פירוש על טהרות 9:6

לגרגרם – to make of them shriveled olives. Meaning to say, to make that each and every berry will wither in the sun and dry out.

Introduction This mishnah continues to explore the distinction between cases where one wants the olives to sweat and cases where he does not.

אפילו הן רום אמה – that when the upper ones wither, the lowest ones from the moisture and the moistness of the liquid, nevertheless, since it is his intention that they dry out, they are not made fit for Levitical uncleanness . And there are those who explain "לגרגרן"/to shrivel them, to sweet them in the sun in order that make an incision in them with salt and to consume them. And because they all do not become sweet at once, because of this, it (i.e., the Mishnah) takes [the term]: "לגרגרן"/to make of them shriveled olives, that is to say that he takes the shriveled olives that sweeten one by one and consumes them, and we have the reading: "אפילו הן רום אמה"/even if they are piled a cubit in height, they are fit for Levitical uncleanness, meaning to say, even that they are a cubit high for now those lowest ones are sweetened, they are made fit for Levitical uncleanness by liquids that exude from them. For it is satisfactory for him that they sweat there, that it appears better for consumption.

If one put his olives on a roof to dry, even though they are piled up to the height of a cubit, they do not become susceptible to uncleanness. If he put them on the roof to dry they are not susceptible to impurity because he does not want them to sweat. This is true even if they are piled high enough that the bottom ones definitely will sweat. Again, the issue is not whether they sweat, but whether he wants them to.

שילקו (that they might putrefy) – that they will be crushed and will be burst.

If he put them in the house to putrify, even though he intends to take them up on the roof, or if he put them on the roof so that they might open so that they could be salted, they become susceptible to uncleanness. In these cases, he put them somewhere for them to start to soften or go bad so that he could crush them and make oil. Or he put them on the roof so that they would split open so he could salt them. In all of these cases, he wants them to sweat. Therefore, the liquid that they emit makes them susceptible to impurity.

לעתיד להעלותן לגג – afterwards to sweeten them there in the sun.

If he put them in the house while he secured his roof or until he could take them elsewhere, they do not become susceptible to uncleanness. In this case he put them in his house temporarily, just until he could bring them somewhere else to soften them. Even though he does want the olives to be softened, they are not susceptible because he doesn't really want them to start this process in the house, where he is currently storing them.

נתנן בגג שיפתחם – that the olives will burst open and will salt them.

הרי אלו מוכשרים – for all these it is satisfactory to him with the sweating of the oil that is saved.

עד שישמר – that he will prepare to guard it on its roof. He covers it from reeds and straw that they make at the top of the roof to sit there to guard.

אינן מוכשרים – for it is not satisfactory to him with the moisture that exudes from them.