Congregation Shema Yisrael

Some of the Jewish laws that affected Jewish-Gentile relations were those dealing with food, skin diseases, bodily discharges and fungus in the house (Leviticus 11-15). If a Jewish person had any of these conditions, touched anyone with these conditions or entered a “diseased” house, they became unclean and had to go through an expensive one-day or seven-day purification process before they could enter the Temple.

As Gentiles did not follow the same cleanliness and food laws, Jewish people hesitated to interact with Gentiles. One could touch a Gentile who had a skin disease or recent bodily discharge and become unclean. Or a Gentile could offer his Jewish guest unclean food or a chair that the Gentile had sat on and was now unclean. Since a Jewish person never knew whether his host was clean or unclean, every time a Jewish person left a Gentile’s house, he would have to go through the purification process.