Parah, Chapter 10, Mishnah 4. The theme of this chapter is that the standards of chatas outrun the standards of kodesh: a person or an object that is perfectly tahor for handling kodashim may nonetheless be treated as tamei once the ashes and waters of the parah adumah are involved. Our Mishnah applies that rule to a common feature of every home, the oven.
"Hatahor l'chatas shenaga b'sanur, b'yado tamei, uv'raglo tahor." One who is tahor for chatas who touched an oven: with his hand he is tamei, with his foot he is tahor.
Picture an oven that is entirely tahor as far as kodesh is concerned. Even so, a person who has been prepared for the service of the chatas waters and who lays his hand on that oven is now disqualified and must immerse before continuing, because whatever counts as tahor for kodesh is nevertheless reckoned tamei for chatas.
Why specifically his hand? Because hands are the limb the Sages singled out. They decreed that hands are considered tamei, and in the realm of chatas they went further and ruled that such hands render the entire body unfit. His foot, however, is not included in that decree, so if he touched the oven with his foot he remains tahor.
Standing on the Oven and Reaching Outward
The Mishnah now presents two cases: "Hayah omed al gabei sanur ufashat yado chutz latanur v'halagin b'socho, v'chein ha'esel shehu nasun al gabei hatanur uvo shnei kelalos, echad mikan v'echad mikan."
- He was standing on top of the oven and stretched his hand out beyond the oven, and the lagin, the flagon of sanctified water, was in that outstretched hand.
- Similarly, a carrying pole was positioned over the oven with two kelalim, the vessels holding the ashes, hanging one on each end, so that the man stands on the oven while the vessels themselves hang out beyond it.
"Rabbi Akiva metaher, vachachamim metam'in." Rabbi Akiva declares them tahor, the Chachamim declare them tamei.
The Two Views
Rabbi Akiva looks at where the flagon and the vessels of ashes actually are. The sanctified water in the lagin and the ashes in the kelalim are suspended out past the oven, not over it, and therefore they are not sitting in an impure place at all.
The Chachamim measure the case by the position of the person rather than the position of the vessels. Whether he grips the flagon in his hand or balances the pole across his shoulder, his own feet are planted on the oven. And once the man himself occupies that spot, everything he carries is judged to be there with him, so the ashes and the waters count as resting somewhere tamei, and they are disqualified.
Rabbi Akiva's leniency flows from a principle he holds elsewhere as well: an object held aloft in the air is treated as though it were already resting on the ground beneath it. Applying that here, the flagon and the vessels of ashes hovering past the oven are regarded as if they were lying on the ground beyond the oven, safely away from it.
The halachah, however, does not follow Rabbi Akiva. The ruling is that of the Chachamim: as long as the carrier is standing on the oven, the ashes and waters he bears are considered to be in an impure place and are disqualified.