Ritual, Purity, and the Red Heifer: Technical Practice in the Pentateuch and Oskar Goldberg
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This essay reconstructs the technical logic of biblical ritual through Numbers 19 (Red Heifer) and Oskar Goldberg’s metaphysical system. It argues that Pentateuchal ritual is not symbolic or moralistic, but a manufactured protocol for field-isolation and causal regulation within the IHWH–people system. Core operations—conduction, substitution, and intensification—form an immunological architecture that maintains kavod (operative presence) under hostile embedding. Concepts like Bedidah, Taharot/Tumot, and Kiddusch are recast as precision tools for stabilizing divine presence via repeatable technical correctness. This reading challenges moralized interpretations and offers an engineering-oriented framework for ancient ritual technologies. Dedicated to Stephen I. Ternyik. Keywords: ritual theory, purity laws, Oskar Goldberg, Pentateuch, Numbers 19, red heifer, kavod, taharot, tumot, immunological systems, biblical engineering, Possest, Hebrew metaphysics
Author: Schimmelpfennig, Yochanan
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7085210042
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