וְאִ֕ישׁ כִּֽי־תֵצֵ֥א מִמֶּ֖נּוּ שִׁכְבַת־זָ֑רַע וְרָחַ֥ץ בַּמַּ֛יִם אֶת־כָּל־בְּשָׂר֖וֹ וְטָמֵ֥א עַד־הָעָֽרֶב׃
И если поток семян выйдет из человека, тогда он омоет всю свою плоть в воде и будет нечист до вечера.
Rabbeinu Bahya
ורחץ במים את כל בשרו, “he must wash his entire body with water.” This is the only time in connection with the legislation of ritual impurity that the Torah speaks of washing “the entire body.” Even when purification from more severe levels of ritual impurity is discussed, such as the person suffering a discharge, the Torah did not demand that “the whole body” be washed. The reason for all this may have to do with the four basic raw materials man is made of, i.e. fire, spirit (wind), water and dust. This was not the order in which these elements appear in the report of the creation in Genesis where the first element mentioned is the spirit (רוח) in Genesis 1,1, followed by water and fire and dust (earth).
Rabbeinu Bahya
In the Sefer Yetzira, (oldest kabbalistic text) air-(רוח)- fire-water are listed as the three “mothers,” so-called because they are like mothers to all that is found in the universe. These three elements are perceived as “descended” from the other, i.e. air begets water and water begets fire. This view is supported by verses from the Scriptures, of course. When the Torah writes in Genesis 1,2: בהו, וחושך; this means that fire is descended from water. The words ורוח אלו-הים מרחפת על פני המים mean that the water is “descended” from the element רוח, “air or spirit.” This is the reason why in our daily prayers we refer to the sequence משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם, “who makes the air blow and makes the rain descend.” Support for the statement that fire is “descended” from water comes from the scientific fact that fire is [or at least may be Ed.] extracted from water. (compare Talmud Beytzah Mishnah folio 33 that “on the festival it is forbidden to extract fire from the water.”) [apparently experiments were conducted with glass bottles filled with water being exposed to intense sunlight. After a while, due to the water having become overheated, the glass burst into flames. quoted by Rashi. Ed.] Dust, i.e. earth is “descended” from fire. The reference is to the fertiliser left behind after something has been burned up. [Dust or earth in this instance refers to the earth and its ability to produce crops, etc. Perhaps the earth thrown up as volcanic ash is the best example of fire “producing” fertile earth. Ed.]
When these three elements surface as part of a human being they have been metamorphosed, the white part of man corresponds to the element water; the red part of man corresponds to the element fire; the black part of man corresponds to the element dust=earth. The element רוח, “spirit,” which is a fundamental part of man is the basic element and dominates all the other elements of which he is composed.
When these three elements surface as part of a human being they have been metamorphosed, the white part of man corresponds to the element water; the red part of man corresponds to the element fire; the black part of man corresponds to the element dust=earth. The element רוח, “spirit,” which is a fundamental part of man is the basic element and dominates all the other elements of which he is composed.
Rabbeinu Bahya
It is common knowledge that every such element contains within it particles of each of the four elements; seeing that this is so whenever one of these elements displays signs of becoming dominant, the other parts of the same element which up to that time were dormant within their respective “master” element, now awaken. Let us say that the רוח המתאוה, “the element called the spirit of desire“ awakens in a person, the parallel minor particles of that element which had been lying dormant within the other three elements now “awaken” even while the other three elements and their respective minor particles within them remain “asleep, dormant.” Seeing that the element רוח was the basic element which aroused these “dormant” particles of it within the other elements, it may be considered as “eternally awake, never dormant.” Seeing that this is so our verse demands that the person who has had an emission of sperm wash his entire body as due to the desire awakened in all parts of the body as a result of that emission, or “wakeful state of the spirit of desire,” the secondary particles of that spirit throughout the other parts of the body have been awakened, have been activated. Seeing they were all participants, they all have to be immersed in water for the entire body to become purified. The element called “spirit of desire” is different from the other three elements making up the body, as the other three are “dead” when the body is asleep. This fourth element, the רוח המתאוה, “the spirit of desire,” is not “dead” even while the body is asleep.
The reason that there is a need for purification of the entire body in water is that the drop of sperm in question was not even potentially able to fertilize a woman’s ovum seeing that its “partners” in the body of the person emitting it had been asleep, i.e. “dead” when this emission occurred. They had not agreed to it, so to speak. Seeing that as a result of these considerations the sperm was defective, useless, it produced a greater degree of impurity than normal cohabitation between man and woman.
When you look at verse 18 in our verse describing cohabitation between a man and a woman (while both are awake I presume), the Torah, while requiring that they both “wash in water,” does not require that they bathe their entire body in water as it did here concerning a nocturnal emission. The reason is that all parts of the “elements” were “awake” in both parties to this sexual union, i.e. gave their consent, thus enabling the sperm to potentially fertilise an ovum.
The reason that there is a need for purification of the entire body in water is that the drop of sperm in question was not even potentially able to fertilize a woman’s ovum seeing that its “partners” in the body of the person emitting it had been asleep, i.e. “dead” when this emission occurred. They had not agreed to it, so to speak. Seeing that as a result of these considerations the sperm was defective, useless, it produced a greater degree of impurity than normal cohabitation between man and woman.
When you look at verse 18 in our verse describing cohabitation between a man and a woman (while both are awake I presume), the Torah, while requiring that they both “wash in water,” does not require that they bathe their entire body in water as it did here concerning a nocturnal emission. The reason is that all parts of the “elements” were “awake” in both parties to this sexual union, i.e. gave their consent, thus enabling the sperm to potentially fertilise an ovum.