Gemara Clarity

Chullin 126b

חולין קכ״ו ע״ב

Learn Chullin 126b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Partial corpse-טומאות, the 'can it be touched' rule for sealed bones and eggs, and which mice count as a טמא שרץ

Overview

The amud opens with three things from a dead body that are טמא: a full ladle of רקב, a bone the size of a barley grain, and the גולל and דופק. Each of these spreads טומאה in only two of the three usual ways (מגע, משא, אהל), and each one is missing a different way. Next the גמרא turns to the thigh bone of a נבלה or שרץ. A ברייתא teaches that a sealed bone does not make you טמא by touch, but a pierced one does, because the rule is that what can be touched is טמא. רבי זירא and רב פפא challenge this rule with an animal in its skin and a kidney in its fat. Both are answered: neither is really sealed. רב אושעיא then rules that a bone someone only planned to pierce already counts as open. A new משנה teaches about a שרץ egg and a mouse that is half flesh and half earth. The גמרא brings פסוקים for these rules, gives two versions of רבי יהושע בן לוי's condition on the mouse, and starts a ברייתא showing that a sea mouse is not טמא. That ברייתא continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

שָׁלֹשׁ טוּמְאוֹת פּוֹרְשׁוֹת מִן הַמֵּת,

Three impurities come out from a corpse,

שְׁתַּיִם בְּכׇל אַחַת

two (ways of making impure) are in each one,

וּשְׁלִישִׁית אֵין בָּהֶן,

and the third is not in them,

וְאֵלּוּ הֵן: מְלֹא תַרְוָוד רָקָב,

and these are they: a full ladle of corpse-dust,

The steps (29)

  1. StatementThree corpse-impurities that each have only two of the three ways
  2. StatementA ladle of corpse-dust: carrying and tent, but not touching
  3. StatementA barley-sized bone: carrying and touching, but not tent
  4. StatementGrave cover and side-wall: touching and tent, but not carrying
  5. StatementA sealed thigh bone does not pass on טומאה by touch
  6. QuestionWhat if the bone was pierced?
  7. ResponseIf you can reach it, it makes you טמא
  8. ChallengeThen an animal in its skin should not make you טמא
  9. ResolutionAn animal has many openings
  10. ChallengeThen a kidney in its fat should not make you טמא
  11. ResolutionStrands stick out from the kidney
  12. QuestionA bone someone planned to make a hole in
  13. Responseרב אושעיא answers his own question
  14. StatementThe egg of a שרץ: sealed versus with a hole
  15. StatementA mouse that is half flesh and half earth
  16. Statementרבי יהודה: the earth right against the flesh
  17. StatementA פסוק source for the egg and thigh bone of a שרץ
  18. StatementThe egg must have a developing creature inside
  19. StatementThe egg or bone must have a hole you can touch through
  20. QuestionHow big must the hole be?
  21. ResponseA hole as thin as a hair is enough
  22. StatementThe mouse's flesh must run its whole length
  23. StatementAnother version: the condition is said about רבי יהודה
  24. StatementThe practical difference between the two versions
  25. StatementMaybe a sea mouse is also included
  26. ProofLogic says only a land mouse, like the weasel
  27. RejectionOr logic says anything named 'mouse,' like the weasel
  28. ConclusionThe פסוק says 'on the land'
  29. ChallengeMaybe 'on the land' depends on where the mouse is