[Se] si soffia sulle lenticchie per verificare se sono buone [pronte da cuocere], il rabbino Shimon dice: [l'umidità dal suo respiro] non raggiunge BeKhi Yutan , ma i Saggi dicono: Questo raggiunge BeKhi Yutan . [Se] uno mangia semi di sesamo con il dito, [per quanto riguarda] l'umidità sulla sua mano [dalla sua lingua], il rabbino Shimon dice: Questo non raggiunge BeKhi Yutan , ma i Saggi dicono: Questo raggiunge BeKhi Yutan . [Se] uno nasconde il suo frutto in acqua a causa dei ladri, ciò non ottiene BeKhi Yutan . Accadde una volta che il popolo di Gerusalemme nascose le loro torte di fichi nell'acqua a causa dei Sikarii [banditi] e che i Saggi li considerarono puri [cioè non suscettibili all'impurità]. [Se] uno mette i suoi frutti nel fiume di un fiume per trasportarli con sé, ciò non ottiene BeKhi Yutan .
Bartenura on Mishnah Makhshirin
הנופח – [he blows] with this mouth.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Makhshirin
If one blew on lentils in order to test whether they were good: Rabbi Shimon says: this does not come under the law of ‘if water be put’. But the sages say: this does come under the law of ‘if water be put’. According to Rabbi Shimon, the moisture that comes out of a person's mouth when he blows on the lentils does not count as a liquid. But the sages say it is a liquid and therefore the lentils are susceptible to impurity.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Makhshirin
בעדשים – that spittle exited upon them from his mouth with his blowing, and the spittle that comes out from the mouth is considered from the derivatives of water.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Makhshirin
If one ate sesame with his finger, with regard to the liquid that was on his hand: Rabbi Shimon says: this does not come under the law of ‘if water be put’. But the sages say: this does come under the law of ‘if water be put’. A person wets his finger so he can eat sesame seeds by having them stick to his finger. Again, Rabbi Shimon does not consider this to be liquid such that the seeds are susceptible to impurity, but the other sages do.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Makhshirin
אינן בכי יותן – since he did not intend for this [to occur].
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Makhshirin
If one hid his fruit in water from thieves, it does not come under the law of ‘if water be put’. Once it happened that the men of Jerusalem hid their fig cakes in water from the robbers, and the sages declared that they were not susceptible to uncleanness. This person hid his produce in water only to protect it from thieves. Since he didn't really want the produce to get wet, it is not susceptible to impurity. The mishnah even includes a story of such a case occurring and the sages ruling that the produce remained insusceptible to impurity.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Makhshirin
וחכמים אומרים בכי יותן – since he intended to blow, and it is the manner of the spittle to leave through blowing. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Makhshirin
If one put his fruit in the stream of a river to make it come down with him, it does not come under the law of ‘if water be put’. Again, this person didn't want his produce to get wet, he just wanted to put it in the stream so that he could transport it. The produce remains insusceptible to impurity.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Makhshirin
האוכל שומשמין – as for example, that he placed sesame in one hand, and a finger that was on his second hand he places into his mouth to moisten with spittle and he places it on the sesame that is in his other hand and they become attached and he brings in his finger into his mouth and eats, and on account of this, the hand that the sesame was in is moistened. And there is liquid dripping.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Makhshirin
ר' שמעון אומר אינן בכי יותן – for he intended to moisten his finger, but not to moisten the hand that the sesame was in. But the Rabbis hold, since that he considered/planned with his finger, he makes it fit for Levitical uncleanness even unintentionally, as is taught in the Mishnah at the beginning of our chapter (Mishnah 1): “Any liquid which in the beginning is acceptable, even though at the end it is not acceptable…is under the law of “if water is put [on the seed and any part of a carcass falls upon it, it shall be impure for you]” (Leviticus 11:38). But Rabbi Shimon holds, that it was not acceptable at the beginning other than the moistened liquid of the finger alone. But the remainder that was moistened by the hand was never acceptable. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon in our entire Mishnah.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Makhshirin
הסריקין (the robbers. See also Tractate Gittin, Chapter 5, Mishnah 6) – (Judges 11:3): “Men of low character gathered about Jephthah [and went out raiding with him].” We translate into Aramaic: “reckless men.” The language of an אילן סרק /a tree which bears no fruit. Another explanation: סריקין/thieves, for such is the language of Ishmael who calls thieves סראקין/unsavory. And there are those who have the reading: סקרין , the language that there weren’t robbers in the Judea among those who were killed in the war [as described] in the chapter (the fifth chapter of Tractate Gittin, Chapter 5, Mishnah 6) הנזקין (see Tractate Gittin, folio 55b, meaning robbers and violent men.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Makhshirin
בשבולת הנהר (the current of the river, the rapid stream) – the path of the river and the running of its waters. It is the language of (Psalms 69:3): “the flood sweeps me away.”
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Makhshirin
להביאן עמו – that he was not able to carry them, and he floated them down the river.
