Comentario sobre Keritot 3:8
וְעוֹד שְׁאָלָן רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא. אֵבָר הַמְדֻלְדָּל בִּבְהֵמָה, מַהוּ. אָמְרוּ לוֹ, לֹא שָׁמַעְנוּ. אֲבָל שָׁמַעְנוּ בְּאֵבָר הַמְדֻלְדָּל בְּאָדָם, שֶׁהוּא טָהוֹר. שֶׁכָּךְ הָיוּ מֻכֵּי שְׁחִין שֶׁבִּירוּשָׁלַיִם עוֹשִׂין, הוֹלֵךְ לוֹ עֶרֶב פֶּסַח אֵצֶל הָרוֹפֵא וְחוֹתְכוֹ עַד שֶׁהוּא מַנִּיחַ בּוֹ כִשְׂעֹרָה, וְתוֹחֲבוֹ בְסִירָה, וְהוּא נִמְשָׁךְ מִמֶּנּוּ, וְהַלָּה עוֹשֶׂה פִסְחוֹ, וְהָרוֹפֵא עוֹשֶׂה פִסְחוֹ. וְרוֹאִין אָנוּ שֶׁהַדְּבָרִים קַל וָחֹמֶר:
El rabino Akiva les preguntó además: ¿cuál [es la regla con respecto a la impureza] de una extremidad que cuelga suelta del [cuerpo de un animal vivo]? Le dijeron: No hemos escuchado [ninguna enseñanza sobre este asunto], pero hemos escuchado que una extremidad que cuelga [del cuerpo de] un hombre es pura. Esto es lo que haría uno de los forúnculos en Jerusalén. En la víspera de Peasch iría al médico que le cortaría [la extremidad] hasta que solo quedara una cebada [tamaño de carne]. Luego la clavó en una espina y se apartó de ella. Tanto él [el paciente] como el médico podían [posteriormente] traer sus ofrendas de la Pascua. Y nos parece que [su caso puede entenderse empleando] un Kal Vachomer .
Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
אבר המדולדל בבהמה – most of it is detached and part of it is interwoven.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Keritot
Introduction
Rabbi Akiva asks another question to Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Joshua.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
מהו – that he should become defiled because of [the prohibition of] a limb from a living animal, as if it was detached completely, but we hold in [Tractate Hullin, Chapter 9, Mishnah 8] “The Flesh and the Juice,” that a limb from a living animal defiles like a carrion. But a limb that is detached completely from a human being completely defiles like the dead person.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Keritot
Rabbi Akiva further asked: If a limb hangs loose from the body of a living beast, what is the law? A limb removed from a living animal is considered to convey impurity like carrion. Rabbi Akiva asks concerning a case of a limb that is hanging loose from an animal. A sinew or some skin is connecting it to the animal, but the limb will not heal and become fully reattached to the animal. Does such a limb convey impurity even though it is still attached?
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
באבר המדולדל באדם – that it is partly interwoven, it is ritually pure.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Keritot
They replied: We have heard nothing about this, but we have heard about a limb hanging loose from the body of a man, that it is clean. As was the case in yesterday’s mishnah, Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Joshua do not have a received tradition, but they can again figure out the answer by comparing it to a case for which they do have a tradition. If a person has a limb hanging loose from his body, it does not convey impurity as if it were a dead body.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
מוכי שחין (afflicted with boils) - that their limbs are falling.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Keritot
And thus those that were afflicted with boils used to do in Jerusalem. He would go on the eve of Pesah to the doctor, and he would cut the limb until only contact of a hairbreadth was left; he then stuck it on a thorn and then tore himself away from it. In this manner both that man and the physician could make their pesah offering. They now explain how people would use this halakhah to prevent them from becoming impure on the eve of Pesah, and thereby lose their ability to sacrifice and eat the pesah offering. People who had boils and needed to have a limb removed would go to the doctor. He could not cut off the limb because then he would become impure. To solve this problem, he would cut off most of the limb until it was only connected by a hairbreadth. At this point the limb was still pure. He would then stick the limb on a thorn stuck into the ground like a peg. The person with boils would then rip his own limb off (ouch!). In this way, the doctor would not touch the limb while it was being ripped off. Both the doctor and his patient could then offer their pesah sacrifice that evening.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
וחותכה – not because of ritual purity, for before this, it is also ritually pure, but rather so that it is not detestable on the Festival with a dangling limb.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Keritot
And it seems to us that your case may be derived from this by a kal vehomer. From this case we can draw a “kal vehomer” argument. If the limb hanging from a human body which would convey the more serious impurity of a dead body is pure as long as it is still hanging from the body, all the more so the limb hanging from a live animal, which would have the lesser impurity of “carrion,” is pure if it is still hanging.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
שמניח בו כשערה – but doesn’t cut it off completely, so as to not defile the person who cuts it (i.e., the doctor) when he touches it at the time of its separation.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
ותוחבו – to the limb.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
בסירה – with a thorn that is attached the ground.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
והוא – the sick person.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
נמשך – and the limb is torn away on its own, and the sick person is not ritually impure because he pulls himself with strength at one clip and the limb is detached from im with power and there is no contact at the time of separation.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
שהדברים קל וחומר – for just as a person is susceptible to ritual defilement while alive, the dangling limb from him is ritually pure, an animal which is not susceptible to ritual impurity while alive, is it not the case that the limb that is dangling from it is ritually pure?
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