Commentaire sur Méila 4:6

הערלה וכלאי הכרם מצטרפין (see also Tractate Orlah, Chapter 2, Mishnah 1) – that if he consumed half-of-a-measure from this one (i.e., Orlah/fruit that grows during the first three years after a tree was planted) and half-of-a-measure from that one (i.e., Kilei HaKerem/food crops in a vineyard – which unlike the prohibition of a mixture of seeds, it is prohibited to derive any benefit from the crop grown in the vineyard and all of the produce must be burned – see Tractate Kilayim), they combine [together to make that person liable] to be flogged [forty times – actually, forty minus one). Alternatively, Orlah and Kilei HaKerem are mixed together that fell into something permitted, they combine [to become prohibited] with dry produce in one out of two hundred, and with moist produce, if it provides a taste/flavor.

Orlah and kilayim of the vineyard can combine with one another. Rabbi Shimon says: they do not combine. According to the first opinion, orlah (fruit during its first three years) and kilayim (seeds) that grow in a vineyard combine with one another. The result is that if half of a seah of orlah and half of a seah of kilayim fall into less than two hundred seahs of regular produce, the regular produce is all prohibited. Rabbi Shimon holds that since these two prohibitions have different names, they don’t combine together. It seems that the first opinion holds that since they are so similar, they do combine.

אינן מצטרפין – since they are two distinctive categories, but if there is in a pot to nullify her taste of the Orlah/fruit that grows during the first three years after a tree was planted, on its own, and the taste of Kilei HaKerem/food crops in a vineyard on its own, everything is permitted. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.

Cloth, sack-cloth, sack-cloth and leather, leather and matting combine with one another. The different materials in this section have different minimum measures for being susceptible to different kinds of uncleanness. Cloth that is three handbreadths square is susceptible to the sitting impurity conveyed by a zav (one with an unusual genital discharge), and for other matters of impurity it is susceptible if it is three fingers square. Sack-cloth must be four by four handbreadths. Leather must be five square handbreadths. And matting must be six square handbreadths. These different materials can join together to create the minimum measure for the most lenient of them. For instance, one handbreadth of cloth will join with three handbreadths of sack-cloth, and one of sack-cloth will join four of leather and one of leather will join five of matting. However, two handbreadths of cloth will not join one handbreadth of sack-cloth, because the cloth is stricter. To put it another way cloth can count as sack-cloth, but sack-cloth cannot count as cloth.

הבגד – which defiles [through the treading of someone with a flux] three handbreadths by three handbreadths.

Rabbi Shimon: What is the reason? Because these are all susceptible to the uncleanness caused by sitting. In mishnah three we learned that different substances that do not have the same measure do not join together. Seemingly, today’s mishnah deviates from that rule. Rabbi Shimon explains that it does not actually contradict that rule because when it comes to the impurity conveyed by the sitting of a zav, they all potentially have the same measure. If a person cuts off a small piece of any of these materials, the size of one handbreadth square, and he intends to sit on that material, it is susceptible to sitting impurity when a zav sits on it. Since there is one aspect in which they are all the same, they can join together to create the minimum measure be susceptible to impurity.

והשק – that it defiles [through the treading of someone with a flux or other impurities] four handbreadths by four handbreadths.

והעור – five handbreadths by five handbreadths.

והמפץ (poor-man’s mattress) – six handbreadths by six handbreadths. The cloth/בגד combines with the sack/שק – that is less than it, to become defiled by four handbreadths by four handbreadths. And similarly, each other combines to that which is a less than it, and all of them combine with each other to defile according to the lesser measurement of defilement, but not the lesser with the greater.

מפני שהן ראוים לטמא מושב (suitable to be made unclean as that used for sitting) – that is to say, even though we have stated above (see Mishnah 3 of this chapter) that everything where their measurements are not equivalent they do not combine, here they combine even though their measurements are not equivalent, for since they are equivalent for this things – each one of them suitable to be made ritually impure as that used for the sitting of the person with a flux, therefore, they combine for the defilement of sitting.