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12 - Contagious Holiness

from Part III - Images, Codes and Discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2021

Yitzhaq Feder
Affiliation:
University of Haifa, Israel
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Summary

Though the main focus of this book is pollution, there are several reasons why holiness is indispensable to this discussion. The antinomy between the sacred domain and impurity suggests that these antagonistic categories are inextricably related to one another. For this reason, it seems hardly coincidental that several biblical passages depict a contagious aspect to holiness that is similar to that of pollution, which suggests that there is an additional, positive potential of contagion that needs to be explored. Finally, and most fundamentally, the emphasis of the present work on embodiment as a key to understanding ostensibly “religious” concepts faces its greatest challenge with holiness, which appears to be otherworldly by definition and hence separate from mundane experience. Confronting this challenge, this chapter will examine the various means of conceptualizing holiness in the HB, showing that they are in varying degrees grounded in experience. Moreover, it will examine the possibility of conveying holiness by contact, showing that it, like impurity, can be contagious.

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Chapter
Information
Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible
From Embodied Experience to Moral Metaphor
, pp. 243 - 260
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Contagious Holiness
  • Yitzhaq Feder, University of Haifa, Israel
  • Book: Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible
  • Online publication: 24 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009042642.013
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  • Contagious Holiness
  • Yitzhaq Feder, University of Haifa, Israel
  • Book: Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible
  • Online publication: 24 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009042642.013
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Contagious Holiness
  • Yitzhaq Feder, University of Haifa, Israel
  • Book: Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible
  • Online publication: 24 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009042642.013
Available formats
×