Contact with the body of a dead non-Jew confers tum'a, just as does contact with the body of a dead Jew.

Ritual impurity (tum'a) in a cemetery comes from being within 4 amot (7 feet) of a grave. This is horizontal distance, regardless of how deep the body is buried.

Ritual impurity from a cemetery goes up to the sky, so a cohen should not fly over a cemetery.
 

You do not need to wash your hands before reading a book of hashkafa/halacha/Jewish philosophy or even Torah or Talmud from a book, unless you have touched something impure/tamei before reading.

Wash your hands with a cup, using the One-Time Method, after touching any animal.
Reason Due to the dirt (which may carry tum'a due to feces and other impure substances) assumed to be on the animal. 

Halachically ownerless (hefkeir) fruit is fruit that will not be collected or picked by or for the owner, whether the fruit is:

• Still on the tree or fallen on the ground.
• Growing on public grounds or privately owned property.

 

“Ownerless” (hefkeir) fruit does not require having teruma and ma'aser separated even after it has been brought into your house.

Separate teruma and ma'aser on herbs grown in Eretz Yisrael.

Teruma and ma'aser laws only apply to produce grown in Eretz Yisrael.

If a patient has no pulse, is chilled, and has no brain function but can be revived, there is no tum'a. If the person is not revived, the tum'a may be retroactive.
 

For more on teruma and ma'aser, including a short form of the text, see kashrus/kk-medi-terumos.htm" target="_blank">Star-K article

For purposes of prayer while tum'a is around:

1. Feces are OK once they no longer smell.
2. Urine and impure wash water are OK once absorbed in ground.
3. Spit/saliva is no problem.

 

The Torah commands us to be kedoshim (holy, or set apart), requiring purity in what we eat, how we speak, what we wear, and how we behave. Tum'a is spiritual impurity generally resulting from transitions from life to death (even in a small measure; for instance—sleep or cutting nails). Tum'a inhibits or blocks us from achieving holiness.
Since we do not have a “red heifer” with which to make purifying water solutions, all people are considered to have some level of tum'a today.
Although there are three reasons to ritually wash hands--to add kedusha; to remove tum'a; and to remove dirt--tum'a normally has nothing to do with physical dirt. There are many types and levels of tum'a, with no exact progression. The following guideline is approximately in descending order from most impure to least:

Sources of the Different Levels of Tum'a

• Dead body (touching or being in same building with a dead body);
• Cemetery;
• Carcass of any dead animal not slaughtered by shechita;
• Women during and after menstruation or after childbirth (but before they immerse in a mikva);
• Sleep;
• Possibly a bathroom;
• Your hands' transferring tum'a to wet food;
• Your hands' transferring tum'a to bread;
• Food from under a bed on which someone slept;
• Intercourse or seminal emission;
• Having your beard, hair, or nails cut;
• Leather shoes;
• Touching body parts.

Depending on the level of tum'a, purifying may require:

• Washing your hands by the Three-Times Method.
• Washing your hands by the One-Time Method.
• Immersion in a mikva. OR
• Sprinkling with water that had been treated with ashes from a red heifer (which we do not have now).

On Yom Kippur (as on Tish'a b'Av), if you must wash your hands to remove:

• Tum'a: You may wash your hands only up to the knuckle that connects your fingers to the rest of your hand (thumb: second knuckle; fingers: third knuckle).
• Dirt from your hand: You may wash wherever the dirt is on your hand.

 

The minimum amount of water to remove tum'a (ritual impurity) is 3.3 fl. oz. (99 ml, or 1 revi'it) total, for both hands.