Similalities between the Japanese and the Hebrew Customs

      With regard to the custom of ablutions, there are not a few scholars and Shintoists who point out that the Japanese way of ablution resembled to that of people of the ancient Israel. According to the description in Numbers 19 of the Holy Bible, ancient people of Israel must have been purified with water whenever they touched something concerning death[i]. In addition to ablutions, it is said that there are some similarities between traditional habits of the Japanese and those of the Hebrew, for example, use of salt for purification[ii]. 

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[i] Rabbi Marvin Tokayer,Nihhon Yudaya no Huuinn no Kodaisi, Tokuma-Shoten, Tokyo, 1999, pp. 168-169.

[ii] Ibid., p. 166.

Japan history politics

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