... The tent, the room that shelters a corpse, with all the utensils therein, is permeated with the fluid of Tumah, uncleanness.  Whoever lingers, sits or sleeps there, whoever touches the corpse, is infected with the Tumah and becomes in turn "Abh hatumah," the father of uncleanness, and he who touches the Abh hatumah is called "Rishon lettimah," the first of uncleanness; he is prohibited for seven days from entering the sanctuary or from approaching the altar... (New Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Rodkinson, 1903).