Ohalos, Chapter 7, Mishnah 2. Our Mishnah continues to define what counts as being "under the ohel" and how the tumah of a meis travels through a tent. Five separate halachos are packed into these few lines: the status of the sloping sides of a tent, the difference between touching the inner surface and the outer surface of an ohel, a case of two half-zaysim, a flap of the tent lying flat on the ground, and a tent pitched upstairs over an opening in the floor.
The Slanted Sides Are Part of the Ohel
The Mishnah begins: "Kol shiphuei ohalin ke'ohalin." The word shiphua means a slope. Picture the standard shape of a tent: there is a flat stretch across the top, and from there the material angles downward toward the ground on either side. The Mishnah teaches that those sloping stretches are treated exactly like the flat roof itself. If the tumah is lying beneath the slanted portion and not beneath the flat top at all, the whole ohel is tamei nonetheless.
Why would one have thought otherwise? Perhaps because a surface that descends on an angle feels more like a wall than like a roof. The Mishnah rules that out: for the halachos of ohel, the slope is roof.
Even a Flat Top the Width of a Finger
The Mishnah presses the point further: "ohel shehu shiphua veyored", a tent whose surfaces slope down on both sides, and if you follow the slope upward it ends, "kalah ad ke'etzba", with a flat stretch at the peak that is only as wide as a finger. Even in such a tent, if the tumah is beneath the narrow flat portion, hakeilim shetachas hashiphua te'mei'im, the vessels resting under the sloping sides become tamei. And the reverse is equally true: if the tumah is tachas hashiphua, under the slope, then keilim sheba'ohel te'mei'im, the vessels under the flat portion become tamei.
What is the added chiddush here, if we were already told that the slope is like the roof? The point is this. We learned earlier that an ohel requires a space of a tefach by a tefach. One might have assumed that this tefach by tefach has to be located beneath the flat part of the roof. Our Mishnah teaches that this is not so. As long as you can outline a space of a tefach in length, a tefach in width and a tefach in height, and your fingers can trace it all around without anything blocking them, you have an ohel, even if looking up from that space you find yourself, wholly or partly, beneath the slanted section of the covering. That space still carries the din of an ohel.
Where Else Do We Meet a Sloping Roof?
It is worth recalling parallel Mishnayos that deal with the angle of a covering, even outside the realm of tumah and taharah.
- In the first perek of Maseches Sukkah we learned about a sukkah built like a tent, two boards leaning against each other and meeting at the top, or a single sloping board propped against a wall, in a case where the material used would be valid for sechach. Rebbi Eliezer declares it pasul, since a sukkah must have a roof. The Chachamim declare it kasher, precisely because they hold that a sloping covering is also considered a roof.
- In Maseches Shabbos we learned about the kilas chassanim, the special canopy of a chosson, whose covering has no flat tefach at the top. Since it lacks that flat stretch, one is permitted to set it up and to dismantle it on Shabbos, and it is not called making an ohel.
The differences between the definition of an ohel by Shabbos, by sukkah, and by tumah are worth studying, and the sefer Meleches Shlomo takes up exactly this comparison.
Inside and Outside: Two Separate Keilim
The Mishnah now turns to a new halachah: "Tumah mitocho, hanogeia bo mitocho tamei tumas shivah, u'me'achorav tamei tumas erev." The words have to be rendered with care. There is a meis inside the tent. If a person touches the tent from within, meaning he touches the inner face of the covering, he is tamei for seven days. If he touches it me'achorav, from behind, on its outer surface, he is tamei only until the evening.
And the mirror case: "Tumah me'achorav", the tumah is resting against the outside of the ohel. Then one who touches the tent from the outside is tamei for seven days, while one who touches it from the inside is tamei only until that evening, once he has toveled.
Working Out the Chain of Tumah
To understand this we need to be precise about the kind of tent under discussion and about the levels of tumah. We are speaking of an ohel made of material that is susceptible to tumah: sheets of pishtan, hide, or sak, which as we have seen many times is cloth woven from goat hair or the hair of other animals.
A meis is an avi avos hatumah. Now one might expect that whatever comes into contact with the meis should drop a level and become merely an av hatumah. But we darshen cherev harei hu kechalal: a keli that touches a meis does not descend a level; it remains on the very level of the tumah of the meis. So the covering of the tent, once it is in contact with the meis, is itself an avi avos hatumah. A person who then touches an avi avos hatumah becomes an av hatumah, and an av hatumah requires seven days, since the water mixed with the ashes of the Parah Adumah must be sprinkled on him on the third day and on the seventh.
That accounts for the first half of the ruling: touching the inner face of the tent, where the meis is, makes a person an av hatumah, tamei for seven days. But why should the outer face be different? Because the Mishnah views the inside of the tent and the outside of the tent as though they were two distinct keilim. The inner surface is the keli that touched the meis, an avi avos hatumah. The outer surface is a keli that touched a keli that touched a meis, which is only an av hatumah. Therefore a person who touches the outside of the tent becomes a rishon letumah, and a rishon letumah has no need of seven days and no need of the Parah Adumah. He tovels, and by evening he is tahor.
The same reckoning explains the second case in reverse. When the tumah is resting outside the tent, the outer face is the keli in contact with the meis, an avi avos hatumah, and one who touches it there becomes an av hatumah requiring seven days. The inner face is then one step further removed, a keli that touched a keli that touched a meis, an av hatumah, so one who touches the inside becomes a rishon letumah and is tamei only until the evening.
Two Important Qualifications
The mefarshim point out that this splitting of the tent into two keilim applies only after the meis has been removed from the ohel. So long as the meis is still inside, both faces of the covering are avi avos hatumah, since the inner surface is treated as being like the meis itself, and the outer surface is then a keli in contact with the meis. Either way, while the meis lies within, one who touches the tent, whether inside or outside, is tamei for seven days.
And what is the sevara behind treating the two faces as separate keilim at all? Ordinarily we do not distinguish between the inside and the outside of a keli; that distinction belongs to a kli cheres. Here, though, the very function of the ohel is to cut off the tumah, to stop it from spreading past the covering to the other side. The inner surface acts as a barrier, a stop sign for the tumah. That is precisely the basis for saying that the far surface is already a different keli.
A Half-Zayis Within and a Half-Zayis Without
The Mishnah continues: "Kechatzi zayis mitocho vechechatzi zayis me'achorav." There is half a kezayis of the meis touching the tent on the inside and half a kezayis touching it on the outside. In this case, hanogeia bo bein mitocho bein me'achorav tamei tumas erev: whoever touches the tent, from either side, is tamei only until the evening, that is, he is a rishon letumah.
The Bartenura explains that the ohel itself does require seven days for its taharah, since for the tent the two halves join together to form a full kezayis. But regarding a person who touches the tent, on either surface, he is tamei only for the day. Since there is no complete kezayis in any one place, neither surface qualifies as a keli that touched a meis, which would be an avi avos hatumah. Each side is reckoned as a keli that touched a keli that touched a meis, an av hatumah, and one who touches it is a rishon letumah.
The Flap Spread Out on the Ground
A new case: "Miktzaso merudad al ha'aretz." This is a familiar sight with tents. The material comes down the sides, reaches the ground, and then part of it continues to lie flat along the floor. If there is tumah tachtav, beneath that flap, or for that matter resting on top of it, it does not render the tent tamei. Instead, tumah boka'as ve'olah boka'as veyoredes: the tumah breaks through and rises in a straight line, and breaks through and descends in a straight line. It renders tamei whatever lies directly above it or directly below it, but it does not spread sideways and it does not affect the ohel. This is what we call tumah retzutza, tumah that is pressed tight with no tefach of space around it.
A Tent Pitched in the Attic Over the Arubah
The Mishnah closes with an especially interesting case: "Ohel shehu natui ba'aliyah." For whatever reason, a person has pitched a tent not outdoors but indoors, on the upper story of his house. And miktzaso merudad, part of the tent's material, having reached the floor, continues to lie spread out flat, and it happens to be lying al ha'arubah shebein bayis la'aliyah, over the opening in the floor between the lower house and the upper story, a kind of skylight or hatch. Now a meis is found downstairs.
Rebbi Yosi says: matzil. It is a fortunate thing that the flat flap covers the opening, because in his view it blocks the tumah from rising to the upper floor. Why should it block? Because we regard that flap as an ohel in its own right.
But wait: we were just taught the opposite. In the previous case, tumah beneath the flap spread on the ground rises straight up rather than spreading sideways, which shows that the flap is not an ohel in its own right. The answer lies in the difference between the two situations. There, the material lay directly on the ground with no tefach of space beneath it. Here it is stretched over the opening in the floor, and beneath it there is far more than a tefach of space: there is the entire lower story. That is exactly why this flat portion of the tent carries the din of an ohel, and consequently it holds back the tumah from rising, just as any ohel prevents the tumah beneath it from spreading to what is above.
Rebbi Shimon disagrees: "eino matzil ad sheyehei natui kintiyas ha'ohel." A flat piece of material lying over the opening, even though it is part of a tent, does not have the din of an ohel. Should you tell me that the tent itself was pitched upstairs directly over the opening between the floors, so that a genuine tent, with a roof and walls, stands above the arubah, then Rebbi Shimon agrees that it blocks the tumah of the meis below from rising. But a mere flat sheet of cloth is not a tent. The lamdus that there is open space beneath it does not change the fact that in practice this is nothing more than flat material spread across the opening, and that is not enough to hold back the tumah.
Reviewing the Halachos of Our Mishnah
- The slope is like the roof. A tent with a flat stretch at the top, even as narrow as a finger's width, with the rest of the covering sloping down, is entirely reckoned as being under one ohel. Tumah under the flat part renders tamei the keilim beneath the slopes, and tumah beneath the slopes renders tamei the keilim throughout the ohel. The required tefach by tefach of space need not sit under the flat portion.
- Inside and outside are two separate keilim. With tumah inside the ohel, one who touches the inner surface is tamei for seven days, since that surface is a keli that came into direct contact with the meis and is therefore an avi avos hatumah, making the one who touches it an av hatumah who needs the sprinkling of the Parah Adumah waters on the third and seventh days. One who touches the outer surface has touched a keli that touched a keli that touched the meis, an av hatumah, so he is only a rishon letumah, tamei for the day. With the tumah on the outside the ruling reverses: touching the outside brings seven days, touching the inside brings tumas erev. All of this concerns a tent of material susceptible to tumah, such as yeri'os pishtan, hide or sak, and only after the meis has been removed. While the meis is still inside, touching either surface renders one tamei for seven days.
- Half a kezayis within and half a kezayis without. Whether one touches the tent from inside or from outside, he is tamei only for the day, since there is no full kezayis in any single place.
- The flap lying flat on the ground. The extra material that continues along the floor like a carpet has no tefach of space beneath it. Tumah under it is tumah retzutza: it breaks upward and downward in a straight line and does not affect the ohel, even though the flap is attached to it.
- A tent pitched upstairs with its flap over the arubah. Part of the tent lies spread on the floor of the upper story, covering the opening between the two floors, and there is a meis below. Rebbi Yosi holds that here, unlike the earlier case, there is far more than a tefach beneath the material, namely the whole lower story, so this flat portion has the din of an ohel in its own right and blocks the tumah from rising to the upper floor. Rebbi Shimon holds that a flat sheet is simply not an ohel. Had the tent itself, with roof and walls, been pitched over the opening, it would indeed block the tumah from below; the outstretched flap does not.