The Unclean During the Exodus
Question
Dear Rabbi
I am studying the Exodus and I have a couple questions. 1. When the unclean needed to leave the community for a skin disease, did their family set up a tent outside the community for them? Did every family have a “spare tent”? Who took care of them if they were unable to care for themselves (if they were incapacitated)? Thank you for your responses!
Answers
Each unclean person would live in their own tent outside the main encampment. Where did the tent come from? I am not familiar with any source that describes where, exactly, they had the tents from, but I think that it is logical to assume that they made their own tents using skins of dead animals.
A healthy impure person would have the manna to eat but they would have to go to fetch it. If there was an impure person who could not fend for themselves, someone would bring their portion of manna to their tent for them.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team