Commentaire sur Zavim 5:11
בַּעַל קֶרִי, כְּמַגַּע שֶׁרֶץ. וּבוֹעֵל נִדָּה, כִּטְמֵא מֵת, אֶלָּא שֶׁחָמוּר מִמֶּנּוּ בּוֹעֵל נִדָּה, שֶׁהוּא מְטַמֵּא מִשְׁכָּב וּמוֹשָׁב טֻמְאָה קַלָּה לְטַמֵּא אֳכָלִין וּמַשְׁקִין:
Un ba'al keri [celui qui a eu une émission séminale nocturne] est [impur] comme celui qui a touché un sheretz [il ne devient pas le père de l'impureté]. Celui qui a des relations sexuelles avec une menstruation est [impur] comme celui qui a la malpropreté du cadavre [et est un père de l'impureté]. Cependant, celui qui a eu des relations sexuelles avec une menstruation est plus sévère, car il transmet des degrés mineurs de malpropreté à ce sur quoi il ment ou s'assoit, de manière à rendre les aliments et les liquides impurs.
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
בעל קרי כמגע שרץ – just as a person who touches a creeping insect/reptile is first degree of ritual impurity, so also the person with an nocturnal emission/pollution is a first degree of ritual impurity, and his defilement is comparable to the defilement of someone who touches effusion of semen.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
He who has had a seminal emission is like one who has touched a dead sheretz. This mishnah compares the impurity levels of various people. A man who has had a seminal emission has the same rules of impurity as one who touched a dead sheretz. As we learned in yesterday's mishnah, such a person has first degree impurity.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
ובועל נדה כטמא מת – which is one of the primary sources/causes of Levitical uncleanness and is ritually impure for a period of seven days.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
And one who has had sex with a menstruant is like one who has suffered corpse uncleanness. But a person who has had sex with a niddah, a woman while menstruating, has a higher degree of impurity he is a father of impurity. Note that all of these laws are learned from midrashim on the Torah. They are in no way value statements, saying that having a seminal emission is akin to touching a dead sheretz or that having sex with a menstruant is worse (although it is forbidden). The mishnah is only interested in comparing levels of impurity.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
שהוא מטמא משכב ומושב – and a corpse itself and all the more so someone with ritual impurity imparted by a corpse does not defile by sitting or lying, neither a minor defilement nor a stringent defilement, as it is written (Leviticus 15:3): “and every object on which he sits [shall be impure],” but not someone defiled by a contact with a corpse (see also, Tractate Kelim, Chapter 1, Mishnah 3).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
But one who has had sex with a menstruant is more stringent in that he conveys minor grades of uncleanness to what he lies or sits upon, so as to make foods and liquids unclean. A man who has sex with a menstruant has certain purity stringencies related to him that do not relate to a person who has corpse impurity. The former conveys a light form of impurity to anything he sits or lies upon in order for it to defile food or liquids (see Kelim 1:3). A person with corpse impurity does not defile in this manner, unless he touches that which he sits or lies upon.
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