Ohalos, Chapter 6, Mishnah 7. This mishnah continues directly from the case that closed the previous mishnah, so we begin by recalling where that discussion left off.
That mishnah discussed an amud, a pillar, standing either in a burial cave or inside a house, with tumah lodged underneath it: a whole meis, or a k'zayis from a meis, sitting below the pillar without a full tefach of clearance around it. The halachah taught there was "tumah bokaas v'olah, bokaas v'yoredes": tumah of this sort tears upward in a straight line and tears downward in a straight line, with no lateral spread whatsoever. Squeezed in tightly, with no open tefach around it, the tumah is confined to a vertical path.
A Pillar That Is Not Straight
This mishnah too speaks of a corpse, or a fragment of one, resting below an amud. The amud here, however, is no plain column: it carries a perach. Literally the term means blossom, though the mishnah has no interest in flowers as such; the reference is to any capital or carved ornament that flares outward from the shaft, at its crown or even somewhere along its height. Imagine a squirrel scaling the column. He cannot dash straight to the summit; upon reaching the perach he must maneuver around the ledge that protrudes on either side.
The Bartenura places this amud not in a cave, unlike the preceding mishnah, but out in a garden or in the reshus harabbim. He adds that the perach juts a full tefach beyond the shaft, a span wide enough to function as an ohel.
Keilim Under the Perach, Tumah Under the Pillar
"Keilim shetachas haperach, tehorim", teaches the mishnah: vessels positioned below the projection remain tahor.
Let us picture it concretely. I leave my keli next to the column, and when I return to fetch it I find it standing directly below the overhanging perach, which measures a tefach by a tefach. A passerby informs me that tumas meis lies buried beneath this column. Am I in trouble?
The first opinion in the mishnah says no; its verdict is tehorim. We are dealing with tumah retzutza, tumah crushed into a confined space, and such tumah is bokaas v'olah: it tears upward and never spreads to the sides. The tumah below the amud rises straight through the amud and stops there. Had my keli been sitting on the column's upper surface, we would be facing an entirely different question. But it stands off to the side, and although the perach overhangs it, this Tanna rules that it stays tahor.
Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri disagrees: "Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri metamei". Had I brought him the shailah, he would have paskened that my keilim are tamei. His reasoning is that the perach is part of the amud itself. If we say the tumah beneath the amud rises straight up through the amud, that ascent includes the perach, which is simply the amud's upper portion widened out. Keilim sitting under the perach are therefore in the tumah's path.
Tumah and Vessel Both Beneath the Ornament
Until now the tumah, the meis or the k'zayis min hameis, was beneath the amud itself. Now the mishnah turns to a case where neither the tumah nor the keilim are under the amud, but both are under the perach. Imagine I place my keli beneath the projecting perach, and someone runs over and tells me that there is a k'zayis of a meis under that very perach as well. What is the din of my keli?
The mishnah says: "tumah v'keilim shetachas haperach, im yeish sham pose'ach tefach, temeiyim". Here we need to measure. If the perach juts a tefach beyond the shaft, with a square tefach of empty space below it, the keilim are tamei. The perach is maahil above the k'zayis and above the vessel alike, one covering stretched over the two of them, and by way of that ohel the tumah reaches the keli.
"V'im lav, tehorin". If my measuring shows that the perach does not extend a tefach out from the pole, or that there is not an open tefach of space underneath it, the keilim remain tahor, because there is no ohel here at all.
Two Pardeskim in the Wall
A fresh case follows: shnei pardeskim, two pardeskim, "zeh b'tzad zeh o zeh al gab zeh", meaning either set beside each other or built the one above the other.
What is a pardesk? The Bartenura defines them as amudim chalulim nesunim b'chosel habayis, pillars set into the wall of a house that are hollowed out inside so that things can be stored in them. In our terms, a closet built into the wall. Here there are two of them, either side by side or one over the other, and each has a door that opens and closes.
Unfortunately, a k'zayis of a meis is lying beneath the amud. Rules the mishnah: "im niftach echad meihen, hu v'habayis tamei". Should one of the two be standing open, that pardesk becomes tamei and so does the house. The tumah climbs up the hollow shaft and escapes inside via the doorway that stands open, so that the contents of that closet and the contents of the house are all tamei. That, the Bartenura explains, is the route this tumah takes: upward, and then outward through the opening.
One could try to sidestep the whole issue with a measurement. Say I establish that the tumah under the amud is situated in the outer portion of the wall's thickness, the side facing the street. Mishnah 3 taught that a fragment of a meis resting in the outer half of a wall's thickness does not render the house tamei. Should that not settle matters here as well? The Bartenura responds that the leniency is unavailable in our case. Once the tumah lies beneath a hollowed column whose entrance to the house is open, even tumah situated in the outer portion ascends into the column's cavity and from there makes its way indoors through that open entrance.
And the second pardesk? "V'chaveiro tahor". Its door remained shut, so whatever is inside it stays tahor.
A Closed Pardesk Is Treated as Solid Wall
The mishnah supplies the governing principle: "ro'in es hapardeskin", we view these hollow columns, "k'ilu hu otem", as though they were stopped up solid. With the door shut we refuse to reckon the cavity as empty space at all. A hollow does exist in fact, but for halachah the column counts as solid masonry, plain wall like any other.
That being so, we are back to the standard halachah of tumah lying under a wall, which the mishnah restates: "yidun mechetzah l'mechetzah", it is assessed half against half. Divide the column's thickness in two. Tumah in the inner half, the half turned toward the house, is l'havi es hatumah labayis, it conveys the tumah indoors precisely as if the meis were lying in the house itself, and everything in the house is tamei. Tumah in the outer half breaks only upward and downward, and the house and its contents stay tahor.
This is how the Bartenura learns the pshat in these two pillars. There are a number of other explanations offered, but we have kept to the most straightforward reading.
Summary
- An amud bearing a perach, a protruding ornament, with a meis underneath the amud: the first Tanna rules that keilim standing below the perach are tahor, since the tumah ascends in a straight line and never fans out to the sides. Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri counts the perach as part of the amud, so that the tumah's upward route takes it in, and keilim beneath it are tamei.
- Where the k'zayis and the vessel are both lodged under the perach: given a projection of a tefach and a square tefach of clearance beneath it, we have an ohel and the keilim are tamei; lacking either measurement, they are tahor.
- Two pardeskim, hollow wall closets fitted with doors, with tumah below the column: when one door stands open, that closet's contents and the household's contents are tamei, since the tumah rises through the cavity and emerges at the doorway. The closet that remains shut stays tahor.
- With the doors closed we regard the pardeskin as solid wall containing no cavity, and the tumah below is assessed half against half: in the inner half it renders the house tamei, in the outer half the house stays tahor.