The Empty Tomb and Taharah

Taharah (Hebrew) The Empty Tomb Sunday morning they went to the tomb And found it empty and felt gloom “He is risen,” they were told And even then, they were not bold But what of the purpose of their mission? To anoint the body, is the admission But why anoint rotting flesh? The purpose of anointing, to keep the smell fresh As a body was carried to its end The deceased did not wish to offend Spices were placed on the rotting flesh So while passing people, it would smell fresh This would disgrace the newly deceased Something to prevent, in the Jewish mid-east. So this very act is nothing more Than a plot device, a literary chore To have the tomb discovered bare So that followers would not dispair. But now we have another err That is rarely laid to bare Women would never clean a male Only men could receive that hail And if they did, a strong bewail Women cleaned only the female dead A task that men would never tread So when you hear these tales disagree It matters not whether the numbers agree For the story itself could never have been Nothing more than a literary scene.