Halakhah for Eduyot 8:4

הֵעִיד רַבִּי יוֹסֵי בֶּן יוֹעֶזֶר, אִישׁ צְרֵדָה, עַל אַיִל קַמְצָא, דָּכָן. וְעַל מַשְׁקֵה בֵית מִטְבְּחַיָּא, דְּאִינּוּן דַּכְיָן. וּדְיִקְרַב בְּמִיתָא, מִסְתָּאָב. וְקָרוּ לֵיהּ, יוֹסֵי שָׁרְיָא:

R. Yossi b. Yoezer, Ish Tz'raidah, testified about ayal kamtza [a type of locust] that it is clean [and may be eaten. (The Targum of "kachagavim" ["like locusts" (Numbers 13:33)] is "kekamtzin")]; and (he testified) about the liquids [i.e., the blood and the water] of the slaughtering house, [in the azarah] that they are clean. [According to one view they are entirely clean; for the tumah of liquids is not Torah-based, but of rabbinic decree, and in this instance they did not decree thus. According to another view they are "clean" in that they do not defile others; but they are tamei in themselves, for the tumah of liquids in themselves is Torah-based, and the Rabbis cannot permit what the Torah has proscribed]; and (he testified) that one who touches a dead body becomes tamei. [That is, one who, of a certainty, touches a dead body becomes tamei, but, in an instance of doubt (safek), even vis-à-vis the stringent tumah of a dead body, he is tahor — how much more so does he come to permit the lesser tumah of a sheretz and a safek of tumah in the public domain. And even though a safek of tumah in the public domain is tahor (even) according to the Torah — for the entire issur of safek tumah is derived from sotah, viz. (Numbers 5:13): "…and she had secreted herself and she be defiled," Scripture telling us that she is forbidden in an instance of doubt ("secreted, etc."), and just as sotah obtains only in the private domain, there being no "secreting" in the public domain, so the tumah of safek obtains only in the private domain — still, before the ruling of Yossi ben Yoezer, they said: "It is a halachah (that tumah does not obtain in the public domain), but we do not teach it." And he came and testified that we do teach it ab initio, to render tahor every safek of tumah in the public domain.] And they called him "Yossi, the permitter." [For he permitted three things vis-à-vis which they deported themselves as being forbidden. For every beth-din which permits three things whose heter (permit) is not apparent is called "a permitting beth-din."]

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