fol. 50d Mishnah 1: All spittle1 found in Jerusalem is pure except on the Upper Market2, the words of Rebbi Meïr. Rebbi Yose says, on all other days of the year, those in the middle of the road are impure, and those on the sides pure. On holidays, those in the middle of the road are pure and those on the sides impure since the minority will remove themselves to the sides. 1 Any impurity caused by a human body Jerusalem, where people are used to eat itself, such as in a person afflicted by sancta the entire year according to R. Meïr, gonorrhea, is a source of severe impurity, or on the holidays according to R. Yose, one and all his body fluids are sources of severe may assume that impure people are careful impurity. In any place other than Jerusalem, not to contaminate their pure neighbors. one must assume that spittle was ejected by This is a reconstruction by authors living an impure person whose impurity was two generations after the destruction of the caused by his body (cf. Mishnah Tahorot Temple. 4:5). By rabbinic usage, all Gentiles are 2 A Gentile neighborhood. considered to be in this category. In 51a line 27 BBBBB BB “All spittle,” etc. Rebbi Abbin in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi: A Gentile fortification3 was there. Rebbi Hanina said, they were stabbing wild donkeys in Jerusalem and the feet of the pilgrims were immersed in blood up to their knee joints4. [They came before the Sages who did not tell them anything.]5 Rebbi Simeon bar Abba in the name of Rebbi Hanina: A Gentile fortification was there. HALAKHAH ONE 193 Text of B Rebbi Bebin in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi: A laundry for sufferers from gonorrhea was there. Rebbi Hanina said, lions were killing wild donkeys in Jerusalem and the feet of the pilgrims were immersed in blood up to their knee joints. They came before the Sages who did not tell them anything. 3 Reading , “their castra”. The cause impurity. Gentile circus games have Babli text reads “their laundry". no impact on purity in Jerusalem (except for 4 As explained in the next paragraph, the removal of the carcasses which must be while carcasses of four-legged animals are a done by Gentiles.) Babli Menahot 103b. source of impurity (Lev. 11:26-28), this does 5 Corrector’s addition from B, correct not extend to their blood, which does not but unnecessary. 51a line 36 BBBBB BBBBBB BBBB BBBBB BBBBB BBBBB BB 6Rebbi Simon in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi: It happened that a mule of Rebbi’s household died and they declared its blood pure regarding the carcass. Rebbi Eleazar asked Rebbi Simon, how much? He did not take notice of him. He asked Rebbi Joshua ben Levi who told him, it is pure up to a quartarius. More than that is impure. Rebbi Eleazar felt badly that Rebbi 194 ŠEQALIM CHAPTER EIGHT Simon had not repeated the tradition to him. Rav Bevai was sitting stating this occurrence. Rebbi Isaac bar Bisna asked him, is it pure up to a quartarius; more than that impure? He was unfriendly to him. Rebbi Zeriqa asked him, because he asked you, you were unfriendly to him? He answered him, because my mind was not clear, as Rebbi Hanin said, 7your life will hang far from you, that is one who buys a year’s supply of wheat, you will be fearful night and day, that is one who buys from the Saracen, and you will not believe in your survival, that is one who buys from the retail store, and I am dependent on retail stores. What about it? “Rebbi Joshua ben Bathyra testified about blood of carcasses that it is pure.8” What means pure? It is pure in that it does not prepare, but for impurity it makes impure. There, we have stated “The blood of a crawling animal is like its flesh, it makes impure but does not prepare. Nothing else is like this,9” in the amount needed for impurity but its blood makes impure like its flesh. Rav Joseph said, he who says “impure” follows Rebbi Jehudah; he who said “pure” follows Rebbi Joshua ben Bathyra. Rav Eudaimon the emigrant said to him, this is correct. Rebbi Jehudah was the instructor of the Patriarch. 6 The text was copied more or less in 7 Deut. 28:66. Chapter 3:2, Notes 40 ff. The full 8 Mishnah Idiut 8:1. explanation is given in Šabbat 8, Notes 9 Mishnah Makhširin 6:5. 51-62. 51a line 49 Text of B Did not Rebbi Abbahu say in the name of Rebbi Yose ben Hanina, they did not decide about spittle in Jerusalem10? [Was it not said]11 about this, Rebbi Abbin in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi: A Gentile fortification3 HALAKHAH ONE 195 was there12? In the remainder of the days of a year the impure ones are walking on the path13 and the pure ones are walking on the shoulder. The pure ones walk without saying anything, the impure ones tell them, keep apart. During a holiday14 the pure ones are walking on the path and the impure ones are walking on the shoulder. The impure ones walk without saying anything, the pure ones tell them, keep apart. Text of B Did not Rebbi Jacob bar Aha say in the name of Rebbi Yose ben Hanina, they did not decide about spittle in Jerusalem10? Was it not said about this, Rebbi Abbin in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi: A laundry of sufferers from gonorrhea was there. In the remainder of the days of a year the impure ones are walking on the path and the pure ones walk on the shoulder; the impure ones walk without saying anything, the pure ones tell them, keep apart. During a holiday the pure ones are walking on the path and the impure ones are walking on the shoulder. The pure ones walk without saying anything, the impure ones tell them, keep apart. 10 Nobody required that heave and other 11 Corrector’s addition from B, in Babli sancta be considered potentially impure terminology. because they touched spittle of unknown 12 One must assume that the spittle is a provenience, in contrast to all places in the Gentile’s, automatically impure by rabbinic Holy Land outside of Jerusalem (Mishnah standards. Tahorot 4:5), since the number of people 13 A form of “path”, not “ear of whose impurity is caused by their own body grain”. is minuscule. Then why is the Upper 14 When practically everybody was pure Market in Jerusalem excluded? Babli as long as the Temple existed. Pesahim 19b. fol. 50d Mishnah 2: All implements which are found in Jerusalem on the road descending to the place of immersion are impure, on the way ascending they are pure since they were brought down on a way different from that on which they were brought up, the words of Rebbi Meïr. Rebbi Yose says, all are pure except the bag and the rake15 set apart for graves. 196 ŠEQALIM CHAPTER EIGHT 15 As the Halakhah shows, a word “the independent Mishnah mss. hoe” is missing here, found in B and the 51a line 56 B Halakhah 2: But did not Rebbi Abbahu say in the name of16 Rebbi Johanan, they did not decide about vessels in Jerusalem17? Since they were found on the road descending to the place of immersion, it is proof18. 16 Missing in B. Then why does R. Meïr declare some 17 In contrast to all other places in the vessels impure? Holy Land, one does not have to presume 18 These must be presumed impure unless that vessels found in Jerusalem be impure. the opposite is proven. 51a line 58 B Abba Shaul used to call it19 “fingernail” since it is shaped like a fingernail. He who said because it quickly dispatches the stone [to the cemetery.]20 19 The word for “hoe” missing in the 20 Corrector’s addition from B; Mishnah. The word is a hapax and questionable since the text seems to refer to according to the second opinion used excavating burial caves (impossible in the exclusively for the gravedigger’s (or burial Iraqi plain.) cave excavator’s) hoe. fol. 50d Mishnah 3: If a knife was found on the Fourteenth21, one may slaughter with it immediately; on the Thirteenth one has to repeat and immerse22. A dagger23 in either case one has to repeat and immerse. If the Fourteenth falls on a Sabbath, one may slaughter with it immediately24; on the Fifteenth one HALAKHAH THREE 197 may slaughter with it immediately25. If it26 was tied to a knife its status is that of the knife. 21 The 14th of Nisan, the day of slaughter particular knife was lost on the way to the of the Pesah sacrifice. Even though the miqweh. previous Mishnah stated that all implements 23 Which is not usable for slaughter and found in Jerusalem are presumed to be pure, therefore not necessarily immersed in a for use on sancta one is restrictive and miqweh. requires immersion in a miqweh and waiting 24 Since one may not immerse on that for the following sundown. The only time day, certainly the knife had been immersed this requirement is waived is the 14th of on the 13th. Nisan, the day of mass slaughter, where it is 25 Since the 15th of Nisan is a holiday presumed that every knife which is qualified where immersion is not done, and the knife to be used for ritual slaughter was immersed was purified for the 14th, the presumption of in a miqweh the previous day.