Ohalos, Chapter 7, Mishnah 1. Our Mishnah introduces one of the central concepts of the masechta: the kever sasum, a sealed grave. Until now we have met this term in passing; here the Mishnah spells out what makes a space into a grave and how far its tumah reaches. The cases run from tumah lodged inside the wall of a tall apartment building, to a massive seawall, to a headstone standing directly over a body, to a little hut someone propped up against that headstone.
What is a kever sasum?
The pasuk that discusses one who becomes tamei out in the open field lists several sources of tumah: a man cut down by the sword, a corpse, and then it adds the words "o bekever", or a grave. From that word Chazal learn that a meis's grave, and not only the meis and the sword, is itself a source of tumah. A kever is metamei both bemaga, through contact, and be'ohel, by covering or by being covered. In this it stands equal to the meis lying within it. One who lays a hand on the outer surface of a kever, or who bends over it at a point where no part of the body rests beneath him, bears the full seven day tumah of a person who touched a meis or who served as an ohel above one.
A question presents itself here. There are three channels through which a meis conveys tumah: contact; masa, carrying, even where there is no touch at all; and ohel. Granted that a kever is metamei through contact and through ohel, what about masa? Before searching for the answer, consider what such a case would even look like: in what manner does a person carry a grave? The masechta will take this up further on.
And what gives a space the standing of a kever? The place need not be a beis hachaim, nor must a matzeivah stand over it. Once a meis, or even a piece of a meis amounting to a kezayis, lies in a chalal (a hollow space) that measures a tefach in length, a tefach in width and a tefach in height, and that hollow is sasum, closed off on every side without so much as a single opening, the space is a grave. Where no hollow of that size exists there is no kever sasum whatsoever, and we are dealing instead with tumah retzutza, tumah that is pressed in: it forces its way vertically upward and vertically downward, but spreads to neither side.
Tumah inside the wall of a multi story building
The opening case: "hatumah bakosel", the tumah sits inside a wall, "umekoma tefach al tefach", the space it occupies being a tefach by a tefach, "al rum tefach", with a tefach of height as well. The wall spoken of is an outer wall of a house that bears above it not merely one story but possibly a whole series of them. The ruling is "kol ha'aliyos she'al gabav afilu hein eser, temei'os": every level built above, ten of them if there are ten, is tamei.
What accounts for this? That tefach of hollow space inside the wall, closed on all sides with a piece of a meis resting within it, is a kever sasum. Consider too how such a structure is put together: the beams holding up each floor stretch across the building and their ends are embedded in these very walls. The wall harboring the tumah is therefore the wall carrying every level above it. Because it has the status of a sealed grave, the tumah is not confined, and a vessel sitting on a table ten floors up turns tamei.
One upper story spanning two houses
The Mishnah proceeds to a case of a single aliyah resting upon two houses. Picture yourself stepping in from the street at ground level. To your right stands a wall and to your left stands a wall, and both of these outer walls continue up the whole height of the structure. Directly in front of you, however, is a third wall, one that splits the ground level in two, a room or an apartment on either side. That partition begins at street level and stops at the second story; from there on up the building is one undivided space with nothing running down its center. In our case the tumah lies inside this middle partition, and not in either of the outer walls.
The ruling: "hee temei'ah", that single story is tamei. People and vessels on the second floor contract tumah, since the sealed grave in the partition below sends its tumah upward into that story and through the whole of it. "Vechol ha'aliyos she'al gabav tehoros", every level higher up, from the third floor through the tenth, remains tahor, since the ceiling of that second story functions as a chatzitzah and halts the tumah's climb.
Why did no such ceiling halt matters in the earlier case? Because there the tumah lay in an outer wall, which runs the entire height of the house and receives the beams of each and every floor. This partition, by contrast, is connected to nothing but the second story, whose center rests upon it. That story consequently becomes tamei, while its roof brings the matter to an end.
The seawall
The Mishnah turns next to a kosel shuneis, a wall raised along the shore, at the chof hayam. Such a wall is enormously thick, a dyke meant to hold the sea back so that a storm will not flood the land. Since sheer strength is its entire purpose, it is built solid, with no cavities inside it, and certainly with no chalal a tefach in each of its three dimensions.
The consequence follows by itself: tumah within such a wall is boka'as ve'olah, forcing its way straight upward, and boka'as veyoredes, forcing its way straight downward, with nothing moving off to either side. This is tumah retzutza, and the wall carries no status of kever sasum; for that it would need a cavity a tefach wide, a tefach long and a tefach high, and it is exactly such a sealed grave that drives tumah outward in every direction.
Nefesh atumah, a stopped up monument
Now the Mishnah teaches about a nefesh atumah. A nefesh is the structure raised above a grave as its marker, a term you may recall from Maseches Shekalim. Here the meis was interred without an aron, which would ordinarily leave a hollow of a tefach; the body lies in the earth and the marker sits right upon it, with no open tefach to be found anywhere. That is the meaning of atumah, stopped up and closed.
Since there is no chalal tefach, this marker is no sealed grave and conveys nothing laterally. Hence "hanogeia bah min hatzdadim tahor": whoever handles it along its sides, at a point with no body beneath, stays tahor, "mipnei shehatumah boka'as ve'olah boka'as veyoredes", because this tumah drives upward and downward in a straight line and travels no farther.
"Im hayah bimkom hatumah tefach al tefach", should the spot of the tumah hold a hollow measuring "tefach al tefach" and "al rum tefach", then "hanogeia bah mikol makom tamei": contact anywhere at all on the monument, including a place with nothing lying under it, renders a person tamei, "mipnei shehi kekever sasum", for it now holds the standing of a sealed grave. This is the consistent principle: a cavity a tefach in all three dimensions creates a sealed grave, and a sealed grave passes tumah to whoever touches it from whichever side.
A hut propped against the monument
The closing case: "samach lah sukkos". A man put up a small hut and, for reasons of his own, laid its roof upon the monument, so that the monument now does duty as one side of the hut. The grave under discussion has no chalal tefach, so that the monument by itself is not metamei bemaga (lacking that cavity it holds no din of a sealed grave), and one would expect only the area straight above and straight below the body to be tamei.
The Tanna Kamma says nonetheless that the arrangement does him no good. Whatever is inside the hut turns tamei, and the hut along with it, because it is reckoned an ohel spread above a meis. But how can that be? We were just told that handling the monument along its side leaves a person tahor, and this roof rests on the side, with no body underneath. The resolution: once the monument is in practice serving the hut as a side, we treat the tumah below it as though it were within the hut, in the same way that tumah inside a house's wall was treated as tumah within the house, the wall being reckoned a part of the building.
"Rebbi Yehudah metaheir." Rebbi Yehudah declares both the hut and its contents tahor. Practically speaking, the hut was not erected on the spot where the body lies, and there is no chalal tefach; without that cavity, tumah travels only vertically upward and vertically downward and never sideways. And what of the argument that the monument is serving the hut as a side? The Chazon Ish spells out Rebbi Yehudah's view: the hut is a temporary structure, and no one ever put up the monument in order to serve a hut. We therefore do not regard the tumah below the monument as though it were within the hut. It remains plain tumah rising and descending vertically; whatever stands over the body is tamei, and whatever sits off to the side is not.
The Tosafos Yom Tov brings shittos that carry Rebbi Yehudah's position further: on their reading he would hold the hut tahor even where a cavity a tefach in each direction lies beneath the monument. One could challenge them: with such a cavity the tumah does travel laterally, and did we not learn that tumah within a cavity in a house's outer wall leaves all ten stories tamei? Here too the monument serves the hut as a side. Their answer is that a house's wall was raised in order to bear the levels above it, so once a chalal tefach is present the tumah passes into all the apartments stacked one over another. This monument, however, bears no relationship at all to the hut; no one ever put it up to serve the hut as a side. According to these Rishonim, then, Rebbi Yehudah keeps the hut tahor even where a chalal tefach exists.
Reviewing the Mishnah
A great deal of halachah is packed into this Mishnah, so let us run through it once more.
- Kever sasum: once a space qualifies as a meis's grave, it conveys tumah by contact and by ohel exactly as the meis does. Touching even the grave's outer surface, or forming an ohel above the grave at a point with no body beneath, is treated as though one touched the meis.
- What gives a space that standing: a meis, or a portion of one, lying in a hollow that measures a tefach in length, a tefach in width and a tefach in height. Such a hollow spreads tumah in every direction. Lacking those measurements there is no sealed grave, and the tumah is tumah retzutza, driving vertically upward and vertically downward and no more.
- A house of ten stories (and evidently buildings of ten stories already existed in the times of the Mishnah): tumah in an outer wall, within a cavity a tefach in every dimension, makes that wall a kever sasum, and all ten levels above turn tamei, since each of them is bound to that wall and the tumah diffuses through every floor.
- Tumah in an internal partition: the lower level is divided by a wall into two rooms or two apartments, and that wall reaches only as far as the second story, above which no such wall stands. This is the Mishnah's case of one aliyah resting over two houses. A person or a vessel on the second floor is tamei, the sealed grave pushing its tumah upward to fill that story. It rises no higher, since the partition has no bearing on the third floor and above, and the roof over the second story acts as a chatzitzah.
- The massive shore wall built to hold back the water, solid throughout: with no chalal tefach, tumah inside it or under it drives straight upward and straight downward and does not travel to the sides.
- Nefesh atumah, a marker above a grave where the body was placed without an aron (an aron would normally provide a hollow of a tefach): the marker is no sealed grave and conveys nothing laterally, its tumah moving only vertically. But if at the place of the body there is a cavity a tefach long, a tefach wide and a tefach high, it becomes a kever sasum and conveys tumah sideways as well, even at a point shelo keneged hameis, not aligned with the body.
- A hut resting on the monument: the Tanna Kamma holds that although the hut stands off to the side, since the monument literally serves it as a side the hut is an ohel above a meis, no different from tumah within a house's wall, and the hut together with everything inside it capable of receiving tumah becomes tamei. Some limit this to where the tumah lies in the half of the space nearer the monument, paralleling what we learned about the house's wall. Rebbi Yehudah, though, rules the hut and its contents tahor: a house's wall was raised as part of that house, whereas this monument was never raised to serve a hut as a side, and the hut is temporary in any event; the tumah therefore rises and descends vertically and does not spread to the sides.