View source for Oholot

{{short description|Tractate of the Talmud}}
'''ʾOholoth''' ({{Script/Hebrew|אׇהֳלוֹת}}, literally "Tents") is the second tractate of the Order of [[Tohorot]] in the [[Mishnah]]. It consists of eighteen chapters,<ref>{{Cite Jewish Encyclopedia |title=OHALOT ("Tents")|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11673-ohalot }}</ref> which discuss the [[Tumah and taharah|ritual impurity]] of corpses, and the peculiar quality they have to make all objects in the same tent-like structure impure as well.

This tractate, along with [[Nega'im]], was considered one of the most difficult tractates;<ref>[https://www.daf-yomi.com/DYItemDetails.aspx?itemId=40013  כלך אצל נגעים ואהלות]</ref> according to a Jewish legend, King [[David]] is said to have asked of God that reading the [[Book of Psalms]] be considered the equivalent of studying the tractate of Negaim and Oholot.<ref>[[Midrash Tehillim]] 1</ref>

There is no [[Gemara]] for Oholot in either the [[Talmud|Babylonian]] or [[Jerusalem Talmud]].

In the [[Tosefta]] and Jerusalem Talmud<ref>Jerusalem Talmud, [[Moed Kattan]] 2:5</ref> the name of this tractate is spelled Ahilot (אהילות, "coverings") rather than Oholot (אהלות, "tents"), as its subject is the transfer of ''[[tumah]]'' through other coverings as well as tents.<ref>[https://www.daat.ac.il/encyclopedia/value.asp?id1=2058 אנציקלופדיה יהודית - אהלות]</ref><ref>[https://www.sefaria.org/Jastrow%2C_%D7%90%D6%B8%D7%94%D6%B3%D7%9C%D7%95%D6%B9%D7%AA.1 Jastrow, אָהֳלוֹת]</ref> Indeed, the proper plural of "tents" is ''oholim'', not ''oholot''.<ref>[https://mg.alhatorah.org/Concordance/168 Concordance, אֹהֶל  (שם עצם)]</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}} 
{{Mishna}}

[[Category:Jewish ritual purity law]]
[[Category:Judaism and death]]


{{Judaism-stub}}