daf bit: Nazir 49

[cellio]

If a nazarite becomes ritually impure, he must shave, wait to become ritually pure, and start over. What are the things that can make him ritually impure? The mishna says contact with a corpse or parts (or derivatives) thereof. What is contact? Touching, being under the same roof as, or being above or below a corpse (without an intervening roof). (49b)

This list has a lot in common with contact forbidden to kohanim. I don't know if that's just a similarity or if there is some causal link; I could imagine seeing priests as being akin to nazarites in that they are dedicated to ritual service, though most are not actual nazarites. (The bit about being above a body without a roof intervening is why some kohanim will not fly over graveyards. I have no idea if floors on multi-story buildings count as roofs; does a kohein have to worry about the apartment below his?)

Comments

[cellio]

Yeah, this isn't an area that gets a lot of practical use. But some kohanim still pay attention to it -- everyone's tamei, but maybe they don't want to make it even worse (or maybe they want to stay in practice).

[magid.livejournal.com]

I know that a dead body is the worst kind of tum'ah source there is; I suspect that even with today's general tum'ah, the idea is to avoid the source of it as much as possible.