Tumah (טומאה) — Impurity
Core definition
Tumah is the halachic and spiritual state of impurity — concealment of and separation from Divinity — whose supreme grade is tumas meis, the impurity of the dead: "the dead is the 'avi avos ha'tumah'" (the father of fathers of impurity) [57652/maamar_024 :: §191]. In the corpus's conceptual usage, tumah denotes the coarsening of the soul through immersion in the unholy: "When people are sunken in the gates of tumah, they become so coarse from their tumah-life" — treifah food and Shabbos desecration are given as the examples — "become too coarse to understand, reaching complete denial" [58834/maamar_026 :: §179–214].
How the Rebbeim develop it
The forty-nine gates of tumah. Egypt is the archetype: "In this drawing the Creator, blessed be He, took Bnei Yisroel out of the forty-nine gates of tumah" [58834/maamar_026 :: §155]. "Mashcheni" (Shir HaShirim 1:4) — "draw me" — is "the Divine revelation from the Creator without man's preparation, containing the power to draw even the most earthly," and through it "the Creator acquired Yisroel, taking them out of the forty-nine gates of tumah so they could hear Moshe and Aharon and understand their hint" [58834/maamar_026 :: §214]. Only such a drawing from above could lift a people sunk that deep: "through the Divine power they exit the forty-nine gates of tumah and receive a pure spirit" [58834/maamar_026 :: §244].
Tumas meis — the archetype. The dead is "avi avos ha'tumah" — the father of fathers of impurity, "the source of all the kli" [57652/maamar_024 :: §191, §317]. The one who became tamei with this tumah "needs haza'ah to push away the tumah" — the sprinkling of the parah adumah's ashes on the third and seventh days. Its supernal root is traced "against the seven(?) melachim(?) kadma'in(?) who died(?) and fell(?)" — the seven kings of Tohu [57652/maamar_024 :: §329–377].
What cannot become tamei. "A proven proof to this is: that words of Torah do not receive tumah (impurity)" — the Torah's immunity to impurity is the proof that "Torah comes not in order and gradation but as the essence of supernal chochmah even below, in physical halachot": impurity, which is concealment, has no hold on the Torah's essence [58848/maamar_020 :: §943, §1137–1156].
Tumah in avodah. The "tumah-life" coarsens spiritual perception: those sunken in it cannot grasp even a hint of Moshe and Aharon's message. Hence the redemption requires "mashcheni" — a drawing that precedes preparation — and hence the purification disciplines (haza'ah, immersion) that precede ascent: the ascent from lower to upper requires immersion, because the two worlds are opposites [58834/maamar_026 :: §214; 15881/maamar_024 :: §324–378].
Key distinctions
Tumah vs. taharah (purity). Tumah is the state of separation and coarsening; taharah its removal — "to distinguish between tumah and taharah" is the avodah's constant task [58834/maamar_026 :: §699].
The forty-nine gates of tumah vs. the fifty gates of binah. Israel sank to the forty-ninth gate of impurity — one short of the fiftieth, from which there would have been no return; the Exodus drew them out with "exceeding strength," beyond their measure [58834/maamar_026 :: §155–244; 60801/maamar_024 :: §4229].
Tumas meis vs. other tumos. The dead's impurity is the archetype — avi avos ha'tumah — requiring the haza'ah of mei chatas, against the seven fallen kings of Tohu; other impurities leave through immersion alone [57652/maamar_024 :: §191–377].
Related concepts
Taharah (purity); Tumas meis (the impurity of the dead); Kelipah (the husks — the root of tumah); Mitzrayim (the forty-nine gates); Parah adumah (the purification); Mikveh (immersion); Torah (which receives no tumah).