Temperance.— Both in food and drink tem perance was enjoined. Gluttony and drunken ness is the special crime of the rebellious son whose punishment is death. Wine was so important an article of food, that special influence was necessary to prevent its abuse. The stories of Noah and Lot conveyed their own moral. The priests were held unfit for office if they indulged in strong drink. The order of the Nazarites, and the clan of the Rechabites, upheld an ideal of abstinence. But yet the value of wine as a medicine was recog nized (Prov. xxxi, 6). Nor was the ascetic attitude entirely approved of. The Nazarite brought his sacrifice when the term of his vow was over for having denied himself that which God permitted. "In the future world, man will have to account for every enjoyment that was offered to him and he has unnecessarily refused" (Jerus. Tal. Kid. IV). Yet there is no limit to the denunciation of drunkenness throughout the Bible.
Dwelling.— The Bible records the special protection to be afforded to the flat roofs of the houses. They were to be surrounded by a battlement so there should be no blood upon them (Deut. xxii, 8). The height of the bat tlement is fixed at a minimum of 3.06 feet. It must be strongly built and able to stand any ordinary strain. There are further injunctions prohibiting the presence of any open well or pit, or the presence of unsafe ladders about the house. There is a remarkable series of hygienic laws referring to a diseased condition of the house (Lev. xiv). The reference is probably to houses attacked by dry rot — merulius lacry mans, a fungoid growth inimical to the health of the inhabitants. There are clearly formu lated in the regulations— (1) duty of dec laration; (2) duty of examination and diag nosis; (3) complete removal of the affected parts without the camp; (4) scraping of the in terior of the house and removal of the dust and debris without the camp to the unclean place; (5) on return of the affection, the house is to be completely destroyed; (6) all the persons who have been in the house, eaten or slept therein, must be purified through the washing of clothes and person (Baginsky).
Disease.— Proceeding upon the principle that the whole law was given for life and not for death (Lev. xviii, 5, T. B. Ab. Zarah 27B), the interest of the patient is declared superior to any of the ordinary religious obligations;— even the sanctity of the Sabbath and the Day of Atonement giving way to the necessities of medical treatment. The duty of visiting the sick is a part of the great Imitatio Dei (T. B.
Sota 14A) and the neglect of this duty is de clared by Rabbi Akiba to be a criminal indif ference to human life (T. B. Nedarim 39B). But the visiting must be helpful in act and rev erent in spirit since the Divine Shechinah stands ever watching at the head of the bed of suffering. This visiting should, however, be entirely omitted if the nature of the disease or the attendant circumstances make it a source of embarrassment to the patient. In certain cases of disease or contact with disease meas ures for purification and disinfection have been enacted. Wherever there has been con tact with the dead, or pseudo-leprous symp toms of disease, or sexual secretions and dis charges — an elaborate process of washing and bathing for person and garments prevails.
Burial.— Interment must take place as speedily as possible (Deut. xxi, 22). It is the last and most unselfish act of kindness one can perform to one's fellow. God himself showed the example by burying Moses. All can claim interment, even the criminal executed on the gallows (Dent. xxi, 23). Cemeteries were ex tramural and were prohibited within a circuit of 60 cubits from the city limits. The dead were placed in caves and vaults and were visited by their relatives for three days after, to avoid all possibility of their being buried alive. After some time the remains were then interred in the grave proper. The rapid de composition of the body to its constituent ele ments is regarded as desirable. While crema tion is opposed to Jewish practice (Gen. iii. 10; Eccles. xii, 7), yet quicklime is frequently placed in the grave in some countries. The prevalent custom among observant Jews in eastern Europe and the Orient is to have the coffin of the simplest construction,— a few boards nailed together,— with the bottom per forated,.— so as to interpose no obstacle to rapid decomposition. The selection of the soil for cemetery purposes is of hygienic value,— as the ground must not be in contact with any water sources, and thus the danger of contami nation of the water supply is minimized. An interesting account is given in the Bible of the composition of the °Water of Lustration" used for all who had been in contact with the dead. Undoubtedly the ingredients possess high disin fecting qualities. Into its composition entered cedar wood (coniferm), rich in phenol and cresol and cedrene camphor; hyssop with its camphoraceous oil of penetrating aroma and other oils, rich in oxygen; the cremated carcase of the heifer, rich in potash and soda (Num. xix).