Vayikra 15:16

16 And if any ish [baal keri, a person with a discharge of semen], if his shikhvat zera (emission of semen) go out from him, then he shall immerse his entire body in mayim, and be tamei until the erev.

Vayikra 15:16 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 15:16

And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him
Not in lawful cohabitation, nor voluntarily, but involuntarily, as Aben Ezra observes; not through any disorder, which came by an accident, or in any criminal way, but through a dream, or any lustful imagination; what is commonly called nocturnal pollution ^F3; then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the
even;
and so the Egyptian priests, when it happened that they were defiled by a dream, they immediately purified themselves in a laver ^F4 so the Jewish priests did when the like happened to them asleep in the temple ^F5; see ( Deuteronomy 23:10 Deuteronomy 23:11 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 "----& noctem flumine purgas." Pers. Satyr. 2.
F4 Chaeremon. apud Porphyr. de Abstinentia, l. 4. c. 7.
F5 Misn. Tamid. c. 1. sect. 1.

Vayikra 15:16 In-Context

14 And on the yom shemini he shall take to him two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before Hashem unto the entrance of the Ohel Mo’ed, and give them unto the kohen;

15 And the kohen shall sacrifice them, the one for a chattat, and the other for an olah (burnt offering); and the kohen shall make kapporah for him before Hashem for his discharge.

16 And if any ish [baal keri, a person with a discharge of semen], if his shikhvat zera (emission of semen) go out from him, then he shall immerse his entire body in mayim, and be tamei until the erev.

17 And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the shikhvat zera, shall be immersed with mayim, and be tamei until the erev.

18 The isha also with whom ish shall lie with shikhvat zera, they shall both immerse themselves in mayim, and be tamei until the erev.