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Did the Israelites ever bleed in the desert over those 40 years?
Anyone get a bloody nose? Or got his or her leg scratched up on a rock and now it’s bleeding?
How did people deal with blood? Tie rags to the limb? Wipe one’s nose with a rag?
Did they do laundry? In general though back even 200 years ago hygiene was different. Even disposable tissues are relatively new inventions.
Thank you ☺
Don’t know about the bleeding, I imagine since they were humans, they must have bled if they got injured.
One of the miracles in the midbar was that their clothing did not wear out. The Clouds of Glory “laundered” them.Based on the community-wide bris milah event described in sefer Yehoshua and its analysis in masseches Yevamos, it seems that the Bnei Yirsoel didn’t perform bris milah in the midbar. The explanation given is the danger posed by the procedure, namely the loss of blood (and/or infection).
So, I would conclude that bleeding in the dessert was certainly possible and measures needed to be taken to protect people from its occurrence.
LB: I highly recommend reading about the incident directly from the text of the fifth chapter of sefer Yehoshua.
The issue has to do to with the korban Pesach – also having been performed only once following the exodus from Egypt – that requires participating males to be circumcised.
Interestingly, Rash”i in Devarim (33:9) quotes the Sifrei that the Leviim did perform bris milah in the desert, unlike their cousins.
The Talmudic reference is masseches Yevamos, 71b & 72a.
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