Toda la saliva que se encuentra en Jerusalén está (ritualmente) limpia [y no se supone que sea la saliva de un zav o de una zavá, que causa impureza en el hombre y los vasos, porque seguimos a la mayoría (de los casos)], a excepción de el mercado superior, [porque se encontraron lavadoras gentiles allí, y los sabios decretaron que los gentiles sean como zavin en todos los aspectos y que su saliva es inmunda. Y algunos dicen que es porque el mercado superior no era frecuentado por la mayoría de la gente y solía ser frecuentado solo por zavin y zavoth, quienes se aislaban de los demás.] Estas son las palabras de R. Meir. R. Yossi dice: Los otros días del año (es decir, no en festivales) (saliva encontrada) en el medio (del camino) es impuro; y a los lados, limpio. Durante el festival, en el medio, está limpio; en los lados, impuros, ya que ellos (los zavin) son impuros, se mueven hacia los lados. [(Los otros días del año), zavin y zavoth son numerosos y caminan en medio del camino; y los que están limpios se mueven a los lados del camino, donde la mayoría de las personas no caminan y exhortan a todos los impuros a que no los toquen. Pero durante el festival, cuando la mayor parte de Israel está limpia, los impuros se retiran a los lados para no hacer que la gente quede impura, y los limpios caminan en medio del camino. Por lo tanto, durante el festival, la saliva que se encuentra en el medio está limpia y la que se encuentra en los lados es inmunda. La halajá está de acuerdo con R. Yossi.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
כל הרוקין הנמצאים בירושלם אהורים – and we do not encourage the spittle of a man or woman suffering from an emission because they defile humans and utensils because we follow after the majority.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
Introduction
This mishnah continues to deal with scenarios in which we determine the status of something based on a majority, a topic which we began discussing in the beginning of chapter seven.
The specific topic is spit found in the streets of Jerusalem. If such spit comes from an impure person than the spit is unclean.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
חוץ משל שוק העליון – because heathen launderers were found there and the Sages decreed concerning the heathens that they would be like men with a flux in all their matters, and their spittle is ritually impure. But there are those who state that that since the Upper Market did not have the benefit of the crossing found there (i.e., “foot traffic”) and men and women with a flux were alone and distanced themselves from other people that were found there.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
Any spit found in Jerusalem is clean except that which is [found] in the upper market, the words of Rabbi Meir. According to Rabbi Meir, we can assume that all spit found in Jerusalem is clean except spit found in the upper marketplace. In most areas people who are unclean are extra cautious since they know that in Jerusalem people need to be extra careful about issues of purity and impurity. This is because in Jerusalem many people eat sacred food, which needs to be eaten in purity. In contrast, outside of Jerusalem we must be concerned lest the spit is unclean. The only exception within Jerusalem is the upper market, towards the southwest of Jerusalem, where non-Jews and unclean persons used to congregate. There, found spit is considered to be unclean.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
שבאמצע טמאים – because men and women with a flux are frequently there and walk in the middle of the roads, and the ritually pure individuals remove themselves to the sides of the roads – in a place where there is not much walking found, and are careful of all ritually impure that they should not come in contact with them, but at the time of the Festival, when the majority of Jews are ritually pure, the ritually impure remove themselves to the sides so that they do not defile the people, and the ritually pure walk in the middle of the roads; therefore, at the time of the Festival, the spittle that is found in the middle of the road is ritually pure, but that which is on the sides is ritually impure, and the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yosi.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
Rabbi Yose says: at other times of the year [spit found] in the middle [of the road] is unclean but [spit found] at the sides [of the road] is clean; but at festivals time [spit found] in the middle [of the road] is clean, while [that which is found] at the sides [of the road] is unclean, since they are few in number, they remove themselves to the sides of the road. Rabbi Yose distinguishes between times of the year and places in the road in his determining whether we must consider the spit to be unclean. During non-festival times, most of the people of Jerusalem are impure, just as they are in other cities. At these times the pure people walk on the sides of the road to avoid the impure people who are walking in the middle of the road. Hence, spit found in the middle of the road is impure whereas spit found on the sides is pure. The opposite is true during the time of the festivals, when most people are pure. They walk in the middle of the road and the impure people walk on the sides of the road (this seems quite courteous of theme). Hence, only spit found on the sides of the road is considered impure.
