Commentary for Oholot 18:1
כֵּיצַד בּוֹצְרִים בֵּית הַפְּרָס. מַזִּים עַל הָאָדָם וְעַל הַכֵּלִים, וְשׁוֹנִים וּבוֹצְרִים וּמוֹצִיאִים חוּץ לְבֵית הַפְּרָס, וַאֲחֵרִים מְקַבְּלִים מֵהֶם וּמוֹלִיכִים לַגָּת. אִם נָגְעוּ אֵלּוּ בָאֵלּוּ, טְמֵאִים, כְּדִבְרֵי בֵית הִלֵּל. בֵּית שַׁמַּאי אוֹמְרִים, אוֹחֵז אֶת הַמַּגָּל בְּסִיב, אוֹ בוֹצֵר בְּצוֹר וְנוֹתֵן לְתוֹךְ הַכְּפִישָׁה וּמוֹלִיךְ לַגָּת. אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹסֵי, בַּמֶּה דְבָרִים אֲמוּרִים, בְּכֶרֶם הַנַּעֲשָׂה בֵית הַפְּרָס. אֲבָל נוֹטֵעַ בֵּית הַפְּרָס, יִמָּכֵר לַשּׁוּק:
How can one harvest grapes in the <i>Beit Pras</i> [a field in which a grave has been plowed over]? We sprinkle on the person and the vessels and repeat and they can harvest the grapes and take them out of the <i>Beit Pras</i>, and others receive from them and carry to the winepress. If these [people] touched those, they are impure according to the words of the House of Hillel. The House of Shammai say, he holds the sickle with palm tree bark [which cannot become impure] or harvests the grapes with a rock and places them in a basket and take them to the winepress. Rabbi Yossi says, when is this the case? In a vineyard that became the <i>Beit Pras</i>, but if he planted in the <i>Beit Pras</i>, they should be sold in the market.
Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
כסאה וכסאתים חותמות – of plaster. And this fact brings Rabbi Yehuda to the assistance of the Rabbis that they didn’t worry about a Se’ah or two Se’ah from the dirt that comes from outside the Land of Israel, for since there wasn’t the seal of one of them on its own like the seal of the leather bags. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Oholot
Introduction
Today's mishnah deals with how a person can harvest grapes that grow in a bet peras without allowing the grapes to become impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
כיצד בוצרים בית הפרס (how do they cut grapes in an area in which uncertainty exists concerning the location of a grave or a corpse or crushed bones carried over it from a ploughed grave)- so that the grapes that grew in it would be ritually pure.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Oholot
How does one harvest the grapes of a bet peras? They sprinkle [hatat water] on the harvesters and the vessels [once] and then a second time. Then they harvest the grapes and take them out of the bet peras. Others then receive [the grapes] and take them to the winepress. If the latter set [of persons] came into contact with the former, they become unclean, This is according to the words of Bet Hillel. The first section contains the opinion of Bet Hillel as to how one can harvest the grapes and bring them to the winepress without them becoming impure. The first step is to purify the person harvesting and his vessels. Seven days before the harvesting he goes through the purification process of having hatat water (those containing the ashes of the red heifer) sprinkled upon him on the third and seventh day. Generally this is done only for someone who has corpse impurity, but here it is done even if the person does not actually have corpse impurity. The point of the procedure is to demonstrate that the impurity of the bet peras is being taken with grave consideration (pun intended). After this, the person harvests the grapes and brings them out of the bet peras. It would seem that the grapes should be defiled by the person and the vessels for these are defiled once they are in the bet peras. However, since there is no other way to get the grapes out of the field, the rabbis didn't declare that they would impure. In other words, since the impurity of the bet peras is of rabbinic origin (and not from the Torah), the rabbis have room to dispense with this impurity when they feel the situation requires. The harvesters then give the grapes to pure people who had not gone into the field. Those who have received the grapes can take them to the winepress and press the grapes while they are pure. The harvesters should not because it is possible to pass the grapes on to people that were not in a winepress. Those people receiving the grapes should not have any contact with those people who were in the field, and if they do, they become impure, as would the grapes.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
מזין על האדם ועל הכלים – on the third day [they would sprinkle].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Oholot
Bet Shammai say: [the gatherer] holds the sickle with sinew-rope, or harvests the grapes with a sharp flint, lets [the grapes fall] into a basket, and then he takes [them] to the winepress. Rabbi Yose said: When do these rules apply? [Only] in the case of a vineyard which subsequently became a bet peras; but a person who plants [vines] in a bet peras must sell [the grapes] in the market. Bet Shammai provides an entirely different solution to the problem. The harvester should harvest the grapes using vessels that cannot become impure. He doesn't touch the sickle, because he wraps it with a type of rope that cannot become impure. Alternatively, he harvests using stone, which is never susceptible to impurity. He then lets the grapes fall into a type of basket that cannot become impure. Since he never touches the grapes and the vessels are not impure, the grapes do not become impure. Then he can take the grapes himself directly to the winepress.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
ושונין – on the seventh day [they repeat it].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Oholot
Rabbi Yose says that all of the above refers only to a case where the vineyard existed prior to its becoming a bet peras. In these situations, the sages gave a solution whereby the person could find a way to harvest without defiling the grapes. However, if the person simply planted a vineyard in a bet peras, the rabbis did not allow him to bring the grapes to the winepress while preserving their purity. His only option in this case would be to sell the grapes in the marketplace. These grapes have not become susceptible to impurity since they weren't harvested to be crushed.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
ומוציאין חוץ לבית הפרס – and even though that one cuts grapes for the vat for wine-pressing are fit for receiving Levitical uncleanness and this is one of eighteen matters that they decreed on the day [that Rabban Gamaliel was deposed as head of the Sanhedrin (see Tractate Berakhot 28a)], these words [refer to] defilement according to the Torah, but concerning the defilement of the a field where uncertainty exists concerning the location of a grave or corpse or crushed bones carried over it from a ploughed grave is Rabbinic, and we don’t consider it a fitness to become unclean. And because of this, it (i.e., the Mishnah) took [the term] and taught: “they sprinkle on the man and on the vessels [and repeat the process],” in order that they would be pure from defilement according the Torah (see Numbers 19:19, and even though they go back and become defiled in the field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave at the time of the harvesting of grapes, further, the grapes are not defiled through their contract because of the defilement of the field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave all the while that they did not have a complete fitness to become unclean.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
ואחרים – who did not enter into the field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
מקבלין – from those who cut/harvest the grapes.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
ומוליכין לגת – in other vessels. But those who cut/harvest the grapes do not bring them to the vat for wine-pressing, because the vat is filled with liquids and they are pronounced fit [for Levitical uncleanness] for a complete fitness.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
ואם נגעו אלו באלו – those who cut/harvest the grapes came in contact with/touched the others who receive [the grapes].
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
טמאים – those who receive [the grapes] and they all of the grapes. For a person that is defiled in a field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave become a primary source of ritual defilement/ אב הטומאהand it defiles people and vessels [according to the School of Hillel].
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
בית שמאי אומרים אוחז את המגל – that they (i.e., the School of Shammai) holds that the person who harvests [grapes] in the vat becomes fit for Levitical uncleanness even for the defilement of a field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave, and because of this, he must hold on to a sickle wrapped in a fibrous substance/bast of a palm tree when he harvests that does not receive defilement.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
או בוצר בצור (or he harvests with a flint) – and it is a sharp stone that is not a vessel.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
ונותן לתוך הכפישה (places it into an inverted vessel/a vessel divided into two compartments by the bottom between) – a large vessel that one harvests olives in, that it doesn’t receive ritual defilement.
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