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Ritual purity in Judaism |
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Impurity of the land of the nations (Tumath eretz Ha'Amim טומאת ארץ העמים) is a rabbinic edict stipulating a specified degree of tumah (impurity) on all lands outside the Land of Israel.[1] The demarcation lines of foreign lands effectually included all those lands not settled by the people of Israel during their return from the Babylonian exile during the Second Temple period,[2] and was meant to dissuade the priests of Aaron's lineage from venturing beyond the Land of Israel where graves were unmarked,[3] and who may inadvertently contract corpse uncleanness and thereby eat their bread-offering (Terumah), unawares, in a state of ritual impurity and becoming liable thereby to kareth. The declaration with respect to foreign lands includes also the "virgin soil" of those lands,[4] and was, therefore, a safeguard meant to prevent the priests from inadvertently transgressing the Law of Moses.