Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

, the eight ''sheratzim'' (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

שמונה שרצים), typically translated as the "eight creeping things", are animals described in , which have special laws in regard to

ritual impurity Ritual purification is the ritual prescribed by a religion by which a person is considered to be free of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification may ...

and

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

Laws

While alive, the eight ''sheratzim'' do not convey impurity. However, when one of them has died and is touched or shifted by a human being, it conveys impurity to that person. If he were a priest ( Cohen) of Aaron's lineage who touched the animal's corpse, he is forbidden to eat of the hallowed things until he first immerses his body in a

mikveh Mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. Most forms of ritual impurity can be purif ...

and has waited until the sun has set. During the time when the laws of ritual purity were performed by the Jewish nation, earthenware vessels into which one of the eight, dead creeping things had fallen, including within an earthenware oven, become unclean and unfit for sacred foods, and, therefore, would be broken and the food discarded (). In other applications of Jewish law, a person who either catches or inflicts a wound upon one of the eight creeping things on the

Sabbath day In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...

becomes culpable by that act, but is held unaccountable and exempt if he had inflicted a wound upon any of the other harmful

vermin Vermin (colloquially varmint(s) or varmit(s)) are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases or destroy crops or livestock. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included vary by region and enterpr ...

and creeping things., s.v
Shabbat 14:1
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Identification

References

{{reflist Shabbat Jewish ritual purity law Animals in the Bible Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish law