Ohalos, Chapter 9, Mishnah 1. With this mishnah we begin a long series of fourteen mishnayos that all revolve around one object: the kaveres. It is worth getting comfortable with the word, since it will accompany us through the entire perek. A kaveres is a large basket, and in these mishnayos it is a basket that has been put to use as a beehive, by people who raise bees for their honey. Over the coming mishnayos we will meet this beehive in many different positions and made of many different materials, and each variation will carry its own halachos in tumah and taharah.
The picture our mishnah is describing
The kaveres of our mishnah is a long, round container. I call it a basket because it is often woven of straw, but that is not a requirement; it may equally be made of wood. It is open on one end and closed on the other, and here it is not standing upright but lying on its side on the floor, set into a doorway. Its mouth, the open end, faces outward, away from the house, while its closed base is inside the house.
Besides the large opening at the front, there are two more openings in the kaveres, located in the section that is inside the house, one on each side, opposite one another. These are not damage or wear; they are part of the design, so that the bees have a way in and a way out.
Since bees have come up, it is worth pausing over the hafla'as haBoirei that a hive puts on display. Tens of thousands of bees live together there, and every one of them has been assigned a task in the making of honey. Some fly out after pollen. Others stand guard at the entrance as shoimrim, inspecting each bee that returns and admitting only those that belong. There is a queen, and there are attendants, mesharsim, who wait upon her. Certain bees construct the cells of the hive; others are charged with keeping them clean. There are bees that nurse the ailing, and doctors have gained real insight into human medicine from studying their methods. When a bee dies, other bees remove the body: a sort of chevra kadisha. Pillei plo'im. Yet none of this can function unless the hive has its two holes through which the bees come and go.
In the case of our mishnah, those two holes are stopped up with straw, but only loosely. Al pi halacha that stuffing does not count as a proper seal.
Two halachos to have in hand
One principle from an earlier perek needs to be in front of us before we open the mishnah. A keli stands halfway when it comes to being an ohel. In one direction it does behave like an ohel: place tumah under a vessel, and the tumah spreads through the entire area beneath it. In the other direction it fails: we cannot press it into service to hold tumah back, to have it be choitzetz. It will not stop tumah lying below from going up, nor tumah resting above from coming down. That is what we were taught in perek shishi, Mishnah alef: adam vekelim can serve as an ohel letamei, but not letaher.
One more point about this particular kaveres. It is large enough to hold forty se'ah of liquid, which is the equivalent of two dry kor, and a vessel of that capacity is not mekabel tumah at all. So our kaveres itself will never become tamei. Nevertheless, since it is in active use as a beehive it retains the status of a keli, and a keli, as we said, spreads tumah but cannot block it.
The words of the Mishnah
The Mishnah opens: "Kaveres shehi besoch hapessach ufiah lachutz" - a beehive lying in the doorway with its mouth facing outward, its base within the house. "Kezayis min hameis nosun tachtehah oi al gabah mibachutz" - a kezayis of a meis is placed underneath the kaveres or on top of it, on the portion that protrudes outside the house. Picture yourself walking toward the entrance: you look at the exposed end of the hive and discover a kezayis min hameis lying under it, or resting on it. The Mishnah stresses mibachutz: we are dealing with the outer section of the kaveres, not the part that lies inside the house.
Now the ruling. "Kol shekeneged hazayis tachtehah vegabah tamei": anything lined up vertically with that kezayis, below the hive or above it, contracts tumah. "Vechol she'eino keneged hazayis, vetocho, tahor": anything out of that line, even by a hair's breadth to one side, stays tahor, and the same holds for tocho, the contents of the kaveres, which remain tahor even when they lie exactly under or over the tumah.
The mishnah then turns to a second scenario: "Babayis, ein tamei ela habayis": should the kezayis be found within the house, nothing beyond the house becomes tamei. And a third: "Besocho, hakol tamei": with the kezayis in the hive itself, tumah reaches everything. Each of these we will take up in turn, be'ezras Hashem yisborach.
Tumah on the outer portion, below or above
The scene stays constant from the beginning of the mishnah to its end: the hive rests along the ground within the entranceway, its open mouth pointing out and its sealed end pointing in. In the opening case the kezayis min hameis is under the part of the hive that juts outside; in the second it has been set on that outer part from above.
In both, the halacha is the same. Take a stick, or if you prefer a laser beam, and run it from the kezayis straight up or straight down. Whatever lies along that line becomes tamei, even though the wall of the kaveres stands in between. But whatever is inside the kaveres remains tahor, and so does anything outside that is not directly aligned with the tumah, and so does everything inside the house.
This deserves a second look. The kaveres rescues its contents, yet the tumah passes right through it in the vertical line? If the tumah is below, it rises to whatever is above; if it is above, it sinks to whatever is below?
The two halachos we prepared supply the answer. Concerning a keli we learned that even within an ohel hameis a vessel closed with tzamid patil stays tahor; here the hive shields whatever is stored in it, since a vessel of this size never receives tumah in the first place. But shielding one's contents and functioning as a barrier are two separate matters. The kaveres has the din of a keli, and a keli cannot arrest tumah on its way down from above or on its way up from below, precisely as perek shishi, Mishnah alef taught: adam vekelim make an ohel only letamei and not letaher.
Now imagine someone hurrying over in alarm: his keli had been left outside the house, resting on the hive, and beneath it a kezayis of a meis has turned up. Everything hangs on the vertical line. Was the keli off to one side? Then it is tahor and he can breathe again. Was it lying within the kaveres? Tahor. Was it standing in the house? Tahor as well. The only one with real cause for concern is the man whose keli stood precisely over or precisely under the tumah, the wall of the hive between them notwithstanding.
Tumah inside the house
We come to the third case, babayis: the kezayis lies in the house. The mishnah rules ein tamei ela habayis: nothing apart from the house contracts tumah. Whoever had kelim standing in the house has lost them. Kelim resting within the hive, however, are untouched, since the mouth of the kaveres faces out of the house and the vessel therefore guards them.
And what of the pair of holes on the inner side of the hive? For the moment they are packed with straw, and although the packing is loose, that much suffices to bar tumah from getting in. Hence a kezayis lying in the house renders tamei only the kelim that were in the house together with it.
Tumah inside the beehive
The fourth situation is where the trouble begins: besocho, the kezayis meis is found inside the kaveres. Here the Mishnah says hakol tamei, everything is tamei.
Someone protests: "Surely the kelim I left standing in the house are safe?" They are tamei. "The tumah sits in the hive, and the openings are packed with straw!" That is exactly the distinction: straw pressed in loosely is enough to bar tumah from entering, yet not enough to detain tumah already inside. This is a pattern we have met again and again: tumah finds an exit even through a gap it could never have used as an entrance.
And what of the man who says, "the tumah is inside the hive, but my keli was outside, above or below the protruding part"? Tamei as well. Once a kezayis of a meis lies within the kaveres, we regard the entire kaveres as filled with tumah. Consequently every point above the hive counts as being above tumah and every point beneath it counts as beneath tumah. And since the kaveres is a keli rather than an ohel, it cannot serve as a chatzitza to hold that tumah back from rising or descending.
"Then a vessel sitting above the hive is tamei even when it is not directly over the kezayis?" Just so. With the tumah within, we treat the hive throughout as though tumah occupies it, and such tumah travels upward as readily as downward. Compare the case of tumah in the house, where the damage stops at the house: there it cannot reach into the hive by way of the straw-stopped holes, wide as a tefach though each one is, and certainly not by way of the vessel's mouth, which is turned entirely outside the house.
A brief review
Because these halachos are so noge'ah, let us run through the four rulings once more. Our kaveres lies in the doorway, its mouth facing outward and its closed end inward, and the inner end has two openings opposite one another, as every hive requires so the bees can come and go. At the moment those openings are stopped up with straw.
- Tumah below the protruding section, or above it: whatever stands in the vertical line of the kezayis contracts tumah. Tumah above: drop a line downward, and whatever sits beneath the hive is tamei. Tumah below: raise the line, and a vessel lying on the hive is tamei. The contents of the kaveres are safe, and so is everything in the house.
- Tumah in the house itself: the tumah is confined to the kelim that were standing there. It fails to cross the straw-stuffed openings on the inner side, and the hive's mouth is no route either, opening as it does away from the house.
- Tumah within the kaveres: nothing escapes. The hive is regarded as though tumah occupies all of it, so any point over the outer section counts as over tumah, and any point beneath it as beneath tumah, and being a keli rather than an ohel, the hive is not choitzetz. Toward the house too, straw stuffed in loosely cannot keep the tumah shut in, and so it spreads inside.
With this mishnah we have opened the series of fourteen mishnayos built around the kaveres, and the picture we have drawn here will stand us in good stead as the variations unfold.