CLEAN, pure — the opposite of tame, and the DEFAULT state rather than an achievement. Nothing has to be done to a person to make them tahor; it is simply what they are when nothing has made them otherwise. The word is also the ordinary adjective for unalloyed metal — the tabernacle's lampstand is beaten from 'pure gold' (Exodus 25:31, already on these pages) — which is the sense underneath the ritual one: not washed, but unmixed. ⚠ Leviticus 11:36 (already on these pages) gives the pair its most surprising line: a spring or a cistern stays tahor no matter what falls into it, the one thing in that whole chapter uncleanness cannot touch. → first discussed at Lev 11:36