One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
מְטַמְּאֵי מִשְׁכָּב וּמוֹשָׁב
Those Who Render Couch and Seat Impure 10-12
Sefer Taharah · Who is presumed impure and what it takes to be believed, the seasons and places where the unlearned are believed after all, and how far a suspicion is allowed to travel through an unattended house
3
Chaverim before whom the practices of a chavair are formally accepted
30
Days of watching before a new chavair's clothes, food and word are relied on
70
Days before the pressing season within which a guarded container is believed pure
10
Handbreadths of barrier that lift an oven out of an unlearned neighbour's domain
Ch 10The presumption, and the way out of it
- Observant and still presumed impure. An unlearned person, even one who is Jewish and observant of the Torah and its mitzvot, is presumed impure, his garment is a midras, terumah he touches is burnt, and his word about pure articles is not accepted, the stated reason being that he is not knowledgeable in the intricacies of purity and impurity. (10:1)
- What a chavair actually undertakes. To be careful with sources of impurity so as not to contract them, careful with pure articles so as not to defile them, careful about washing his hands, not to take moist foods from an unlearned person, not to accept his hospitality and not to host him while he is wearing his own garments. (10:1)
- All of it or nothing, and hands first. A man who accepts everything except one item is not accepted, while a man who accepts the purity of hands alone is accepted for that, and a man who wants the standing for pure objects without the purity of hands is refused even for pure objects; the acceptance is made before three chaverim and covers his wife, children and household. (10:2, 10:5)
- Thirty days, then equal footing. After thirty days his clothes, his food and his liquids are pure and his word is accepted like any other chavair even though he is not a Torah scholar; scholars are presumed chaverim without formality, though after the destruction the priests would not give pure articles even to them without a formal acceptance. (10:2, 10:3)
- Suspicion is graded, and it does not disqualify a judge. A chavair who becomes a tax collector loses the status, a man suspect in a severe matter is suspect in a light one and never the reverse, and a man suspect in a matter may still testify and judge in it for other people, since we assume a person will not transgress so that others will benefit. (10:8, 10:9, 10:11)
RememberThe refused acceptance is not the small one. It is the large one with a private exemption cut into it.
Ch 11Where the unlearned are believed after all
- Severity produces trust. Their word is accepted regarding the purification of the red heifer and regarding the wine and oil of the accompanying offerings, because the matter is severe and is therefore never treated lightly. (11:1)
- The season, not the man. Their word about terumah is accepted while the winepresses and olive vats are working, since everyone purifies then, so that a barrel refused out of season is accepted if the owner keeps it until the presses run again, even where the priest knows it is from the previous year. (11:1, 11:2)
- Earthenware, and a line drawn on a map. Their word about earthenware containers is accepted from Modi'it and closer to Jerusalem and not beyond it, so that the same potter selling the same pots is believed by a buyer walking in and not by one walking out, and a container guarded for the accompanying offerings is believed for up to seventy days before the pressing season. (11:5, 11:6, 11:7)
- Jerusalem is always lenient here. In Jerusalem their word that empty earthenware is pure for consecrated articles is always accepted, large vessels or small, full or empty, even where the liquids inside are impure and even where the man's midras garment entered the container, because kilns for earthenware are not made in the city. (11:5)
- The festival lifts the decree, and does not launder the leftovers. During the pilgrimage festivals the impurity decreed on the unlearned is suspended and the entire Jewish people are considered chaverim, so that all their vessels, food and liquids are pure and their word is taken for sacrificial food and terumah alike; but a barrel or a batch of dough opened during the festival is impure in whatever remains once the festival has passed. (11:9, 11:10)
RememberThe elevation of the festival is completely real while it lasts, and it makes no retroactive claim about the barrel.
Ch 12Unattended property, and the reach of a hand
- A key is not a house, and a charge defines the exposure. Entrusting the key of a house to an unlearned person leaves everything inside pure, sealed or marked lockers stay pure, and a man told to watch a cow so it will not enter the house has not been given the house, while a man told to watch the house or the vessels has, and they are impure. (12:3, 12:4, 12:8)
- Exactly as far as an outstretched hand. Craftsmen left in a house, a woman left to grind flour, and an unlearned person left asleep who is found awake all render impure only the places they can touch by extending a hand, and we do not say that they climbed onto a chair or a ladder to reach what was hanging high on the wall. (12:9, 12:10)
- What a person will not do without permission. A poor man found standing beside the loaves has touched nothing, even terumah, because it is assumed he would not touch without permission; thieves defile only the path they walked; and tax collectors who volunteer that they touched nothing are believed, since the same mouth that raised the suspicion removed it. (12:11, 12:12, 12:13)
- The two places that give no ground. A tool lost, or left in one corner and found in another, makes the entire contents of the house impure, since an impure person must have entered and taken it, and wherever an unlearned person has a right to enter, such as a shared courtyard or a hut before the door, the articles there are impure even sealed. (12:16, 12:17, 12:18)
- Height, ownership and the thief test. A chavair whose roof sits above an unlearned neighbour's may spread out pure food there, and may not if the roofs are level or the neighbour's is higher; and produce in an inner courtyard stays pure though a hand could reach it because reaching it would make the neighbour a thief, while food across a lattice barrier stays pure because it is standing in the chavair's own domain. (12:19, 12:20, 12:21)
RememberThe question is never what a person could have reached. It is what he was authorised to touch and what he would have had to become in order to touch it.