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Beit Seor

Keilim (8:6) | Yisrael Bankier | a day ago

Over the past week we have been learning about the laws related to earthenware ovens and tumah transfer inside them. As with other klei cheres, if a source of tumah is in the airspace of an oven, it becomes a tameh. Similarly, if the oven itself is tameh, then any food that is in its airspace will likewise become tameh. That is provided that the food is inside the oven itself, and not inside a kli that is sealed or whose opening is outside the oven.

The Mishnah (8:6) discusses the cases of a beit se'or, an earthenware kli that is used to contain sourdough. In this case the kli has a dividing wall.¹ On one side of the kli is a dead sheretz -- a source of a tumah -- and on the other side is some se'or. The Mishnah teaches that if that kli was sealed tight and placed inside the oven, the oven would become tameh. Being sealed does not stop the tumah from escaping and it is considered as being inside the oven*.* The food however remains tahor. The Tifferet Yisrael explains that even though the two sides of the kli are only divided by a wall, since that wall reaches the top of the kli the sides are considered two distinct keilim. This is much like the case we learnt (2:3) regarding two bowls fixed on the same tray without a higher surrounding wall. Since the side with the food is sealed tight, it remains protected from tumah.

The Mishnah continues that the law would be the same if instead of a sheretz there was a kezayit from a corpse, that spreads tumah in an ohel, to anything under the same covering. Once again, the house would be tameh, but the food on the sealed side would remain tahor. The Mishnah however continues that if there was a hole the size of a tephach, then the food would also become tameh. We shall try to understand this ruling.

The Bartenura explains that once there is a hole in the dividing wall of a tephach by tephacha, that is the size through which tumat ha'mat can spread.² Consequently, the tumah spreads directly across to the other side to make the food tameh.

It is important to note that the Bartenura understands that the hole is in the dividing wall. The Tosfot Yom Tov however understands, like the Rash, that the hole is in the seal. The issue with that understanding is if there is any hole, then it is no longer sealed, so the size should not matter. The Tosfot Yom Tov explains that that is only true if a some of the seal was deliberated removed. If however some of the seal fell away, it would still be considered sealed until the size was a tephach.

Let use return to the understanding that the hole is in the wall. The Mishnah Achrona explains that the hole presenting a problem is only regarding tumat ha'met that can spread from one kli to the next through a hole of that size. In the case where one side had the sheretz, even if the hole was a tephach the food on the other side would remain tahor. That is because, even with the hole, they are still considered two separated keilim and the "kli" that contains the food is still considered sealed. The Chazon Ish (10:9) explains that a majority of this wall would need to be comprised for the two side to be considered one kli.

The Mishnah Achrona continues, that according to the understanding that the hole is in the seal, it would make no difference whether the tumah was from a met or sheretz. The reason is that the hole compromised that status of both keilim as being defined tzamid patil.

Once again let us return to the understanding that the hole is in the wall. The Chazon Ish (10:9) explains that three is a way in which a hole, that is even smaller that a tephach, can make the food tameh. That is if it is in the entire top of the wall, thereby reducing its height. In that case, it would be like the case of the tray that had multiple bowls, yet there was a higher wall surrounding them. In that case they are now considered like one kli and no longer separate keilim. That being so, the source of tumah would cause that food to become tameh. The tumah would make the entire beit se'or tameh which would in turn make the food tameh.

¹ The Tifferet Yisrael (Boaz 4) however understands that the keretz is a sharp kli that is made of pottery or wood that is used to cut the se'or and is left in the beit se'or. The novelty is that even though it is not fixed and its placement is temporary it still serves as a dividing wall.

² The Chazon Ish explains that for this to be true we must assume that the cover is also a tephach by tephach so that there is an ohel to spread the tumah.

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