Festivals & practices
Purification
The processes by which a person or object moved from ritual impurity to a clean state.
Also called · ritual cleansing
What it means
Leviticus and Numbers prescribe rules for childbirth, bodily discharges, skin conditions, contact with a corpse, and affected objects. Childbirth and ordinary bodily states are included, so ritual impurity does not always describe personal wrongdoing.
The procedure differs by situation. It may involve washing clothes and the body, waiting for a prescribed time, a priest’s examination, or offerings. Numbers 19 requires purification water to be sprinkled on someone who has touched a corpse on the third and seventh days.
How it appears in the Bible
Luke 2 says that when the purification period required by Moses’ law was complete, Jesus’ family took him to Jerusalem and brought an offering of two birds. Leviticus 12 allows two birds when a mother cannot afford a lamb.