פירוש על חגיגה 3:6

הגבאים – Jewish tax collectors of a king from the nations of the world who collect taxes and taxes from crops and other farmer’s produces delivered in kind, and they entered into the house to seize his pledge.

Introduction Our mishnah continues to deal with the question of when to trust a person when he says that he has not made vessels impure.

וכן הגנבים – who stole earthenware and restored/returned them.

Tax-collectors who entered a house, and similarly thieves who restored [stolen] vessels are believed if they say, “We have not touched [anything].” The mishnah refers to a tax collector who has taken someone’s possessions in order to use them as collateral for a tax debt. When he returns the object to its owner he is believed if he says that he didn’t make the object impure. The same is true for the thief who is returning something he had stolen. It seems that these people are believed specifically because they are doing “teshuvah”, repentance, by returning the stolen/collected item. Since they are repenting, they are at the same time believed with regard to other aspects of religious law. Some commentators say that these people are believed if the item is going to be used for sacrifices, because even tax collectors and thieves respect the purity of sacrifices. But they are not believed with regard to terumah. Other commentators say that they are believed for both.

נאמנים לומר לא נגענו – [we did not touch] inside them, and they returned them on account of repentance that they did on their own and not on account of fear [of punishment].

And in Jerusalem they are believed in regard to sacred things, and during a festival also in regard to terumah. Amei Haaretz (uneducated people) are believed when they are in Jerusalem to say that their vessels are pure so that they could be used with sacrifices. During a festival their trustworthiness is even greater because everybody, even the uneducated, would purify themselves before the festival. Therefore they are even believed with regard to terumah.

ובירושלים נאמנים על הקדש – they are believed on all earthenware utensils, whether big or small, to state that they are pure for sacred things, because they do not make kilns in Jerusalem. Therefore, they were believed and did not make decrees against them.

But during the season of the Festival/Jewish holy day(s), even on the Terumah/priest’s due [they are assumed to be ritually pure], as is said in Scripture (Judges 20:11): “So all the men of Israel, united as one man, massed against the town.” The Biblical verse called them “united” at the time of gathering, and the Festival was a time of gathering together/being united.