Ohalos, Chapter 3, Mishnah 2. This mishnah continues the discussion of the minimum measures of tumah that come from a meis, and it asks a practical question: what happens when such a measure does not stay neatly in one place? A spoonful of decayed matter gets spread across a floor and picks up some ordinary house dust along the way; a revi'is of blood soaks into the ground or into a garment. In each case we must decide whether the shiur is still considered present before us, or whether it has effectively disappeared.
The Case of the Scattered Rakov
The mishnah begins with "melo tarvad rakov shenisbazer besoch habayis." A tarvad is a large spoon or ladle, the equivalent of what a person could hold in both hands filled together. Rakov is the decayed matter of a meis, and a full tarvad of it is one of the measures that conveys tumah be'ohel, filling a house with tumah just as a whole meis would.
The word shenisbazer means that it was scattered. The root is familiar to us from our tefillos and from Tanach. We ask Hashem "bekarev pezureinu," that He gather in our scattered ones, for as long as we are spread across the four corners of the earth we are mefuzar. Haman himself described us with this word: "yeshno am echad mefuzar umeforad bein ha'amim," there is one nation scattered and divided among the peoples. He understood something important. Divided we are vulnerable; when Klal Yisroel stands be'achdus, nobody can harm us.
Let us return to the mishnah's case. A ladleful of rakov was strewn about within a house, and the Bartenura explains that while it was being spread over the floor, particles of soil from that very floor were drawn into it and blended with the rakov. Even so, the mishnah rules "habayis tamei."
A word about that phrase. A house is attached to the ground and therefore cannot itself receive tumah. When the mishnah says the house is tamei, it means everything inside it: every person, every keili and every food item under that roof has become tamei.
A Difficulty from the Earlier Mishnah
A difficulty must be confronted at this point. When the previous mishnah taught that a tarvad of rakov spreads tumah be'ohel, the Bartenura insisted there that the rakov has to be entirely unadulterated, with no foreign substance blended into it whatsoever. Realistically, such a situation arises only where the burial took place in a container of metal, or of stone or marble, so that nothing from outside could work its way in. Where the body was laid to rest in ordinary shrouds or a coffin of wood, the residue that remains is never unadulterated rakov, since threads, splinters and soil have all become part of the mixture, and such a substance does not carry the halachic status of rakov whatsoever.
Given that principle, the ruling here is difficult to understand. Our mishnah states outright that soil from the floor was blended in during the scattering. Why, then, does this rakov continue to spread tumah?
The resolution lies in distinguishing between the moment a shiur is created and the period after it exists. The first opinion in the mishnah holds that the demand for unadulterated rakov applies only at the initial stage: to determine that what lies before us genuinely constitutes a tarvad of rakov, no other substance may be part of the count. Once that halachic identity has been fixed, however, the rakov is not so readily cancelled out. Just the reverse: anything that mixes into it afterward is what gets nullified. Therefore, notwithstanding the soil from the floor that has now blended with it, the tumah remains in force and all that the house holds is tamei.
Why the Mishnah Speaks of Scattering
A second question presents itself. Why does the mishnah specifically describe a case where the rakov was scattered throughout the house? What if it had remained gathered in one spot?
If it were all in one place, it would certainly be tamei; there would be no discussion at all. The mishnah chose the scattered case precisely because that is the chiddush. Even though the rakov is spread out over the whole floor and no single spot holds a full ladle, the roof overhead joins everything beneath it into a single unit, and so the shiur is considered present and intact.
So the mishnah reads as follows: a full ladle of rakov was scattered throughout a house, and in the process some of the house's own earth became mixed into it, and nevertheless the house, meaning all its contents, is tamei. As long as the rakov qualified as rakov to begin with, without any admixture, a later mixture changes nothing according to the Tanna Kamma.
Rabbi Shimon Disagrees
"Rabbi Shimon metaher." Rabbi Shimon rules that everything in the house remains tohor. In his view there is no difference between a case where the shiur of rakov was never properly established and a case where you know with certainty that you had a full ladle of genuinely pure rakov, having met every condition, the meis having been buried in marble. Once something foreign becomes mixed into it, it no longer conveys tumah at all.
The halachah, however, follows the Tanna Kamma, and this is how the Rambam paskens.
A Revi'is of Blood Absorbed into the Floor
The mishnah moves on: "revi'is dam shenivla besoch habayis, habayis tohor." A revi'is of a meis's blood is among the quantities that spread tumah be'ohel. In this instance, however, the blood spilled and sank into the flooring, and the halachah is that the house is tohor, so that anything brought inside from then on does not contract tumah.
The reason is straightforward. The blood is inside the ground, and once it has soaked in there is no way to retrieve it. What cannot be brought back up is not considered to be here at all.
One important point should not be missed. The house is tohor from that moment onward. But someone who was present in the house at the moment the revi'is of blood fell onto the ground, before it was absorbed, did become tamei.
Blood Absorbed into a Garment
The mishnah then turns to a case that is not so clear-cut: "nivla bichsus," the revi'is of blood was absorbed into a garment lying in the house. Here the ruling depends on a test.
"Im miskabeses veyotzei mimenu revi'is dam, temei'ah." If, when the garment is laundered, a full revi'is of blood would emerge from it into the water, then it is tamei, and the house in which that garment lies, meaning everything inside it, is tamei as well. Although the blood is presently inside the fabric, the fact that it can come out means that we still consider the revi'is to be here with us.
"Ve'im lav, tehorah." But if washing it would not yield a full revi'is, the garment is tohor. The blood is inside the cloth and cannot be extracted, and the governing rule is that "kol habalu'a she'eino yachol latzeis," anything absorbed that cannot come out, is treated as though it is not present, and is therefore tohor.
When the blood is considered present, the garment conveys tumah in all the ways that the blood of a meis does: bemaga, through touching; bemasa, through carrying; and be'ohel, to everything under the same roof.
The Bartenura's Test
How would one actually determine whether a full revi'is would emerge from the garment? The Bartenura describes a clever comparison.
Take two basins and fill each with the identical amount of water. In one basin, launder the garment that absorbed the blood. Into the second basin, pour a fresh revi'is of blood. Then compare the color of the water in the two basins.
- If both are equally dark, we know that a full revi'is came out of the garment, and it is tamei.
- If the water in which the garment was washed is lighter than the other, that is a sign that only part of the blood emerged and less than a revi'is came out, and the garment is tohor.
Summary
A full tarvad of rakov, the amount that fills both hands, was scattered across the floor of a house and mingled with the earth of that floor. Since it qualified as pure rakov when the shiur was established, as when the meis had been buried in marble where nothing foreign could enter, the later admixture does not undo it, and everything in the house is tamei; the roof joins the scattered dust into one unit. Rabbi Shimon holds it is tohor, but the halachah follows the Tanna Kamma. A revi'is of the blood of a meis absorbed into the ground leaves the house tohor going forward, although anyone present as it fell became tamei. Absorbed into a garment, the determining factor is whether a full revi'is would come back out in the wash, tested by comparing two equal basins of water, one used to launder the garment and one into which a fresh revi'is was poured. What is absorbed and cannot emerge is treated as though it is simply not there.