19. Rambam and PurificationMaimonides the
Jewish sage made interesting comments on purification, the mikveh and
repentance more than a thousand years after the Good News had been first
proclaimed which can be compared to the work of R. John. He wrote, “Therefore the
Sages have said, ‘If a man immerses himself, but without special intention,
it is as though he has not immersed himself at all.’ Nevertheless we may find
some indication (for the moral basis) of this: just as one who sets his heart
on becoming clean becomes clean as soon as he has immersed himself, although
nothing new has befallen his body, so, too, one who sets his heart on
cleansing himself from the uncleannesses that beset men’s souls - namely,
wrongful thoughts and false convictions - becomes clean as soon as he
consents in his heart to shun those counsels and bring his soul into the
waters of pure reason. Behold, Scripture says, ‘And I will sprinkle clean
water upon you and ye shall be clean; from all your uncleannesses and from
all your idols I will cleanse you.’”6 Maimonides, along
with R. Akiva, believed the verse in Ezekiel was written with the idea of
providing purification, and was comparable with the purification which
resulted from immersion in a mikveh. It is also interesting to note that
Maimonides mentioned Ezekiel’s sprinkling in a discussion about the
importance of purifying the heart through repentance from wrong thoughts and
convictions, together with purification of the body, thus expressing a very
similar idea of repentance with the mikveh or sprinkling of water as did R.
John in his proclamation of the end-time baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins. Furthermore,
Maimonides confirmed the traditional Jewish interpretation of Leviticus 11:36
concerning purification by a spring or a gathering (mikveh) of water.
Previous to this discussion of immersion in the mikveh and Ezekiel’s
purification in Yad, Mikva’ot 11:12, he contrasted purification by either the
water of a spring or the water gathered in the mikveh in Yad, Mikva’ot 9:8, “Wherein does a
spring differ from an immersion pool? An immersion pool imparts cleanness
only if it contains forty seah, but a spring imparts cleanness however little
its quantity.”7 He goes on to say that someone whose defilement of
venereal emission has ceased may immerse in the flowing spring even if it was
not forty seah. Long after the Messianic baptism of repentance for the remission
of sins had been proclaimed Maimonides spoke of traditional Jewish baptism in
similar terminology showing the common idea in relation to R. John’s baptism
and typical Jewish purification. Endnotes 6Herbert
Danby’s translation of Maimonides Book of Cleanness, 7op.cit. |