Comentário sobre Números 19:11

"And it shall be impure seven days" - The opinion of Abraham Ibn Ezra that this is past tense, is void. For if seven days had already passed, it could no longer say that he will sin on the third day.

הנוגע במת, הוא יתחטא בו, “whoever touches the corpse of a human being...he shall purify himself with it , etc.” The word בו refers to the mixture of the ash of the red cow and the spring-water from its respective container. This verse is the origin of the widely accepted practice that when we leave after a visit to the cemetery we wash our hands as a symbolic gesture. It is merely an allusion to the ritual (nowadays impossible to fulfill) of the purification through the red cow. At the same time the practice is also an allusion to the resurrection of the dead seeing the prophet (Ezekiel 36,5) described this resurrection in the following words: “I will sprinkle upon you pure waters and you will become pure.” The practice of plucking some blades of grass from the cemetery is also an allusion to the concept of the resurrection of the dead as the grass which wilts at night and resurrects itself in the morning is referred to by the psalmist (Psalms 72,16) “let men sprout up in towns like country grass.”

V. 11. הנגע במת וגו׳, offenbar ist hier מת von נפש אדם unterschieden. Die Leiche steht in einer Beziehung zu einer נפש אדם, stammt von ihr, gehört ihr, ist aber nicht selbst die נפש (siehe V. 13). ספרי) להביא את בן שמנה ,לכל נפש) auch von einem solchen Menschenwesen, das nie Lebensfähigkeit gehabt.

הנוגע במת, “if someone has been in physical contact with a corpse, etc.;” why does this have to be spelled out, when we have already been told that even being in an enclosed room sharing the same air space with the corpse, he has become contaminated? The answer to this question is the same as above when we stated that penalties in the Torah cannot be imposed as the result of our using our mental faculties, unless the Torah has spelled this out (Sifri).