Ohalos, Chapter 2, Mishnah 4. Until now the chapter has been sorting the various sources of tumah according to which modes of transmission apply to them. Our mishnah presents a category of tumah that is transmitted through two of the three modes, but not the third.
Let us keep the three modes clearly in mind:
- Maga is touching, direct physical contact.
- Ohel is being under the same roof, that is, sharing an enclosed airspace with the source of tumah.
- Masa is carrying or moving the source of tumah, even without touching it directly.
So what is it that conveys tumah through maga and through ohel, but not through masa?
The golel
The first item the mishnah lists is "hagolel." The golel is the large, broad stone that was laid over the kever as a covering from above, a kind of stone roof for the grave. The word itself comes from the loshon of rolling, as in the posuk "vegalalu es ha'even," where the stone was rolled off the mouth of the well. This stone is rolled into place over the opening of the kever.
The dofek
Next the mishnah adds "vehadofek." These are the sizable stones positioned to the right and to the left of the burial cavity, serving as the props upon which the covering slab above is set.
Concerning both of these the mishnah rules "metamin bemaga uve'ohel," they convey tumah to one who touches them and to whatever is under the same roof with them, "ve'einan metamin bemasa," but they do not convey tumah through carrying.
The source in the posuk
From where is this derived? In maseches Chullin, Rebbi Akiva learns it out from a posuk that discusses one who comes into contact with tumah out in an open field. The opening words, "vechol asher yiga," and whoever touches, teach that the covering slab and its side supports transmit tumah by maga. The clause that follows, "al pnei hasadeh," over the surface of the field, adds that they transmit by ohel too. What makes that the reading? Physical contact is already stated by "yiga"; the extra clause turns our attention to the space lying above the ground's surface, and tumah that travels through the air overhead, where a person is positioned beneath a single covering together with the source of tumah, is exactly tumas ohel.
Rebbi Eliezer: also bemasa
"Rebbi Eliezer omeir": in his view these stones, both the slab set above and the stones bearing it from the sides, transmit tumah through masa as well, so that even shifting them without any contact leaves a person tamei. He proves it with a kal vachomer from neveilah, the carcass of an animal that died without shechitah. Such a carcass does not transmit tumah by ohel at all, and yet it does transmit by masa. Golel and dofek, which carry the added severity of transmitting by ohel, should surely transmit by masa.
Rebbi Yehoshua: it depends on the afar kevaros
Rebbi Yehoshua presents a third position. He too maintains, together with the opening ruling, that the stones in themselves do not transmit tumah through masa. What concerns him is rather what may be lying below them: "afar kevaros," the loose soil of the grave that collects beside the meis. Since fragments of the meis are liable to be mixed into that soil, shifting it transmits tumah even where nothing at all was touched.
Rebbi Yehoshua's answer, then, arrives with a condition attached. "Im yeish tachteihen," if beneath them there lies "afar kevaros," grave soil, they do render a person tamei through masa, and moving them defiles even with no contact at all. "Ve'im lav," and if no such soil is there, then carrying them transmits nothing. The halachah is decided in accordance with Rebbi Yehoshua.
Defining the dofek precisely
The mishnah now defines its own term: "eizehu hadofek," which stone earns the name dofek? "Es shehagolel nishan alav," the one upon which the covering stone leans and rests.
"Aval dofek dofkin tahor." A dofek dofkin is a further stone set alongside the dofek to brace it and hold it in position, so that the supporting walls of the kever stay in place. The chain runs like this: the golel rests on the dofek, and the dofek rests on the dofek dofkin. Since the golel itself is not resting upon this outermost stone, the dofek dofkin remains tahor.
Review
To gather the mishnah together: the golel, the covering stone above the kever, and the dofek, the stones at the sides that carry it, convey tumah through maga and through ohel, but not through masa. Rebbi Eliezer holds that they convey tumah through masa as well. Rebbi Yehoshua agrees in principle with the first opinion that the stones themselves are not metameh bemasa, but rules that if grave dust lies beneath them they are metameh bemasa, since particles of the meis may be present in it, and this is the halachah. And the stone called dofek is specifically the one the golel leans upon; the stones that merely brace the dofek and hold up those walls are tahor.