Purity and Impurity in the Book of Jubilees- Priestly ablutions with water figure in the instructions given to Isaac
by Abraham in Jub 21:16 (cf. 4Q219 ii 13). The closest parallels are ALD 19-21
(= 7:1-3, Greenfield, Stone, and Eshel), 26 (8:2), 53-54 (10:6-7), as well as
TLevi 9:11. Jubilees seems to refer to three acts of washing, one concerning
the whole body (cf. ALD 19 [7:1]; TLevi 9:11), the other two hands and feet.
What is the rationale for these ablutions? It is unlikely that they relate to the
impurities covered by Lev 11-15, summarized in Lev 22:2-7 f°r priests wish
ing to consume sancta, since we would expect purifying priests normally to
wait until sunset to become clean (cf. Num 19:7). Should the ablutions
merely "enhance the sanctity of the 'holy seed'"?^16 This makes too little of
the fact that we are dealing with specific rules for priests related to sacrifices.
Bathing before priestly office or washing hands and feet before sacrificing is
indeed required in some biblical texts.^17 However, washing hands and feet
after the sacrifice goes beyond these texts, but it is reflected in ALD 53-54
(10:6-7) ar>d TLevi 9:11. Since both ALD 26 (8:2), 53 (10:6) and nQTa 26:10 re
late washing of hands and feet to previous contact with blood and this fig
ures in Jubilees immediately after as well (21:17),^18 it is possible that Jubilees'
final ablution is to remove any blood from hands and feet. At any rate, Jubi
lees here shares a specific tradition^19 of scrupulous priestly purity. - Ritual purity as prerequisite for celebrating Passover. Jubilees com
ments on this issue merely in passing, but it should not be overlooked. In
line with Num 9:13, Jub 49:9 declares that any "man who is pure" (be'si 'enza
nesuh, reiterated later in the verse [not so Num 9:13]) and "nearby" but "does
not come" to keep the Passover on its day is to be uprooted. The statement
affirms the notion of "ritual" purity relative to the (narratively: future) tem- - Thus Ravid, "Purity and Impurity," 74.
- Bathing: Exod 29:4; 40:12: Lev 8:6; 16:4, (24); cf. ALD la, v. 2 [2:5]; washing hands
and feet: Exod 30:19-21; cf. m. Middot 3:6; m. Yoma 4:5; m. Tamid 1:4; 2:1. Cf. H. Drawnel, An
Aramaic Wisdom Text from Qumran: A New Interpretation of the Levi Document, JSJSup 86
(Leiden: Brill, 2004), 270-71, 276, 298. - On Jubilees' concern with blood see further below and Werman, "Rules," passim.
Note that blood is one of the liquids transmitting impurity in m. Makhshirin 6:4-5; cf. the is
sue of oil stains in CD 12:15-17; nQTa 49:11-12. - Contra Ravid, "Purity and Impurity," 74 n. 22, who claims that Jubilees has "emu
lated ... the dual purification of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement" (cf. Lev 16:4,24),
but the second one is bathing rather than washing hands and feet, as well as changing vest
ments. Cf. further on the matter M. Himmelfarb, "Earthly Sacrifice and Heavenly Incense:
The Law of the Priesthood in Aramaic Levi and Jubilees," in Heavenly Realms and Earthly Re
alities in Late Antique Religions, ed. R. S. Boustan and A. Yoshiko Reed (Cambridge: Cam
bridge University Press, 2004), 103-22.