Es gibt sieben Möglichkeiten, wie ein Zav untersucht wird [für die Ursache seiner Entlassung], vorausgesetzt, er ist nicht in die Grenzen der Zivah eingetreten [es ist nicht erwiesen , dass er ein Zav ist . Er wird untersucht, ob die Entladung nicht auf eine äußere Ursache und damit auf regelmäßiges Sperma zurückzuführen ist. in Bezug auf Essen [das er gegessen hat], Trinken [das er getrunken hat], eine Ladung [das er vielleicht getragen hat], einen Sprung [das er vielleicht gemacht hat], Krankheit [das er vielleicht gelitten hat], [ein Unangemessener] Sehen [er mag gesehen haben] oder [unreine] Gedanken [er mag gehabt haben], ob er unreine Gedanken hatte, bevor er [eine Frau] sah, oder er [Frau] sah, bevor er die unreinen Gedanken hatte [die Emission, die durch alle verursacht wurde] oben wird als normale Emission angesehen und er wird kein zav ]. Rabbi Yehuda sagt [fügt hinzu]: Selbst wenn er Rinder, wilde Tiere oder Vögel sah, die sich gegenseitig kopulierten, [und] selbst wenn er die farbigen Gewänder einer Frau sah [die Emission macht ihn nicht zu einem Zav ]. Rabbi Akiva sagt, selbst wenn er irgendeine Art von Essen gegessen hat, ob schlecht oder gut, oder er irgendeine Art von Getränk getrunken hat [die Emission macht ihn nicht zu einem Zav ]. Sie sagten zu ihm: Es wird niemals Zavim geben . Er [Rabbi Akiva] antwortete ihnen: Die Verantwortung für die Existenz von Zavim liegt nicht bei Ihnen. [Jedoch] sobald er die Grenzen der Ziva betreten hat [sobald festgestellt wird, dass er ein Zav ist ], untersuchen wir ihn nicht mehr. [Entladungen infolge] eines Unfalls oder einer zweifelhaften [Entladung] und bahnbrechende Emissionen werden [als] unrein angesehen, da die Angelegenheit Füße hat [es gibt Gründe für die Annahme, dass es sich um eine Zavut- Emission handelt]. [Wenn] er die erste Entlassung sieht, wird er [für die sieben Dinge] untersucht. [Wenn er] die zweite Entladung sieht, wird er [auf die sieben Dinge] untersucht. [Als er] die dritte Entlassung sieht, untersuchen wir ihn nicht mehr. Rabbi Eliezer sagt: Schon beim dritten Vorfall untersuchen wir ihn, weil wir wissen müssen, ob er verpflichtet ist, ein Opfer zu bringen.
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
בשבעה דרכים בודקין את הזב – because he (i.e., the man with flux/gonorrhea) does not defile because of unavoidable interference/accident, as it is written (Leviticus 15:2): “[when any man] has a discharge from his member, but not because of unavoidable accident/interference.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
Introduction
Zivah comes only from a genital disease or dysfunction. The rabbis considered it to be in a sense diseased semen (I know, this sounds a bit humorous). It has a different color from semen. If the rabbis could establish that the zivah came from another cause besides some genital disease, then they didn't consider it be zivah. Our mishnah talks about what else we could attribute the zivah to.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
עד שלא נזקק לטומאה (before he is confirmed as to flux) – that is when he sees a second sighting [of flux] that through it he becomes a Zav (i.e., a person afflicted with flux/gonorrhea) to defile through lying and sitting and to require him to count seven clean [days]. But a first sighting/appearance defiles through unavoidable accident ritual impurity until nightfall, like the law of the person with a seminal emission (see Deuteronomy 23:11-12), but it combines with the second [sighting] and even it was an unavoidable accident.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
There are seven ways in which a zav is examined as long as he had not become subject to zivah: When a person sees zivah, he can come to an expert and the expert could tell him that the appearance of the zivah is due to some other cause, not actual genital disease. If they find another reason as to why it occurred, they can keep him from becoming pure. However, this only works before he has become a zav, as we shall see at the end of this mishnah. Once he has already been declared a zav, the zivah can't be attributed to anything else.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
במאכל – if he consume a large meal or at things that bring him to gonorrhea, and even a little bit, as for example, fatty meat, milk and cheese, eggs, and aged wine, and pounded beans and a kind of kress or pepperwort.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
With regard to food, drink, as [to what] he had carried, whether he had jumped, whether he had been ill, what he had seen, or what he had thought. There are seven other things to which the rabbis attribute the appearance of zivah. Most of these are self-explanatory. Seeing refers to seeing a woman and having some sexual thoughts about her. "What he had thought" refers to having sexual thoughts about a woman. The rabbis also thought that the zivah could have been a result of eating some food, drink or carrying something, perhaps heavy.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
ובמשתה – increase/excess of drinking.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
[It doesn't matter] whether he had thoughts before seeing [a woman], or whether he had seen [a woman] before his thoughts. It doesn't matter whether he had the sexual thoughts before or after he saw the woman in both cases, we can attribute the appearance of zivah to his sexual thoughts and not to genital disease.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
במשא – a heavy thing that he carried.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
Rabbi Judah says: even if he had watched beasts, wild animals or birds having intercourse with each other, and even when he had seen a woman's dyed garments. Evidently, Rabbi Judah assumes that a man might be sexually aroused by seeing animals have sex or by seeing colored women's clothing. Therefore, if he saw any of these and then saw zivah, we can attribute it to sexual arousal and not disease.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
במראה – he saw a woman, even without meditation [on her].
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
Rabbi Akiva says: even if he had eaten any kind of food, be it good or bad, or had drunk any kind of liquid. They said to him: Then there will be no zavim in the world!’ He replied to them: you are not held responsible for the existence of zavim!’ Rabbi Akiva is willing to attribute the appearance of zivah to anything whatsoever. As his students note, this will make it so there will never be any more zavim in the world. Remarkably, Rabbi Akiva responds that if his definition of zivah and why it occurs should make it such that there are no more zavim, then so be it. To me, this is the ultimate statement of Rabbi Akiva's belief that law trumps reality. If he, the rabbi, dictates that we can attribute zivah to eating or drinking anything and it results in there never being any more zavim, then so be it.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
ובהרהור – even though he did not see [her]. It one of these seven things happened to him before he saw the second sighting/appearance, he is not become a Zav because of that sighting, but the drop does not defile in carrying like the rest of the drops of his flux.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
Once he had become subject to zivah, no further examination takes place. If he has already seen zivah twice, then there is no more room to attribute it to anything else. In other words, these questions must be asked immediately, not after he is already considered a zav.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
אין אחריות זבין עליכם (the responsibility for Zavim is not yours) – and if there won’t ever be any Zavim, what are you concerned/worried about? Have you not accepted responsibility of the Zavim upon yourselves? But the Halakha is not according to either Rabbi Yehuda or Rabbi Akiba.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
[Zov] resulting from an accident, or that was at all doubtful, or an issue of semen, these are unclean, since there are grounds for the assumption [that it is zivah]. If he has a seminal emission at the outset and a little bit of zivah also comes out, this zivah is not impure for one who has an emission does not defile through zivah for a 24 hour period. In other words, until he is decidedly impure the semen purifies the zivah, which is considered to have been an "accident." However, after he has already seen zivah, a seminal emission does not purify the zivah, for we can't assume that the zivah was a result of the semen. Therefore, in this case it counts as seeing zivah.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
משנזקק – for ritual defilement, after he saw a second sighting that was not an unavoidable accident. For from here onwards he makes [defilement] through sitting and lying.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
If he had at a first [issue] they examine him; On the second [issue] they examine him, but on the third [issue] they don't examine him. Rabbi Eliezer says: even on the third [issue] they examine him because of the sacrifice. If he saw zivah one time, they examine him as we explained above. If he saw it again, they can examine him again to see if they can attribute it to something else. But if he saw it a third time (without having been examined the first two times), they don't examine him, for after the second time he was already a zav. Rabbi Eliezer says they even examine him after the third time to ascertain that he is truly liable for a sacrifice. If he experienced the third issue for some other reason, then he is not liable for the sacrifice, even though he is a zav.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
אין בודקין אותו – even though he saw a third appearance/sighting [of flux] by unavoidable accident, he became a Zav for a sacrifice. And similarly, if he saw a sighting of effusion during the seven clean days that he is counting, it made void everything , and even it that sighting was by unavoidable accident.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
ספיקו ושכבת זרעו טמאין – his doubt is because of his effusion of semen. As for example, if he saw effusion of semen initially, and a drop of a flux that comes afterwards does not defile, for the person who sees an emission does not defile with gonorrhea during the time of twenty-four astronomical hours. But before he is confirmed for defilement, the emission purifies the gonorrhea, because it was an unavoidable accident. But after he was confirmed for defilement, the emission does not purify the gonorrhea, and we don’t suspend/leave it in doubt that because of the emission the gonorrhea comes.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
שרגלים לדבר – that this sighting is not because of an unavoidable accident, for he has already become a Zav.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
ראה ראיה ראשונה בודקין אותו – that is specifically for [the requirement to being] a sacrifice. For if it was because of an unavoidable accident that he saw it, it does not combine with the third [sighting] for a [requirement to bring a] sacrifice, but it combines with the second [sighting] for defilement. For if the second sighting was not by unavoidable accident, even though the first [sighting] was by unavoidable accident, it makes sitting and lying [something that defiles] and requires seven clean [days] and going into living waters, as just as it is written (Leviticus 15:2]: “[a discharge issuing] from his member” and not because of his unavoidable accident, with the second [sighting] it is written, but the first [sighting] is compared by close analogy to effusion of semen, as it is written (Leviticus 15:32): “Such is the ritual concerning him who has a discharge: concerning him who has an emission of semen/שכבת זרע [and becomes impure thereby], just as the effusion/emission of semen defines through unavoidable accident, so does the first sighting of flux/gonorrhea defiles through unavoidable accident.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
בשלישי אין בודקין אותו – neither for ritual defilement nor for a sacrifice.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
רבי אליעזר אומר כו' – But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer (see Tractate Niddah 35a for the rationale of the dispute).
