Ohalos, Chapter 1, Mishnah 6. The opening chapter of Ohalos has been laying out the fundamentals of tumas meis: who is metamei, how many degrees of tumah a person or object can carry, and how tumah travels from one thing to the next. Our Mishnah now asks a question that stands at the very entrance of the whole subject: at what moment does a person become a meis at all? A body that has not yet died carries no tumas meis, and the Mishnah tells us precisely where that line is drawn.
Not Until the Neshama Has Left
The Mishnah states its rule: "Odom eino metamei," a person does not transmit tumah, "ad sheteitzei nafsho," until his soul has gone out of him. Even where a man's situation is hopeless and nature gives him no more than a breath or two, nothing has yet begun. Tumas meis waits for the actual departure of the neshama; while the soul remains inside, the body lying before us is simply not a meis at all.
Where is this learned from? From the words of the Torah, "Kol hanogeia bemeis," whoever touches a corpse, "benefesh ha'odam asher yomus." The verse would have conveyed its halacha by speaking of contact with a dead body and nothing more; the closing phrase, "asher yomus," one who will die, looks superfluous. From that surplus Chazal drew out the case of a goses, a man in whom the signs of imminent death have already appeared, of whom you would say that his soul is about to leave him at any instant. The Torah's extra words teach that even he does not yet carry the status of a meis. Only the real exit of the neshama brings tumah with it.
The Mishnah pushes this further: "va'afilu meguyad," even one whose limbs have been severed, who nebach has no natural way to survive, "va'afilu goses," and even one who already shows the signs of a dying man. In both of these cases the Mishnah insists that he is alive, and it proceeds to spell out real halachos that flow from that life. He is not merely technically alive; he is truly alive, with all the consequences that living carries.
It is worth mentioning here a related halacha: one may not move or handle a goses, since chas vesholom the slightest touch might hasten his death even by a moment. His life, in these final seconds, is guarded with the same seriousness as any other life.
He Obligates Yibum, and He Exempts From Yibum
The first pair of halachos the Mishnah brings concerns yibum. "Zokeik leyibum": this man, lying as a goses, still creates a zikah of yibum. Suppose his brother passed away childless. That brother's widow may not marry anyone else, because there is a chiyuv of yibum resting upon her, and the surviving brother is obligated to marry her. Practically speaking, yibum cannot be performed by a man in this condition, and chalitza is likewise not possible with him, so the widow remains bound and cannot marry until he passes away. Nonetheless, the zikah is real, because the brother is alive.
"Upoter min hayibum": the very same principle can operate in reverse and free a woman from yibum altogether. Where a man passed away and a child of his survives him, the mitzvah of yibum never takes hold; his brother has neither an obligation nor a permission to marry the widow, since offspring came from that marriage. Now picture that surviving child himself as a goses. Does the widow fall to yibum? The Mishnah answers that she does not. When her husband died his child was alive, and that settles the matter. How long the child is expected to last is not part of the calculation. Once yibum did not apply at the moment of death, it will never apply afterward, even should the child pass away later. And for this halacha, a goses is a child who lives.
He Enables Terumah, and He Disqualifies From Terumah
The Mishnah continues with a second pair, drawn from the laws of terumah, again to demonstrate that these final seconds still count fully as life.
"Ma'achil bitrumah." A bas Yisroel who becomes the wife of a kohen eats terumah by virtue of that marriage. Should her husband die, or should he give her a get, and no offspring came out of the union, nothing links her to that marriage any longer: she reverts to her status as an ordinary bas Yisroel in her father's home, and terumah is closed to her. Where the couple did have a son, however, he keeps her eating terumah even after she is widowed or divorced. Our Mishnah adds that this is so even when that only child is meguyad or a goses. His life, fragile as it is, is enough to hold his mother's right in place. That is precisely what "ma'achil" conveys: this son, nebach in such a condition, is the one feeding his mother terumah.
"Ufoseil bitrumah." And the reverse happens as well. Consider a bas kohen who married a Yisroel. Throughout that marriage terumah is forbidden to her. Should the husband die or divorce her, if there are offspring from him she remains forbidden; where the couple had no children, she comes back to her father's table and eats terumah as before. Here again, an only child who is meguyad or a goses counts as a child who lives, and while he lives his mother stays outside terumah. Whichever way the case falls, a child hovering at the very border of death fixes his mother's standing exactly as a healthy child would.
Beheima and Chaya
"Vechein beheima vechaya," and animals follow the identical logic, "einom mitam'in ad sheteitzei nafshom." A neveila, a beheima or chaya whose life ended by some means other than shechita, is indeed a source of tumah; yet that tumah does not begin until the creature's life has genuinely gone out of it.
One might wonder: if a person is eating meatballs and spaghetti, the animal certainly died, so where is the tumah? The answer is that the Mishnah is speaking only of neveila. That animal was shechted, and shechita is not the death that generates tumas neveila. It should be noted, though, that this applies to a kosher beheima or chaya properly shechted. If someone performed shechita on a horse, there is still tumas neveila, because shechita accomplishes nothing for a non-kosher animal.
"Hitzu rosheihen": once the head has been cut off, death is established from that very instant, "af al pi shemefarkesin," despite the twitching that goes on afterward. Such motion is not to be confused with life. The Mishnah offers an illustration from nature: "kigon zenav shel leta'ah," the tail of a lizard, which keeps squirming after it has come away from the animal. Would anyone suggest that the tail is alive? Muscles and nerves are simply firing on their own. The decapitated beheima or chaya is no different: the shaking proves nothing, its life is finished, and tumas neveila has already taken hold.
Summary and a Closing Thought
Let us gather the halachos together. Tumas meis does not begin while the neshama is still inside a person, not even where limbs have been cut away, and not even where every sign of gesisah has appeared and by the ordinary course of nature he is about to leave this world. (Regarding a kohen it is worth noting that some hold he should stay out of a house where someone lies as a goses, while others are matir.) In every other respect, a man who lives is treated as one who fully lives. Accordingly, should the brother of this goses die childless, yibum applies, and the widow may not remarry before yibum or chalitza is carried out; since neither one can be done with him, she waits until he passes away. In the opposite direction, a man who died leaving a single child in such a state leaves a widow to whom yibum does not apply, because a child was alive at the moment of his death. Among animals, tumas neveila arrives with the death of a beheima or chaya, the exception being one of a kosher species that received a valid shechita, and the tumah begins only at the true moment of death. Where the head has been severed, the convulsions that follow, the mefarkeses, are not counted as life, precisely as a lizard's tail continues to move once it has been detached.
I recall one of my Rebbis making a beautiful point from this very Mishnah. He noticed me swaying back and forth over my learning while my mind had wandered somewhere else entirely, and he said: you are not really here, your thoughts are elsewhere. He pointed to this Mishnah and said, a body can rock back and forth and still not mean that the head and the heart are present. Learn with your mind and your heart, and not only with your movements.