Ohalos, Chapter 11, Mishnah 4. Our chapter is occupied with the ways in which tumah travels from one place to another, and in particular with the question of what qualifies as an ohel, a covering that spreads tumah to whatever lies beneath it and carries it along into an adjoining space. The Mishnah here brings a case that could happen to any of us on an ordinary afternoon.
Before we enter the case itself, we need the dispute that stands behind it. Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel argue whether the upper portion of a human body counts as an ohel that is gvoha tefach, raised a handbreadth above the tumah. An ohel only functions as an ohel when there is a tefach of open space underneath it. Beis Shammai hold that a person's body is one solid mass, one gush, with no separate upper layer and lower layer, and therefore nothing about a body creates that tefach of space. Beis Hillel hold that halachically the top of a man is reckoned as something distinct from the rest of him, a kind of covering spread over what is below it, so the tefach of space is there.
The Case of the Mishnah
The Mishnah states: "Haya mashkif b'ad hachalon," he was leaning out through the window and looking. Picture the scene. A man is sitting at home, he hears a commotion in the street, he pushes open the window and leans out to get a proper view of what is going on. Most of his upper body is now outside the window, bent downward over the street. We hope he is holding on well. And then he realizes what he has done: "v'hehel al kovrei hameis," his body has formed an ohel over those who are carrying a meis to burial.
Why does the Mishnah speak of the bearers at all? The Bartenura clarifies that they are incidental to the halachah. What counts is that his body spread out as an ohel above the meis, and the Mishnah is simply sketching the scene as it would really look: when a meis is brought through the street to burial, there are of course people carrying it along. The tumah question revolves around the meis travelling beneath him.
Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel
"Beis Shammai omrim," Beis Shammai rule that his body has no status of an ohel gvoha tefach, "v'eino meivi es hatumah," and so no tumah is drawn indoors. This follows from their view that a person is one unified mass. Compare a beam a tefach thick, or a garment a tefach thick: neither is termed gvoha tefach, since thickness is not height, and no open tefach lies below the upper surface. Here too, for his upper portion to act as a covering, a tefach of empty space would have to separate an upper section from a lower one, and in the view of Beis Shammai a body has no such sections; it is a single undivided gush. The man in our Mishnah has therefore emerged unscathed, and his home remains tahor.
"U'Beis Hillel omrim," Beis Hillel rule the reverse: he is an ohel gvoha tefach, "u'meivi es hatumah," and the tumah is drawn inside. In their view the upper region of a person is halachically counted apart from the lower region. Not, chas v'shalom, that he is physically coming apart; rather, halachah regards a man as built of distinct layers, the top of him spread above the rest of him like s'chach, an image reflected in the language of the pasuk in Iyov. Once an upper and a lower are recognized, the upper one is gvoha tefach automatically, exactly as with several garments piled one upon another. Our curious fellow has thus conveyed tumah to his own residence, and next time he will surely hesitate before hanging out of the window.
Where Both Agree
The Mishnah continues: "U'modim," Beis Shammai grant Beis Hillel's ruling in two cases. The first: "she'im haya lavush b'keilim," where a garment lay over him. The second: "o shehayu shnayim zeh al gav zeh," where two men were leaning out, the one draped over the other in their eagerness to catch sight of the street below. In both, "sheheim mevi'in es hatumah," the tumah reaches inside. The logic is straightforward: the garment, or the upper man, functions as the covering above, while the man under the garment, or the man beneath his fellow, functions as what lies below. A poseiach tefach has been created. We are no longer dealing with one undivided gush, and so even Beis Shammai concede that the house becomes tamei.
An Aside on the Word Mashkif
Mashkif carries the sense of gazing out. The noun hashkafa, an outlook or a perspective, comes from the same root, as does the pasuk "hashkifah mim'on kodshecha." This root appears as well in the account of S'dom. Rashi observes that the Torah generally employs it for a gaze of anger, a look that arrives together with misfortune, which suits our Mishnah nicely. One verse is the exception: "hashkifah mim'on kodshecha," whose setting is tzedaka, and tzedaka is precisely what transforms an angry gaze, middas hadin, into middas harachamim. From this same root, incidentally, comes the word for eyeglasses, mishkafayim.
Review
Let us run through the Mishnah once more. A man leaned out of his window, and the portion of him protruding outside turned into an ohel above a meis being carried past below. According to Beis Shammai nothing has happened, since this does not qualify as gvoha tefach: an ohel requires a tefach of open space beneath it, and a person being one undivided gush, no space lies under his upper part. According to Beis Hillel a person's upper part is not one gush with his lower part, so a tefach does exist beneath it, and the tumah is pulled indoors. Both schools agree, though, that if a covering lay over him, or if a second man, even more anxious to see the commotion, was stretched out upon him, then the one above is plainly the covering and the one below furnishes the tefach of space, and the house becomes tamei.
What Sort of Clothing?
When the Mishnah says that clothing changes the ruling, does it mean plain ordinary clothing that a person happens to be wearing? From the Bartenura it sounds that way; see his words at the end of the Mishnah, where he speaks of adam lavush, a person who is dressed. The Rosh, however, holds that we are not discussing ordinary garments at all. Merely wearing his shirt would not bring the tumah in, since the shirt is not an ohel but is itself part of what lies below. The Rosh understands the case as one where something like a sheet is draped over him. We will leave the discussion among the mefarshim at that.