Ancient Israel’s Stone Age Purity in Second Temple times

In the decades before the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 C.E., Jews gave a new and heightened emphasis to ritual purity. In fact, purity laws may have been interpreted more strictly at this time than at any point before—or since.
A very early rabbinic text says simply, “Purity broke out among Israel.”1 As early as this text is, however, it postdates the destruction of the Temple by about a hundred years. So it is fair to ask, How reliable is it?




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