Ohalos, Chapter 13, Mishnah 1. Until now we have met the same measurement again and again: how large must an opening be in order for tumah to travel through it from one room to another, from one space to another? A tefach by a tefach. In this Mishnah we learn that the tefach is not the whole story. A tefach by a tefach is indeed the shiur when the opening was fashioned in order to make use of it, a niche where things are stored, a sort of shelf or cupboard set into the wall. But when the hole was made for a different purpose, or when nobody made it at all and it simply came about by itself, the shiurim change.
A window made for light
The Mishnah opens: "Ha'oseh ma'or bat'chilah", one who makes an opening for light from the outset. Picture a person walking into a room and finding it too dark to learn. He decides to cut a small window into the wall (and some explain that the same applies to an opening cut into the roof; it makes no difference), and now the light streams in and he is refreshed.
Such an opening is a significant one. Precisely because he wanted it and values it, tumah will pass through it even if it is considerably smaller than a tefach. How small? "Shiuro m'lo makdei'ach gadol shel lishkah": a makdei'ach is a drill, and the shiur is the width of the hole bored by the large drill that was kept in the chambers of the Beis Hamikdash. It was called a large drill, but the hole it made is much smaller than a tefach. The Mishnah gives us other ways to picture it: the size of a pundyon ha'Italki, or of a sela Nironis, a particular kind of sela coin. Some explain it as the size of the hole in the yoke of oxen, into which the rod is eventually inserted, which we encountered in Maseches Keilim. Whichever comparison we use, we are dealing with an opening well under a tefach.
The remnant of a window
The Mishnah continues with "shiyarei hama'or", the leftover of a light opening. Here is the case: for whatever reason the owner decides there is too much light coming in and he wants the window sealed. He begins plastering it up, and then he glances at the clock and sees that Shabbos is nearly here. Or he runs short of clay. Or his chavrusa is waiting for him. The point is that he stopped in the middle, and he fully intends to come back and finish the job.
Because he still means to seal it, the opening has lost some of its standing. It is still bringing in light, but it no longer carries the full chashivus of a window that he wants. Therefore the shiur here is larger than the hole of the drill, though still less than a tefach: "rom etzba'yim al rochav hagudal". Rom means height, so the opening must be two fingers high by the width of a thumb.
The Mishnah itself then defines the term: "eilu hein shiyarei hama'or, chalon shesasamo v'lo hispik ligmero", these are the remnants of a light opening, a window that he began to seal and did not manage to complete. Note the wording carefully: he did not change his mind, he simply did not get to finish. He got tired, Shabbos arrived, the clay ran out, his chavrusa was waiting, and so for the time being it remains open.
A hole that made itself
Now the Mishnah turns to an opening that nobody planned at all. "Ch'raruhu mayim", water seeped and dripped until it wore a hole in the wall. "O sh'ratzim", or creeping creatures burrowed away at it until they broke through. "O she'achalto melachas", or the salt in the material ate away at it until it opened by itself. In all these cases the hole arrived by nature, without anyone wanting it.
Here the Mishnah rules: "shiuro m'lo egrof", the shiur is the fullness of a fist. Not an ordinary fist, but the fist of Ben Avati'ach, a man so large that his fist was the size of an average person's head.
An aside worth knowing: Rabbeinu Gershom brings from Maseches Bechoros that Ben Avati'ach lived in the era of the Tannaim and was famous for his physical strength, and that he was a son of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai's sister. He is identified with one of the heads of the biryonim, the faction that would not permit the Yidden to give themselves over to the Romans; nevertheless he worked together with his uncle and set up the ruse through which Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was carried out of the besieged city. The Gemara in Maseches Gittin describes what followed, how Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai came before Aspasyanus Keisar and made three requests of him: that the line of Rabban Gamliel endure, that Kerem B'Yavneh be left untouched, and that doctors be sent to cure Reb Tzadok.
In any event, the fist of Ben Avati'ach is our measurement when the hole formed on its own, and it is larger than a tefach. The logic is straightforward: if you never wanted an opening there at all, then for that hole to be deemed significant enough to carry tumah from place to place, it has to be a full m'lo egrof.
When he decides to make use of it
The Mishnah then teaches what happens if the owner has a good attitude about his accidental hole. He comes in, sees that the water has bored through his wall, and says: gam zu l'tovah, I will make use of it and keep my things there. "Chishav alav l'tashmish", once he intends to use it, "shiuro b'potzei'ach tefach", it takes on the din of a niche fashioned for storage, and the shiur becomes a tefach by a tefach for tumah to spread from one side to the other.
And if instead he says: the water made a hole, wonderful, now I have light, and I intend to keep it open and enjoy the light? "L'ma'or, shiuro bimlo makdei'ach", it is treated exactly like a window that was cut for light from the outset, and the shiur is the hole of the drill. This is why we said earlier that when the Mishnah opened with "ha'oseh ma'or bat'chilah", one who actively makes an opening for light, that is not the only way to acquire that status. Here he made nothing at all; he merely decided to use what was already there for light, and it is enough.
Lattices and slatted shutters
The Mishnah goes on to the case of "haserigos v'hatafachis". Serigos are latticework barriers, a grating or grillwork such as was set up at the entrance of storerooms. Tafachis are shutters built of narrow strips, much like the blinds we know today; windows were constructed in that fashion, out of thin wooden strips, so that light and air would come through, exactly as people install a slatted door during the hot season. In both cases we are not dealing with a single hole at all but with many small spaces one after another, and in the case before us the owner wants them for the light they let in.
Beis Shammai take a strikingly stringent position: "mitstarfos kimlo makdei'ach", the small gaps join together. Add up all of the little holes, and if together they amount to the shiur of the drill hole, tumah passes through. That is a considerable chumrah, since we are combining separate openings into one measurement. The Chazon Ish explains the reasoning: since the man's purpose here is light, it makes no difference that the openings are scattered, because it is all of them together that let in the light he wants.
Beis Hillel do not agree. In their view tumah cannot travel through such a grille or such a shutter unless one of the gaps, standing by itself "b'makom echad", in a single spot, is as wide as the drill hole. The little openings are not added up.
Bringing tumah in and taking tumah out
The Mishnah now teaches that all of these shiurim apply equally "l'havi es hatumah o l'hotzi es hatumah", whether the question is bringing tumah into the house or letting tumah out of it.
What does that mean practically? L'havi es hatumah: a person is sitting and learning inside his house, and just outside the wall there is a ledge or an awning, and word comes that there is tumah out there under the awning. There is an opening in his wall. Will the tumah come in to him? L'hotzi es hatumah: the reverse, where the man is standing outside beneath the awning and there is tumah inside the house, and there is an opening in the wall. Will the tumah come out to him?
According to the Tanna Kamma, in either direction we must investigate the same questions: who made this opening and what is it there for. Let us review the shiurim:
- An opening made for light: even a tiny hole is a problem, the shiur being m'lo makdei'ach, the drill hole of the lishkah.
- A window he began to seal and did not finish: two fingers high by the width of a thumb.
- An opening fashioned in order to store things in it: a tefach by a tefach.
- An opening that formed by itself, through water, salt or creeping creatures: m'lo egrof, the fist of Ben Avati'ach, unless he afterward decided to use it for storage or for light, in which case it takes the corresponding shiur.
And it makes no difference where the person is standing or where the tumah is located, inside or outside, coming in or going out: the shiur is the same.
Reb Shimon, and two versions of the text
The closing words of the Mishnah, "Reb Shimon omer", are the subject of a major difference in girsa'os, and the two readings yield very different positions.
Begin with the girsa of the Bartenura. Reb Shimon dismisses this entire system of graduated measurements. Sometimes you tell me the shiur is smaller than a tefach, sometimes larger than a tefach? Says Reb Shimon: "l'havi es hatumah o l'hotzi es hatumah, b'fotzei'ach tefach". Whether the question concerns tumah entering or tumah leaving, there is one shiur and one only. Less than a tefach and the tumah does not pass; a tefach by a tefach and it does. In this reading Reb Shimon argues with every one of the halachos taught in our Mishnah, and it is the simpler of the two versions.
The second reading puts a far more limited claim in Reb Shimon's mouth. All the varied measurements of the Tanna Kamma stand, he says, when we are asking whether tumah from outside enters the house. But l'hotzi es hatumah, when tumah inside must get out, the measurement is potzei'ach tefach. Where the man is positioned outdoors under the awning and the question is whether the tumah within the house reaches him, an opening of one tefach square is all that is needed.
The Meforshim offer a number of approaches to this reading. Here is the accepted line of thought. We have seen repeatedly that it is easier for tumah to leave a house than to enter one, the principle of derech hatumah l'hotzi: tumah that is in a house does not simply remain there, it presses to get out. Hence with a given opening we may rule that tumah does not enter, while with that very same opening we rule that tumah exits. Reb Shimon certainly does not dispute that; on the contrary, he too holds that tumah leaving is treated more stringently than tumah entering.
So how are we to understand him? Ask yourself a general question: before this Mishnah we knew of only one measurement, a tefach, and now we have been given several. Were the new shiurim a chumrah or a kula? The answer is both. When the opening was made for light, the shiur dropped below a tefach, a stringency. When the opening formed by itself, the shiur rose above a tefach, a leniency.
Now, Reb Shimon holds along with everyone else that tumah exiting is the stricter side of the coin. It follows that his objection can be aimed at only one of the measurements listed above: m'lo egrof, which exceeds a tefach and is thus a serious leniency. The Tanna Kamma had ruled that a hole which came about on its own transmits nothing even when it reaches a full tefach. To this Reb Shimon replies, on this reading: for tumah entering I have no quarrel. The hole was unwanted and carries no chashivus, so let it need a fistful. For tumah leaving, however, the stricter direction, a measurement of an egrof is more than I can accept. Even a hole narrower than a fist, and even a hole that opened up by itself, will let the tumah out once it measures one tefach in each direction.
Summing up Reb Shimon
So what does Reb Shimon hold? It depends on the girsa.
Follow the Bartenura's text, and Reb Shimon sweeps the graduated measurements away entirely: one shiur governs everything, a tefach. The Tanna Kamma had listed the drill hole for an opening made for light, a height of two etzba'os by the width of a gudal for a window whose sealing was left unfinished, a tefach for a niche used to store things, and a fistful for a hole that opened on its own unless the owner later resolved to make use of it. Reb Shimon's response is that he recognizes none of these categories: entering or leaving, the measure is a tefach.
Follow the other text, and Reb Shimon is saying: the Tanna Kamma's rulings are mine as well. Where the tumah lies outdoors under the overhang while the man is indoors, a hole that opened by itself lets nothing through even at a tefach; only a full m'lo egrof will do. But turn the picture around, with the tumah indoors and a person or keilim standing outside beneath the overhang, and an opening of one tefach square already brings the tumah out to them. The reason is that we rule more strictly regarding tumah on its way out: tumah will not sit quietly in a house, it forces its way out.