Chagigah 21b
חגיגה כ״א ע״ב
Learn Chagigah 21b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.
Open Chagigah 21b in Gemara Clarity
Topic
Why the משנה forbids immersing one vessel inside another for קודש: רבי אילא says the reason is חציצה, while רבא says it is a separate גזירה about narrow-mouthed vessels.
Overview
The amud opens at the end of a צריכא. According to רבי אילא, both the vessel-inside-a-vessel case and the knot case are about חציצה, and the גמרא explains why the משנה still needed to teach both. It then shows that רבי אילא is consistent with his teaching, in the name of רבי חנינא בר פפא, that the משנה lists only ten מעלות. That count works because he treats these two cases as one. The first five מעלות also apply to חולין שנעשו על טהרת הקודש, but the last five apply only to real קודש. The reason is that the first five are linked to Torah-level טומאה and the last five are purely rabbinic. רבא disagrees: since the סיפא is the חציצה rule, the רישא must have another reason. He says it is a גזירה so that people will not immerse needles inside a vessel whose mouth is narrower than the tube of a wineskin. He backs this measure with a משנה about joining מקוואות, which continues on the next amud.
Opening lines
דְּקִיטְרָא בְּמַיָּא אִהַדּוֹקֵי מִיהַדַּק,
that a knot in water gets pulled even tighter,
אֲבָל רֵישָׁא,
but in the first clause,
דְּמַיָּא אַקְפּוֹיֵי מַקְפּוּ לֵיהּ לְמָנָא —
where the water makes the vessel float —
לָא הָוְיָא חֲצִיצָה,
I would have said it is not a blocking,
The steps (7)
- ResolutionWhy the משנה needed both the knot case and the vessel-in-vessel case
- Statementרבי אילא is consistent: the משנה lists only ten stringencies
- QuestionWhy are the first five different from the last five?
- ResponseThe first five are connected to Torah-level impurity
- Statementרבא: the first clause is not about blocking
- Statementרבא's reason: a decree about needles in a narrow-mouthed vessel
- ProofSource: the rule for joining ritual baths