10:43:08


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Bidding Information
Lot #    11897
Auction End Date    11/1/2005 10:00:30 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Demanding free admission to Mikvu'ot
Title (Hebrew)    ëúá îøáðé éøåùìéí áòðéï î÷åàåú
Author    [Ms. - Women - Hasidim]
City    Jerusalem
Publication Date    [1844]?
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    [1] p., 260:360 mm., ink on paper, creased on folds, light age staining, signed by 13 rabbis.
          
Detailed
Description		    Decree signed by the rabbinate of Jerusalem demanding that all admission fees be waived for the use of the community Mikveh. The Mikveh, a pool or bath of clear water, immersion in which renders ritually clean a man or woman who have become ritually unclean. For a person or article to be purified must undergo total immersion in either mayim hayyim (“live water”), i.e., a spring, river, or sea, or a mikveh, which is a body of water of at least 40 se'ahs (approx. 120 gallons) that has been brought together by natural means, not drawn. The person or article must be clean with nothing adhering (hazizah) to him or her, and must enter the water in such a manner that the water comes into contact with the entire area of the surface. According to law one such immersion is sufficient, but three have become customary. Total immersion is required for most cases of ritual impurity decreed in the Torah. Since the destruction of the Temple, or shortly thereafter, the laws of impurity have been in abeyance. The reason is that the ashes of the red heifer, which are indispensable for the purification ritual, are no longer available. Thus, everybody is now considered ritually impure. The only immersions still prescribed are those of the niddah and the proselyte, because these do not require the ashes of the red heifer and because the removal of the impurity concerned is necessary also for other than purely sacral purposes (entry into the Temple area, eating of “holy” things). The niddah is thereby permitted to have sexual relations and the proselyte is endowed with the full status of the Jew.

Among the signatories are R. Joseph Hayyim Sonnenfeld (as a young man); two sons of the Lelover Rebbe; R. Jacob Judah Lowe, Chief Judge of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court; and several prominent judges. A transcription is provided.
          
Reference
Description		    EJ
        
Associated Images
3 Images (Click thumbnail to view full size image):
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Listing Classification
Period
19th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Israel:    Checked
  
Subject
History:    Checked
  
Characteristic
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
Other:    Decree
  
Kind of Judaica