I really am quite surprised by how much talk of bodily fluids there is in such a holy collection of writings. Several pages devoted to different looks and smells of feces and how we should behave around it vis-a-vis saying the Shema. At its core, this is reminding us that holy pursuits carry with them the reality of unholy facts of life. We simply can't ignore the mundane – and even repulsive – in our search for the divine spark in life.
And then I saw this: if a man has feces on his harm, is he still permitted to say the Shema? Rav Huna says yes, because of the pasuk כל הנשמה תהלל יה, all of the soul praises God. Even our bowels – literally, not emotionally – praise God.
A little poo-poo-pride from our punctilious preachers of the past.
And then I saw this: if a man has feces on his harm, is he still permitted to say the Shema? Rav Huna says yes, because of the pasuk כל הנשמה תהלל יה, all of the soul praises God. Even our bowels – literally, not emotionally – praise God.
A little poo-poo-pride from our punctilious preachers of the past.
While I found it all a little hard to deal with at times (and no wonder I hadn't looked at much of this material before) I am pleased that there is no part of life that the Talmud avoids. It is all there, all categorised, all placed into the same system.
ReplyDeleteYour use of alliteration is titillating.
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