Kommentar zu Tevul Yom 2:11

משקה טבול יום – the liquids which exude from the person who immersed himself that day) – as for example, his spittle, his urine, the tears of his eyes and the blood from his wounds, and the milk of a woman.

Liquids that come out of a tevul yom are like those which he has touched: neither of them causes defilement. Liquids that come out of a person include one's spit and one's urine. Our mishnah deals with the defiling power of such liquids. For a tevul yom, a person who has been to the mikveh but the sun has not yet set, those liquids are pure. They are like liquids that he touches and a tevul yom does not defile liquid such in order to give it first degree impurity. We should note that while a tevul yom would disqualify terumah that he has touched, as we saw in yesterday's chapter, he does not defile non-sacred produce.

כמשקים שהוא נוגע בהן – like liquids of priest’s due/heave-offering that he touches/comes in contact with, for a person who has immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom invalidates heave-offering/priest’s due.

With regard to all others that are unclean, be they of minor or major [degree], the liquids that come out of them are like those they touch; both have first degree impurity. In contrast, other people who are actually unclean, do defile liquids to give them first degree impurity and the liquids that come out of their body have first degree impurity. It doesn't matter whether these people have high or low levels of impurity. The liquids that they touch or that come out of their body would defile food and vessels but they wouldn't defile people.

אלו ואלו – liquids which exude from his body and liquid heave-offering do not defile the Holy Things/make the susceptible to uncleanness , but they invalidate it (see Tractate Parah, Chapter 8, MIshnah 7).

Except for liquid that is a "father of impurity." The exception to this rule are the few cases where liquids that come out of a person are themselves considered to be "fathers of impurity." This would include the spit or urine of a zav (see Zavim 5:7). Such liquids would even defile people and things.

בין קלין בין חמורין (whether minor or major) – minor are unclean reptiles; major are people with gonorrhea/flux (see also Tractate Hullin, folio 88a).

תחילה – first remove/degree of uncleanness and it makes [other things] second [degree of ritual uncleanness] and the second [degree of ritual uncleanness] makes [other things] third [degree of ritual uncleanness.

חוץ מן המשקה שהוא אב הטומאה – as for example the flux of a person with gonorrhea and his digestive organs/bowels.

המשקים פסולים – that a person who has immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom invalidates the heave-offering/priest’s due alone, but he does not make it susceptible to ritual defilement, and even liquids, for all that invalidates the heave-offering/priest’s due defiles liquids to be first [degree of ritual uncleanness] except for the person who has immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom. Therefore, the cooking pot is ritually pure, for the liquids that touched/came in contact with the Tevul Yom, even foods do not defile, and all the more so, vessels/utensils,

A pot which was full of liquid and a tevul yom touched it: If it is terumah, the liquid is disqualified, but the pot is clean. But if the liquid is non-sacred [hullin] then all remains clean. As we have learned, a tevul yom disqualifies liquids but he does not cause them to be defiled. So a tevul yom who touches liquid in a pot, the liquids themselves are disqualified (if they are terumah), but they don't have the power to defile the pot. And if the liquids are not terumah, then all is clean, because as we learned in yesterday's mishnah, a tevul yom does not defile non-sacred liquids.

but if the liquid was non-consecrated, everything is ritually pure, for a person who has immersed himself that day is pure for non-consecrated produce and for tithes.

If his hands were defiled [and he touched the liquids in the pot], all becomes unclean. In contrast, defiled hands (the topic of the next tractate) do defile liquids. These liquids will now in turn defile the pot in which they are in.

ואם היו ידיו מסואבות הכל טמא (but if his hands were dirty/unwashed, everything is ritually impure) – for hands make the heave-offering/priest’s due unfit, and when the liquids were ritually defiled on account of the [dirty] hands, they returned to be first [degree of ritual uncleanness] and defile vessels.

This is a case defiled hands are treated more stringently than a tevul yom. But a greater stringency is applied to a tevul yom than to defiled hands, since a doubtful tevul yom disqualifies terumah, but doubts with regard to defiled hands are clean. The mishnah now compares the halakhot governing defiled liquids with those governing defiled hands. In the above matter defiled hands were treated more stringently than the tevul yom. However, there is another halakhah in which tevul yom is treated more stringently than defiled hands. Any case of doubt regarding the tevul yom is treated stringently. For instance, if we are not sure if a tevul yom touched something of terumah, the terumah cannot be eaten. However, if a person has unclean hands and we are not sure if he touched something, the thing remains pure.

שספק טבול יום פוסל את התרומה – as for example two loaves before him, it is doubtful whether he came in contact with it/touched it or did not come in contact with it/touched it, that in that manner with ritually pure hands, but a person who had immersed himself that day invalidated them/made them unfit.

המקפה (a stiff mass of grist, oil and onions, porridge) – a cooked dish that is congealed and thick, as for example, cereal/a dish of pounded grain/grit or pounded beans.

If the porridge was of terumah and the garlic or oil [it contained] was of hullin, and a tevul yom touched part of them, he has disqualified the whole thing; There is a thick soup, a porridge, made of terumah that has in it hullin (non-sacred) garlic and oil. If a tevul yom touches part of the garlic or oil, all of it is disqualified because the porridge is the main thing. We look at the porridge as if it was all one dish of terumah and the whole thing is disqualified.

והשום והשמן – that are placed on it as a spice (i.e., for flavor).

But if the porridge was of hullin and the garlic or oil it contained was of terumah, and a tevul yom touched part of them, he disqualifies only the part he has touched. However, if the porridge itself is of hullin and the garlic and oil are terumah, then the garlic or oil are looked at is if they are not connected. If a tevul yom touches part of the garlic or oil, only the part he touches is disqualified.

נגע טבול יום במקצתן פסל את כולם – for the essence is the stiff mass of grist, and a person who has immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom invalidates/makes unfit the priest’s due/heave offering. But even though he didn’t touch/come in contact with other than with the unconsecrated garlic, it is considered a junction/connection.

If the greater part was garlic then they go after the majority. If there is more garlic than oil, then we look at the oil as if it is secondary to the garlic. If he touches the garlic, the oil will also be disqualified.

ואם היה השום מרובה (but if the garlic was the greater part) – more than the unconsecrated porridge/stiff mass of grist.

Rabbi Judah said: When is this so? When it formed one cohesive mass in the pot, but if it was scattered small in the mortar, then it is clean, since he wishes that it should be scattered. Rabbi Judah says we follow the majority of the garlic or oil only if the garlic has not been mashed and it sticks to the oil and becomes one lump. However, if the garlic has been mashed up and scattered in the pot, then the garlic pieces are not connected to the other pieces. The part of the garlic he touches is impure, but the rest remains clean.

הולכין אחר המרובה – and law of everything is like the law regarding heave-offering/priest’s due, but if he touched part of them, he invalidated/made unfit everything.

[Similarly] with all other mashed foods which were mashed with liquids. But those which are usually mashed with liquids and yet were mashed without liquids, though they formed one cohesive mass in the pot, are regarded as a cake of preserved figs. This section is a bit confusing. According to Albeck two different versions of this mishnah have been combined. I will explain according to his commentary. The first version should read thusly: But with all other mashed foods which were mashed with liquids or those which are usually mashed with liquids and yet were mashed without liquids, though they formed one cohesive mass in the pot, are regarded as a cake of preserved figs. The explanation is that if there was a food that people don't usually mash up with liquids but he nevertheless did mash it up with liquid or if there was a food which is normally mashed up with liquids but he didn't mash it up with liquids, even if they form one cohesive lump in the pot, they are treated like a cake of preserved figs. Only the part he touched is impure. The other version should read: [Similarly] with all other mashed foods which were mashed with liquids. But those which are usually mashed with liquids and yet were mashed without liquids, though they formed one cohesive mass in the pot, are regarded as a cake of preserved figs. The explanation is that other mashed foods that he mashed with liquids are also treated like garlic mashed with oil. If they make a cohesive mass, they are treated as connected. But if they are normally mashed with liquids and he mashed them without liquids, even if they form a cohesive mass, they are not treated as if they are connected.

אימתי – meaning to say, with that which we said if the garlic was the greater part and he (i.e., the Tevul Yom) touched part of it, he invalidates/makes unfit all of it, at the time that the garlic is collected/gathered in the dish, and it is one body, like a kind of a handful/clump of earth.

אבל אם היה מפוזר במדוכה (but if it - the garlic – was scattered in the mortar) – that its parts were separated from each other within the mortar, and a person who had immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom had touched it is then ritually pure, meaning to say, he did not invalidate it other than the place/point of his contact, for since he intended at the time that he is crushing/pounding to separate its parts, it is not considered a junction/connection.

ושאר כל הנידוכין שדכן במקשין (and the rest of the things that are crushed in liquids) – like they do with wheat, when they crush them in a mortar, they pour/sprinkle water over them.

או דברים שדרכן לדוך במשקין ודכן שלא במשקין והן גוש בקערה הרי הן בעיגולי דבילה – that if a person who had immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom had touched part of them, he did not invalidate all of them. Such is what I found in the commentary/explanation of my Rabbis/teachers. But Maimonides explains [the phrase]: "ושאר כל הנדוכים שדכן במשקין"/”And [so is the rule in the case of] all other things which one crushed, which one crushed together with liquids,” their law is like that of garlic. That if a person who had immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom had touched part of what he pounds, he only made unfit/invalid the place of his contact, because the scattering (of the garlic in the mortar) is welcome to him. But if he did not touch it when it became a clod/clump in the bowl, it is connection/junction, and when he touched part of it, he invalidated/made unfit everything.

אבל את שדרכן לדוך במשקין – we have this reading according to the explanation of Maimonides.

ודכן שלא במשקין – even though that he placed that lump/clod in the bowl, they are like cakes of pressed fig, that we stated that when he touched a part of it, all of them were not ritually defiled, in the beginning of the second chapter of [Tractate] Terumot (Mishnah 1).

המקפה והחמיטה (the porridge and the batter of which flat cakes are made) – it was their manner to place the batter of which flat cakes are made, which is a thin cake like a kind of wafer, within the porridge.

If the porridge and batter-cake were of hullin and oil of terumah was floating above them, and a tevul yom touched the oil, he disqualifies only the oil. Since the oil is floating on top of the porridge or batter-cake it doesn't count as being part of the larger base. This is similar to the case in yesterday's mishnah. So if he touches the oil, the rest can be eaten.

חיבץ (he – the unclean person- stirred) – that is that he mixed/combined the porridge and the batter of which flat cakes are made with the oil, but anyway, the oil is recognized. And surely it invalidates in every place that the oil goes, because it is impossible to separate it from the porridge and from the batter of which flat cakes are made.

If he stirred it altogether, all the places where the oil goes are disqualified. If he mixes the oil into the porridge or batter-cake, then any part of the larger dish that contains the terumah oil is disqualified.

בשר הקודש שקרם עליו הקיפה (sacred flesh on the top of which a layer of jelly was formed – as a crust) – the spices and the soup and the fat of the meat congealed upon it, that it was softened and everything became like a kind of crust.

Sanctified meat over which the porridge crusted, and a tevul yom touched the crust, the slices [of meat] are permitted. But if he touched one of the slices, that slice and all [the crust] that comes up with it form a connective the one with the other. Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri says: the two of them serve as connectives to each other. Sanctified meat, meaning meat that was part of a sacrifice, has been cooked in a pot with some porridge. The porridge crusts over the meat. According to the first opinion, the meat is not considered part of the crust. Thus if a tevul yom touches the crust, the meat is still permitted. It has not been disqualified. However, if he touches the meat itself, the meat and any part of the crust that would be lifted out of the dish with the meat is disqualified. The other parts of the porridge can still be eaten. Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri rules that the entire porridge and meat is considered connected. Thus if he touches any part of the porridge, the meat is disqualified.

החתיכות מותרות – for the crust is not a connection/junction.

Similarly, with [cooked] beans that have formed a layer over pieces of bread. The same rule as in section one applies to a case where beans have been cooked in a pot with some bread made of terumah.

וכל העולים עימה – is considered connected to it, but the rest is ritually pure.

Beans or other foods cooked in a pot: when they are still separate, do not serve as connectives; but when they become a solid pulp, they do act as connectives. If they formed several solid masses, they are to be counted. Having mentioned beans, the mishnah now discusses general cases of beans or other foods cooked in a pot. If the pieces of the food are still separate from one another, they don't count as connected. But a solid mass is connected and if he touches one part of the mass, it is all disqualified. If there are several solid masses, then the one he touches has first degree impurity. The mass that is next to it and touching it, has second degree impurity and the third mass will be disqualified if it is of terumah. When the mishnah says "counted" it means that the usual process of counting impurity begins from the mass he touched.

שניהם חיבור – and whether he touched the jelly or whether he touched the pieces [of meat], he has invalidated everything. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri.

If oil floats on wine and a tevul yom touched the oil, only the oil is disqualified. But Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri says: each serves as a connective with the other. This is similar to the case in yesterday's mishnah. If the oil floats on the wine, only the oil is disqualified. Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri again disagrees and holds that the substances are considered to be connected.

ווכן בקטניות (and so in the case of pulse) – of bread that we place on the pulse.

מעשה קדרה בקטניות (that which is cooked in the cooking pot and pulse) – that is to say, pulse that was cooked in a cooking pot, and it is their manner to be split/burst apart. And when they cook well, they attach/connect and become a kind of lump/clod. And there are those who have the reading (instead of "מעשה קדרה בקטניות" /”that which is cooked in the cooking pot in pulse,” [the reading}: "מעשה קדירה וקטניות"/”that which is cooked in the cooking pot and pulse.

הרי אלו ימנו (lo, they are counted – if there are many masses of pulse) – if the unclean reptile touched one of them, it is first [degree of ritual uncleanness], and the clod/lump that is adjacent to it is second [degree of ritual uncleanness], and the other that is adjacent/next to the second [degree of ritual uncleanness] is third-degree uncleanness of heave-offering/priest’s due.

שניהן חיבור זה לזה – but if the person who had immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom touched one of them, its neighbor is invalidated. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri.

חבית ששקעה (a jar which sunk) – a wine jug of heave-offering/priest’s due that fell into a cistern and sunk into the wine that is in cistern, and the wine that is in the cistern is unconsecrated and floats above on the top of the cistern. And he (i.e., the person who had immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom) touched/came in contact with it, etc. If he let down his hand into the mouth of the cistern...

A jug which sunk into a cistern containing wine, and a tevul yom touched it: If [he touched it] from the rim and inwards, it serves as a connective; If from the rim and outwards, it does not serve as a connective. Our mishnah describes an open jug of terumah wine that sinks into a cistern containing hullin (non-sacred) wine. If the tevul yom touches the wine that is inside the rim of the jug, even if this wine came from the cistern, all of the wine in the jug is connected. The terumah wine will all be disqualified. However, if he touches outside of the rim of the jug, then the wine is not connected to the wine in the jug, even if it is the same height as the jug and may indeed be intermingling. The jug in the wine remains pure and can be used as terumah wine.

מן השפה ולפנים הרי זה חיבור (from the rim and inward it is deemed connected) – and all the wine that is in the wine jug is invalidated, and even if the wine jug from the outset was not completely full from the wine of heave-offering/priest’s due.

Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri says: even though [the level of wine in the cistern] is the height of a man [above the sunken jar], and he touched [the wine] directly above the mouth of the jar, it serves as a connective. Again, Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri rules strictly concerning connectives. Even if there is a tremendous amount of wine in the cistern above the jug of terumah, the entire height of a man, and the tevul yom touched the wine directly above the jug, the wine above the jug and the wine in the jug are disqualified. Basically, this would seem to mean that the entire contents of the cistern are disqualified. If he touched the wine in the cistern on the sides of the jug, the jug's content would not be disqualified.

מן השפה ולחוץ – that he didn’t put his hand into the mouth of the wine jus, even though he touched the wine of the cistern that is opposite the mouth of the wine jug, nevertheless if is not connected.

אפילו על גבי רום קומה (even if [the level of the wine in the cistern] was a man’s height [above the sunken jar]) – that the wine that was in the cistern ascended on the face of the jug to the height of a person, if he touched corresponding to its mouth, it is connection. But the Halakha Is not according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri.

מפיה ומשוליה טמאה (whether at its rim or from its bottom) – from its mouth, it is ritually impure, for since all the wine that is below becomes the base for the upper part, it is a connection. And from its bottom also, since all the wine is conducted after the incision, it is a connection.

If a jug had a hole either at its neck, bottom or sides, and a tevul yom touched it [at the hole], it becomes unclean. Rabbi Judah says: if the hole is at its neck or bottom it becomes unclean; but if on its sides, on this side or on that, it remains clean. The jug has in it terumah wine and is sealed from above, but there is a hole elsewhere on the jug. According to the first opinion, no matter where that hole is, if a tevul yom touches the hole, all of the contents are disqualified. Rabbi Judah says that the contents are disqualified only if he touches either the hole on the top, at its neck, or the whole at the bottom. If he touches the hole at the top, all of the wine below is a base for the upper wine, so it is all considered connected. And if he touches the hole on the bottom of the jug then all of the wine will flow out of the hole below, so all of the wine is connected. But if he touches on one of the sides, the rest of the wine remains pure. Only the wine on the side he touches is disqualified. However, if there is a ratio of 100 parts pure wine to 1 part disqualified wine, then the disqualified wine is nullified and it is all pure, as we will learn in section two.

אבל נקבה מצדה מכאן ומכאן טהורה - and there is no invalidation/other than what he touched, and it is neutralized in one and one-hundred. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

If one poured [liquid] from one vessel into another, and a tevul yom touched the stream, and there was something within the vessel, then [whatsoever he touches] is neutralized in a hundred and one. If the tevul yom touches the stream flowing from one vessel to the other, he only disqualifies that part that he touches. If there is a 100 to 1 ratio of pure to disqualified liquid, then the part he touched is nullified and it is all pure. This is a similar situation to that in section one.

ונגע טבול יום בקילוח (and the person who had immersed himself that day touched the continuous flow/jet) – the continuous flow/jet alone is in validated, for the uninterrupted flow of liquid poured from vessel to vessel is not considered a connection (of the two liquids) -either for communicating uncleanness or for producing cleanness (see Tractate Taharot, Chapter 8, Mishnah 9), it is like impure priest’s due/heave offering that was mixed with pure, and is neutralized in one and one-hundred, like heave-offering/priest’s due with non-consecrated produce. And in this, even the Rabbis admit that a continuous flow/jet is not considered a connection to vessels, like the incision that is on the side of the jug/jar. And even though the liquids have no purification from their defilement, that is that it is not removed through dipping of a vessel, filled with unclean liquid, so as to make its surface level with the surface of the water into which it is dipped in a Mikveh like that for water, but for the reason of nullification, they are nullified with one in one-hundred. And specifically, when the person who had immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom had contact, the liquids are invalidated, because the person who has immersed himself that day/Tevul Yom does not defile. But with the rest of the defilements, he restores what is in the uninterrupted jet, he defiles everything that is in the vessel through contact.

בעבוע שבחבית – when they smelt an earthenware vessel in a furnace/kiln, kinds of bubbles go out in their walls, that they have two walls – one to the inner side of the jar and one to the outer side, and an empty cavity in the middle, and sometimes, there is in a bubble of two incisions/holes, one in the wall of the bubble of the inner side which is to the side of the hollow cavity of the jar, and one in the wall of the outer side, and the jar is filled with liquids, the liquids enter through the incision that is in the inner wall and it breaks through/bursts forth and leaves through the incision that is in the outer wall from above, if it was a jar placed in the tent of a corpse, and is surrounded by a closely covered lid in its mouth and is not surrounded with incisions of bubbles, or that someone who is a primary source of ritual defilement touched/came in contact with the liquid that is in the outer incision, all the liquids are defiled that in the jug, but if the inner part from above them and the outer part from below them, assuming that in a tent of a corpse it becomes defiled, that the tent of the defilement enters into the jar through the incisions, however with a primary source of ritual defilement it is ritually pure, for if a primary source of ritual defilement came in contact with liquids that are in the outer incision that is in the bubble from below, after the inner part from above was like an uninterrupted flow of a liquid poured from vessel to vessel and like blows/lashes (i.e., downward strokes) and it is not a connection.

Introduction Today's mishnah discusses a jug that has a bubble in the clay on the side. The bubble is pierced such that there is a passageway from the inside of the jar to the outside. The question is whether or not impurity can come from the outside and get in.

A bubble on a jug which was pierced with holes on its inner side and on its outer side, whether above or below: This section describes the scenario.

If [the holes are] opposite one another, it becomes unclean [if touched] by a "father of uncleanness" and it becomes unclean if it is in a tent in which there is a corpse. If the two holes are opposite one another, then the entire contents are susceptible to impurity. If a "father of uncleanness" touches the liquids at the hole, then the entire contents of the jug are impure. And if the jug is found in a tent in which there is a corpse, the contents are unclean even if the jug is tightly sealed up top. Since there is an opening, the jug is considered to be open and not protected from impurity.

If the inner hole is below and the outer above, it becomes unclean [if touched] by a "father of uncleanness," and it becomes unclean in a tent in which there is a corpse. The same is true if the inner hole is below and the outer hole is above. This is because the liquid the father of uncleanness touches on the outside would go down and defile all of the liquid on the inside.

If the inner hole is above and the outer below, it remains clean if touched by a "father of uncleanness," but it becomes unclean in a tent in which there is a corpse. However, if the inner hole is above and the outer hole is below, the liquid he touches will not go up and defile the inner liquid. Therefore, the contents remain pure. But in all cases since the jug is open through both sides, the contents are defiled by being in a tent with a corpse.