Ohalos, Chapter 5, Mishnah 5. Our mishnah continues with the case that the chapter has been building: a house with an aliyah, an upper story, built above it, and an arubah, an opening in the floor of the upper story that looks down into the house below. Tumas meis is present downstairs, and the question is whether it rises through that opening into the aliyah. A pot has been set over the opening, and everything depends on the status of that pot. Until now the pot under discussion was a kli cheres, an earthenware vessel, with all the complications that come along with it. Here the Mishnah introduces a pot of an entirely different kind: a vessel that simply is not capable of receiving tumah at all.
Vessels That Never Become Tamei
"Hayu klei gelalim, klei avanim, klei adamah": the utensil covering the arubah was fashioned from animal dung, or from stone, or from earth that was never fired in a kiln. Vessels of these three materials stand entirely outside the framework of tumah; there is no source of tumah that can affect them. And since they can never become tamei, the takanos that Chazal made regarding utensils belonging to an am ha'aretz have no application to them either. A kli gelalim, a kli even or a kli adamah stays tahor even when its owner is an am ha'aretz.
Consequently, when a pot of this sort covers the arubah, "hakol tahor": all that is in the upper story remains tahor. The pot serves as a tahor divider separating the tumah beneath from the space above, and even items upstairs that would ordinarily need tevilah in a mikveh to regain their taharah are left untouched. None of the problems that came up regarding an earthenware pot of an am ha'aretz apply here, for a vessel like this is incapable of contracting tumah in the first place.
Earthenware Prepared for Kodesh and for Chatas
A second scenario follows: "hayah kli cheres tahor l'kodesh v'l'chatas." Once more the vessel is earthenware, but this time its taharah was attended to with real care, so that it qualifies for kodshim, meaning that sanctified food may genuinely be put into it, and it also qualifies "l'chatas," meaning that it was brought up to the level demanded for the parah adumah: one is permitted to place in it either the ashes left from the parah adumah, or water in which those ashes were already mixed, or water designated for that mixing.
If that is the pot covering the opening, "hakol tahor," everything above is tahor, and this holds true even when the pot belongs to an am ha'aretz. The Mishnah gives the reason: "shehakol ne'emanim al hachatas." With regard to chatas, which here means the parah adumah, and likewise with regard to kodshim, everyone is believed. When an am ha'aretz tells us that this vessel is fit to hold hekdesh, or that it is fit to hold the ashes and the water of the parah adumah, we accept his word. When Chazal enacted their decree about the vessels of an am ha'aretz, they never extended it to vessels prepared for kodshim or for the parah adumah, even though those vessels are in his possession.
The Unifying Reason
The Mishnah wraps up with one principle that accounts for every case it listed: "mipnei shehakeilim tehorin," the vessels in question are tahor. Utensils of stone, of dung and of unfired earth are tahor for the simple reason that tumah has no hold on them at all, "u'chlei cheres tehorin," and the earthenware vessels that received that special preparation retain their taharah even when their owner is an am ha'aretz.
Next comes the wording "u'matzilin im dafnos ha'ohel" (there is a variant as to whether the word begins with a vav or not). Read literally, it says that they save together with the ohel's partitions. The point is that a tahor vessel of this type holds back tumah only when it is serving as an element of an ohel. Our pot is admittedly not a partition, yet it has been absorbed into the structure: it sits in the ceiling of the lower story, which doubles as the floor of the upper one, and in that capacity it closes off the upper space from the tumah below. A tahor vessel standing independently, not built into an ohel, does not stop tumah completely in this manner, and that, b'ezras Hashem yisborach, is what the next mishnah takes up.
Why an Am Ha'aretz Is Believed About Kodshim
Before we review, one question presses. Suppose an am ha'aretz assures me that an everyday pot of his is tahor: I do not rely on his statement. Yet let him tell me that a vessel of that very type is suitable for hekdesh, that the meat of a korban shelamim may be put into it, or, more striking still, that it is fit to contain the ashes of the parah adumah or its waters, and his word is accepted. Where is the consistency?
The answer lies in how Chazal weighed their decrees. When they instituted a gezeirah, they measured its consequences and how it would play out in practice; Chazal were always ten steps ahead. It was difficult enough to tell an am ha'aretz that his own vessels are treated as tamei, yet there was no alternative. But had they gone further and declared that he is not trusted in matters of hekdesh and not trusted in matters of the parah adumah, the reaction was foreseeable: he would say that he will simply stay away from the Beis Hamikdash altogether, build his own bamah and his own mizbeiach, and bring his korbanos there. Whatever problems might arise from the tumah of his vessels, that outcome would have been immeasurably worse.
Chazal therefore knew precisely where a decree could be imposed and where it could not. Here they felt they had no choice but to extend trust to the amei ha'aratzim, and to show them plainly that in the realm of hekdesh and of the parah adumah their word is accepted.
Review
- A house with an aliyah above it and an arubah opening between them, with tumas meis in the house below.
- A pot of dung, stone or unbaked earth set over the arubah: it cannot receive tumah, so it is tahor even by an am ha'aretz, and everything in the aliyah is tahor.
- Earthenware that was prepared to be tahor for kodshim and for chatas: it too keeps everything above tahor even if it belongs to an am ha'aretz, since everyone is believed regarding chatas.
- The reason in both cases: the vessels are tahor, and a tahor vessel protects when it serves together with the structure of the ohel.
- Chazal's decree on the vessels of an am ha'aretz was never applied to kodshim or to the parah adumah, so that no one be driven away from the Beis Hamikdash.