Dealing with the Navy and Aunt Flo

Leviticus 15

And you thought the last several sections were disgusting.

Chapter 15 is a fun stroll through the world of bodily discharges, including but not necessarily limited to sexual secretions and menstruation. This is an entry you might not want to read out loud.

The passage covers three types of secretions. The first is described vaguely. If any man has a bodily discharge, he is unclean. That could mean a lot of things. He has a cold? He urinated? Sneezed? Was sweating? I've ruled out sexual and menstrual secretions since they're mentioned later.

Since it specifies a continual flow or blockage, I'm going to surmise that it's talking about open sores... and you thought it would be something gross.

So, if you've got them, you're unclean. Any bed you lie on and anything you sit on is unclean. If someone touches the bed of the puss-laden or sits where they sat, he is unclean.

Don't shake hands while you're in this state- if you touch anyone, he or she is unclean until evening. The same is true if you have these sores and you spit on someone. This is a lovely thought. If I don't have a gaping wound, I guess it would be okay to barrage you with a storm of loogies.

A number of other things will make you unclean if you come into contact with "Open-Sore Man". First off, if he sits on something while riding, it's unclean. If you touch anything that was under him while riding, you're unclean. If you pick up any of these things, you must wash your clothes and bathe with water...and you're still unclean.

If he touches a clay pot- it must be broken. Anything made of wood he touches must be rinsed with water. Once he's clean- he is to wait seven days. On the eighth, he takes two doves or pigeons to the priest for atonement sacrifices.

And we move onto semen. After an emission, a man's whole body must be washed and he is unclean until evening. Any article of clothing that gets any semen onto it must be washed- it is unclean until evening. If the discharge is from a sexual union, both the man and woman are unclean until evening.

Next, everyone's favorite topic of discussion, menstruation. When a woman's flow comes, she is unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her is unclean. Anything she lies or sits on is unclean. Anyone who touches anything she sits on, bed or otherwise is unclean and must wash his clothes and bathe with water.

An ambiguous directive follows which may imply sexual activity with a woman on her period. If this happens, the man is unclean for seven days. The other possible interpretation here is if the two share a bed and the man comes in contact with the discharge.

If the discharge lasts longer than the seven days, she in unclean until it stops. It seems at least most if not all of the rules regarding her still apply in the prolonged period period as well.

When she's cleansed, she counts off seven days and then she is ceremonially clean. That means a woman is not often ceremonially clean. If she is flowing for seven days and purifying for seven more, then she is unclean two weeks of every month.

She then does the doves/pigeons bit with the priest.

Finally God tells Moses to keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling His dwelling place which is among them.

Keep them away from sores, sex, and menstruation? How? I guess that would also include leprosy and mildew. I wonder how much of this is a sanitation issue and how much a purely spiritual one. And I wonder how these people ever did anything but cleanse themselves of impurities and make sacrifices... and be paranoid about what they forgot to do.