Q&A: Impurity from a Dead Person Who Came Back to Life
Impurity from a Dead Person Who Came Back to Life
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Following the haftarah for Parashat Vayera, where it tells about Elisha bringing the son of the prominent woman back to life, the following question occurred to me: if a person died and came back to life, does the impurity of a dead person still apply? That is, are the house, the bed, those who handled him, and so on still considered impure and in need of the ashes of the red heifer?
Perhaps the impurity is nullified retroactively?
And does clinical death indeed impart impurity?
Thank you very much
Answer
Simply speaking, once a person dies, all the relevant laws take effect even if he later comes back to life, so long as it was not a mistake in determining that he had died.
But he himself, in my opinion, would not be impure, because this is a new state altogether. The dead person is gone, and here there is a new living person.