פירוש על טהרות 7:9
Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
גרגניות (unable to resist temptation/gluttonous) – they despise/disregard and are desirous for food. It is the Aramaic translation of (Lamentations 1:11): “How abject/what a glutton I have become.” I have become a glutton/bibber like a lion. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
A woman entered her house to bring out some bread for a poor man and when she came out she found him standing at the side of loaves of terumah; Similarly a woman went out and found her friend raking out coals under a cooking pot of terumah: Rabbi Akiva says that they are unclean, But the sages say that they are clean. There are two situations in this section. In both a woman leaves an am haaretz near some terumah food. In both Rabbi Akiva says that the food must be reckoned unclean lest the am haaretz touched the food and the rabbis say that the food remains clean.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
Rabbi Eliezer ben Pila: but why does Rabbi Akiva rule that they are unclean and the sages rule that they are clean? Because women are gluttonous and each may be suspected of uncovering her neighbor's cooking pot to get to know what she is cooking. While it looks like Rabbi Eliezer ben Pila is explaining the dispute, he is really explaining Rabbi Akiva's position, specifically why should he rule so strictly that even the cooked dish is defiled? We might assume that the woman won't touch the inside of a hot dish and earthenware vessels are not susceptible to impurity from the outside. It would seem that the food should be safe from impurity. Rabbi Eliezer ben Pila answers that women are gluttonous, which really means that they are exceedingly curious about what is being cooked in the pot. The woman will inevitably uncover the pot to see what's cooking. Once she touches it, the food is defiled. Perhaps this is the source for the phrase she is always sticking her nose in other people's pots?
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