Zavim, Chapter 2, Mishnah 2. This Mishnah takes up the practical question of how a person is actually certified as a zav. A zav requires two separate emissions of flux, but not every emission counts. If the flux came about b'ones, through some external cause or accident, the person remains tahor. That means that before we can attach the status of zav to anyone, we must investigate what brought the discharge about.
The Mishnah therefore teaches: "B'shivah derachim bodkin es hazav ad shelo niskak l'zivah", in seven ways we examine the zav so long as he has not yet been definitively bound up with zivah. Before that point, we look for a possible external cause, and if we find one, he may still be tahor.
An Important Distinction
If the second sighting came about through an accidental cause rather than through some illness or weakness of the body itself, the person is treated as one who has had a seminal emission, a ba'al keri, and not as a zav. These are two different categories of tumah entirely, and the examination determines into which category the person falls.
The Seven Areas of Inquiry
- B'ma'achal, his food: perhaps something he ate brought it on, or perhaps the sheer quantity he consumed.
- Uv'mishteh, his drink: again, either the nature of the beverage or drinking far too much of it.
- Uv'masa, a burden: did he lift or transport something exceptionally heavy?
- B'kefitzah, a leap: did he spring across a gap or vault down from a height?
- B'choli, sickness: was he unwell at the time?
- B'mar'eh, sight: did his eyes fall upon a woman?
- Uv'hirhur, thought: was his mind dwelling on matters of desire?
If any one of these preceded his second emission, he does not become tamei with the tumah of zivah.
About the two final items on the list the Mishnah adds a note, so that neither is left dependent on the other. It may be that his mind dwelt on such matters though no woman ever came into his view, "hirher ad shelo ra'ah", or that a woman came into his view though no such thoughts arose in him, "shera'ah ad shelo hirher". In either direction the outcome is identical: one factor standing alone already lifts him out of the status of zav.
Rabi Yehudah Broadens the Category
Rabi Yehudah widens the range of what can serve as such a cause. In his view it is enough that the man caught sight of "beheimah, chayah va'of", a domestic animal, a wild animal or a bird, at a moment when they were "mis'askin zeh im zeh", coupling with one another; that sight is itself an outside trigger. He includes as well "bigdei tzeva ha'ishah", the dyed and colored clothing worn by women, which in that era was capable of stirring a man enough to bring on a discharge. Each of these, to Rabi Yehudah, belongs under the heading of ones, so that a second emission following upon any of them leaves the man free of the tumah of zivah.
Rabi Akiva and the Chachamim
Rabi Akiva presses the principle further still. The Chachamim were ready to trace the flux only to foods with a known reputation for causing it, fatty meat or certain milk products among them. Rabi Akiva holds that eating of any sort will serve: "afilu achal kol ma'achal", and it makes no difference whether the item was coarse or choice, "bein ra bein yafeh", with drinking treated identically, "v'shasah kol mashkeh", any liquid whatever. Whenever one of these came before the emission, we lay the flux at its door.
The Chachamim objected: "Ein kan zavim me'atah!", on such a view there will never be a zav at all! Their argument is obvious once stated. Every person eats and drinks constantly. If any food and any drink can be blamed for the discharge, we will always have something to attribute it to, and no one will ever be certified a zav.
Rabi Akiva answered: "Ein achrayus zavim alecha", the responsibility for producing zavim does not rest upon you. It is not your task to make sure the category is populated. Halachah is determined by the truth of the matter, not by the need to keep a status in existence.
Once He Is Established as a Zav
The Mishnah continues: "mishe'niskak l'zivah, ein bodkin oso". Once a man has had two emissions and has thereby acquired the tumah of a zav, a third emission is no longer subjected to this examination. We do not run through the seven inquiries again, and he becomes a zav gamur, a full zav.
The reason is given in the Mishnah's own words: "anso, sefeiko, v'shichvas zaro temei'in". Even if this third emission came about through an accident, and even if we are genuinely unsure whether it was a seminal discharge or a flux, and even if it was in fact seminal, it conveys tumah in any event, including tumah conveyed by carrying, tumah b'masa. And the underlying principle is "sheraglayim ladavar", there are grounds for the assumption: since this man has already experienced two emissions of flux, there is solid reason to conclude that the third is likewise a flux, and we render him a tamei zav accordingly.
Which Sightings Require Examination
The Mishnah concludes by laying out the process sighting by sighting. "Ra'ah re'iyah rishonah, bodkin oso", when a man experiences his first emission, he is examined to determine whether it came about through an accident.
Why bother, if the crucial question is the cause of the second emission? Because the first emission, as the Gemara teaches, essentially carries the status of a seminal discharge, a shichvas zera. Just as a seminal discharge is frequently brought on by accidental causes and conveys tumah nonetheless, so too here: an accidental cause does not remove the tumah of that first sighting. What an accidental cause does accomplish is that the sighting will not be joined with the next two toward the obligation of a korban. And if the second emission occurs, even accidentally, the man is a zav so far as tumah is concerned, so that whatever he lies or sits upon becomes tamei, and he must count seven days and immerse in the mikveh. That is why the first sighting is examined at all, even though for the immediate question of tumah the answer will not change much.
Regarding the second sighting, therefore, the examination bears on both matters, on the tumah and on the korban, whereas the first sighting is examined only with respect to the tumah and does not bear on the korban itself.
As for the third, no examination is required. He is already a zav on the strength of the first two, and this third emission makes him a zav gamur whether or not it came about accidentally. Since the cause is irrelevant to the outcome, there is nothing to investigate: either way he is obligated to bring a korban.
Rabi Elazar's Dissent
Rabi Elazar disagrees: "af bashelishis bodkin oso mipnei hakorban", even the third sighting is examined, on account of the korban. In his view, if that third emission was brought on by an accident, no korban is brought, and therefore the inquiry must be made. The Chachamim hold that the third emission obligates a korban whether or not it came about b'ones, and the halachah follows them and not Rabi Elazar.
The Mishnah thus gives us a complete picture: before a man is bound up with zivah, seven avenues of inquiry stand between him and the status of zav, with Rabi Yehudah and Rabi Akiva stretching those avenues in different directions. Once the status has taken hold, however, the investigation ends, for at that point there are firm grounds to conclude that what we are seeing is genuine zivah.