Let’s stipulate we are all in close enough contact with our inner child to make bathroom jokes, then set aside the temptation. Siman 76 of Orach Chayim discusses the problems with praying where there is feces or urine and how to alleviate those issues.

Manure Is Like Ervah, Except Where It’s Not

Ervah, human nakedness, provides a good point of comparison for tzo’ah, manure. In the presence of either, a Jew may not recite Shema, the Amidah (what we more commonly call Shemoneh Esrei), any blessings, or words of Torah. More stringently, with feces around, a Jew must avoid thinking about any of these topics, AH has already told us in siman 74.

Se’if three clarifies what it means to have feces “there.” For a first example, we might have thought we would be allowed to ignore someone passing by holding manure, because the manure isn’t there with us, it is passing by. Nonetheless, a Jew reciting Shema must pause until the tzo’ah is out of range. Range depends on direction; for matter to the side or behind the Jew, four amot is enough, as long as there is no foul odor, but if the fecal matter is in front of the person, AH rejects a view that still accepts four amot, thinks the person saying Shema would either have to move to an angle where s/he can no longer see it, or wait until the person holding it travels out of eyeshot.

Covers, Not Visibility

Seeing brings up a difference between tzo’ah and ervah. Devarim 23;14 requires Jews to cover their waste after relieving themselves, even with glass, where we can still see it. With ervah, nakedness, seeing is the whole problem, a glass barrier does nothing for the concern. [I could imagine questioning this inference, since the verse speaks of covering the waste with sand or dirt, not transparent, but I do not know of anyone who disagrees with AH on this.]

Along the same lines, a Jew may solve the problem of manure in a pit or hole by placing his/her shoe on top of it, as long as no odor exudes from the hole, and recite Shema, etc. (AH does note a view that allowed reciting Shema/prayer as long as a mechitzah separated the person from the tzo’ah even if there is a foul smell, but a shoe is not a formal divider. For tzo’ah, we require either a cover with lack of odor, or, for this view, a divider).

Water does not count as a cover, se’if four tells us (I think because it is not solid), unless it is sufficiently muddy that the tzo’ah cannot be detected (including, of course, lack of smell). In an addendum largely no longer relevant to us, the mouth of a pig was considered to always have tzo’ah, meaning that Jews could not wear tefillin, recite blessings, etc., in the presence of a pig or where pigs are usually found. The pig might be clean, such as having just come out of a river, and it has all the rules of tzo’ah.

Se’if eleven accepts saliva, for as long as it is thick enough to cover the feces.

Manure on the Body

In se’if two, AH limited the use of a shoe to cover manure to where the shoe does not contact the material; if it does, it would be as if it is on the person’s body. AH paired it with a reminder to wipe one’s shoes when leaving a bathroom (when bathrooms had dirt floors, I think) to ensure no fecal matter had gotten on it.

Where such matter might be on the body, but covered and with no odor (the Internet knows of the difficulty of fully cleansing oneself after eliminating waste), R. Huna and R. Chisda were of two views, Berachot 25a. R. Huna cited the verse kol ha-neshama tehallel Kah (the very end of Tehillim), every soul (or, all of the soul) shall praise Hashem. For him, neshama means the mouth, nose, and respiratory organs (I think because breath is life).

R. Chisda countered with Tehillim 35;10, kol atzmotai tomarna, all my bones/body parts says God, Who is like You? [the source for the idea of shukkling, moving one’s body in prayer, to incorporate as much of the body as one can]. In this verse, the entire body contributes to the praise of God, and would have to be completely clean.

Remnants, Rishum, and Rectum

Summarizing very briefly—losing some of the richness of AH’s presentation in the name of keeping this below the “too long; didn’t read” threshold--AH accepts Shulchan Aruch’s stringency to ignore tzo’ah on the body only on those body parts generally covered by skin (such as the folds of the elbows, he says), not body parts covered by clothing. For this view, AH explains, feces on the body stops our camp from being sanctified, and clothing does not help. If this skin is generally not seen even when the person is bare, we need not register it.

Rambam had another leniency, remnants of feces are less of a problem. Especially where a Jew does not have water to wash his/her body or hands, s/he might have cleaned off as much manure as possible, but still see the color in some spots (without any odor). Rambam held the Jew could ignore those, although he knew the view of the Geonim that the hands must be actually clean. When possible, he recommended following the Geonim, but did not deem it indispensable.

Magen Avraham 76;6 allowed one to pray even if there is tzo’ah on a piece of clothing, as long as that clothing is covered by another piece of clothing. With a shoe, since the manure will be visible as the person walks, it must be removed, not just covered.

The last example I take up here is the rectum, from which the feces is expelled. It can be difficult to fully clean the area, leading AH to invoke the principle of lo nitnah Torah le-mal’achei ha-sharet, the Torah was not given to angels (and therefore we are not always required to accomplish the ideal). A person who cleans him/herself so that no feces will be visible when standing or sitting has done enough.

However, someone with a proctological illness that leads to constant (I assume he means near-constant) seepage of fecal matter will have to refrain from prayers of any sort until the problem is solved. If it happens periodically, the person can clean him/herself carefully and pray/ read Shema right away, need not assume the leak will happen again immediately.

Places of Tzo’ah

Se’ifim 12-17 grapple with issues we largely can ignore because of our improved lavatory facilities and diaper hygiene. While an ashpah, a place for collecting refuse, is always considered likely to have tzo’ah, such that a Jew could only pray/read Shema there if it was carefully checked, houses had a less clear status.

A house with toddlers who are not yet toilet trained, for example, might be more likely to obligate us to suspect/expect they left their mark in various places, create a responsibility to check such places before praying. On the other hand, we might be allowed to rely on the general tendency to be vigilant about cleaning up after them.

As I said before, with diapers, these problems crop up much less often (although when I had younger children, they didn’t never arise, including in public places), so I will leave this for now. One last quick point is that animal droppings do not have these same rules; while a foul odor is still a problem, the droppings themselves do not preclude reciting Shema (because the verse of covering tzo’ah addressed only human waste).

Urine and Other Disgusting Secretions

Our discussion thus far spoke of manure because the Biblical prohibition for urine, the other major bathroom experience, applies only to reciting Shema near someone currently in the act of urination. Chazal instituted a de-rabbanan, a Rabbinic prohibition, for these types of recitations or prayers in the presence of urine, elaborated in the next siman (fortunately for me, we skip around, so it might be awhile before we return to this). For our purposes, the fact of its being de-rabbanan means we can ignore cases of doubt, need not worry there is urine around we have not noticed.

The Rabbinic rule does complicate our lives in other ways, because AH thinks it extends to anything disgusting, vomit, mucus, phlegm, all being no less disgusting than urine (he says; nowadays, I think people have hierarchies. Vomit is likely as bad as urine, not sure about the others…).

Amos 4;12 tells Jews to prepare when greeting God, including the cleanliness of our bodies and our surroundings. Some of which we have reviewed this week.

Adapted from articles previously published on Torah Musings