any further penalty is removed after the flogging of someone being punished by extinction.[134] A second offense of the same type incurs a second flogging. However, upon a third offense of the same type, punishable by extinction, the person is to be confined to a small space in which he cannot lie down, fed only on bread and water to shrink his intestines and then given barley to eat so that his stomach will burst[135] and he dies[136].

 

The flogging of a person subject to extinction (karet) cannot be imposed if the accused refused to explicitly acknowledge the warning before committing the prohibited act.[137] However, refusal to acknowledge such a warning is cause for a flogging for disobedience.[138]

 

A person who performs an action punishable by extinction three times after refusing to acknowledge proper warnings is placed in a cell until he dies.[139]

 

In addition, Maimonides says that those who are subjected to the punishment of extinction (karet) will not have eternal life in the world to come after death, but will die like animals.[140] The eternal life Maimonides is referring to is the life of the soul without the body – so there are no bodily functions like eating or drinking in the world to come.[141] Such eternal life is the highest possible reward[142] and the punishment of a soul being cut off (karet) is the greatest possible punishment.[143] The pleasures of the world to come are not those of physical satisfaction since there are no bodies, so they can only be understood metaphorically by comparison to bodily pleasure. Maimonides specifically criticizes the Arabs (meaning Muslims) as foolish, lewd and decadent with their belief in a reward that includes sensual pleasure after death.[144] (However, elsewhere in the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides states that denying belief in the resurrection of the dead will cause a person to lose his place in the world to come,[145] thus implying that bodies as well as souls can live on after death. Nevertheless, Maimonides’ emphasis in the Mishneh Torah on the eternal life of pure souls without explicitly describing bodily resurrection caused such controversy that Maimonides felt compelled to write a later work explaining in detail his belief in the resurrection of the dead which, for him, is distinct from the eternal life of the pure soul. It is, however, the eternal life of the pure soul that the punishment of extinction, or karet, cuts off.[146])

 

Summary execution (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). It is a worthy act to kill a person who commits a violation for the purpose of demonstrating his disbelief. It is preferable to do this in public using a sword. However, if that is not possible it should be done by other means, such as by removing the ladder upon seeing that the transgressor has descended into a well, claiming that you need the ladder to get your son off a roof, or by carrying out some similar plan.[147]

 

 

Removing Ritual Impurity by Immersion (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). A person who has become ritually impure must immerse himself in water to become pure.[148] (Editor's note: Immersion in a pool of water (mikveh) following the menstrual period is one of the practices concerning ritual purity that is still followed in our time, even though the Temple in Jerusalem is not standing.[149] However, as explained on this page above, immersion does not render anyone ritually pure. Immersion is required in our time as part of the process of conversion to Judaism.[150]) Waiting until sunset is also required to achieve purity following immersion in many cases, including impurity from a corpse, leprosy, irregular genital flow or touching a dead creeping thing.[151] In certain cases, a person who is impure because of a ruling of the Scribes rather than one set out in the Torah becomes pure upon immersion and does not need to wait until sunset.[152]

 

Any person or object can only become purified of ritual impurity through immersion in water.[153] Things which cannot become pure by immersion include earthenware and glass vessels[154] and matting.[155] Furthermore, as explained on this page above, immersion does not suffice to purify a person with corpse impurity; it is also necessary to sprinkle such a person with water containing the ashes of a red heifer.[156]

 

Total immersion in water is required for any impure person to become pure.[157] A person should undergo immersion naked and all hair must be immersed. However, if the person is wearing clothes, the immersion is still effective.[158]

 

The water used for immersion must have come together on the ground.[159] Water that has been drawn will not remove ritual impurity.[160] There is a hierarchy of types of bodies of water which have varying degrees of effectiveness.[161] The highest grade is a flowing stream, which is the only type of water that can lift the impurity of a person with irregular genital flows, a menstruating woman or one who has recently given birth.  It is also the only type of water that, when removed, is effective on lepers and can be used to make water of purification (with the ashes of the red heifer, as described on the following page on Corpse Impurity.)[162]

 

Intention determines the degree of purity obtained by immersion, according to the hierarchy of activities that require ritual purity. The order is, from lowest requirement to the highest: (1) eating ordinary food, (2) eating second tithe, (3) eating heave offering, (4) eating Hallowed Things, (5) handling water of purification. Immersion without intention is sufficient for ordinary food but specific intention is required for higher level activities. Immersion with intention concerning any activity is sufficient for those at lower levels. For example, immersion with intention to participate in actions involving water of purification (part of the ritual of the red heifer discussed under Corpse Impurity) renders a person pure for all the lower level activities listed. The hierarchy of activities related to intention is based on the rules laid down by the Scribes and not on the Torah; according to the Torah, immersion renders a person pure for all activities.[163] Also, immersion without intention, for example by falling into water, purifies a menstruant after her period has ended, so that she may have sexual intercourse with her husband.[164]

 

Washing one's hands up to the wrists[165] and drying them[166] is required before and after eating bread for which a blessing is required or food that is dipped in a liquid, even if the hands are not dirty.[167] (Handwashing before and after eating is one of the practices concerning ritual purity that is still followed today even though the Temple (in Jerusalem) is no longer standing[168].) As with total immersion, no intention is required for handwashing for eating ordinary food, but it is required for activities concerning second tithe and higher in the hierarchy listed in the previous paragraph, above.[169] 

 

A ritually impure person only has to wash his hands before praying; total immersion in water to make oneself ritually pure is not necessary before prayer.[170]

 

If a priest who is ritually pure for the eating of heave offering temporarily stops thinking about eating heave offering, he must immerse himself again before eating the heave offering. Similarly, if his hands are pure for eating heave offering and his thoughts move elsewhere, he must wash his hands again before partaking of the heave offering.[171]

 

 

Modifying the laws (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah).  Although the Torah (Deuteronomy 12:32) says that nothing can be added to or removed from the commandments of the Lord, this does not mean that the law can never be changed. In addition to the written law of the Torah and the Oral Law^* received from the Lord by Moses, the courts are able to issue rulings that forbid things that are not forbidden in the Torah or the Oral Law. Similarly, the courts may, at least on a temporary basis, rule that certain things prohibited by the Torah or the Oral Law are, in fact, permitted. Such rulings are valid as long as they do not claim to be the actual law of the Torah or the Oral Law. For example, the Torah says that it is forbidden to boil a kid (young goat) in its mother's milk. The tradition of the Oral Law interprets this as meaning that it is forbidden to eat milk with meat but that it is permitted to eat milk with fowl. A court may issue a ruling prohibiting the eating of milk with foul as long as it explains that this is not a commandment from the Torah but, rather, an extension of the law to help ensure that the prohibition against eating milk with meat is not violated – building a fence around the Torah.[172]

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^*The Oral Law and the Written Law are explained on the page Source Texts Used for Laws of Judaism.

 

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Ritual Purity Laws of Judaism, Table of Contents

Abbreviations used in footnotes:

Gen: The Biblical book of Genesis.

Exod: The Biblical book of Exodus.

Lev: The Biblical book of Leviticus.

Num: The Biblical Book of Numbers.

Deut: The Biblical Book of Deuteronomy.

 

MT:  The Mishneh Torah of Maimonides (Code of Maimonides). The names of the specific books and treatises within each book are given according to the Yale University Press translation and also the Moznaim/Touger Hebrew transliterations to facilitate locating the texts posted here.

F:  indicates page numbers in the Feldheim Publishers, Ltd., translation of Book 1 of the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, the Book of Knowledge.

M:  indicates page numbers in the relevant volume of the Moznaim Publishing Corporation’s Touger translation. (Some of the books of Mishneh Torah are published in several volumes by Moznaim, so the Moznaim volume numbers do not correspond to the Book numbers of Maimonides’ work.)

Y:  indicates page numbers in the translation of the Yale University Press Judaica Series.

    

●  The sources cited are described on the page Source Texts Used for Laws of Judaism.