Terumos, Chapter 8, Mishnah 9. In the previous mishnah we established that there is an obligation to protect Terumah from tumah. Our mishnah, which is also connected to the mishnayos that follow it, discusses a case in which a barrel of Terumah wine spills at the top of the press house.
The structure of the press house:
The press house is built with two basins: an upper basin and a lower basin. In the upper basin, the upper gat, the grapes are placed and trodden with the feet, and the grape juice runs down through a channel into the lower basin, where it collects. This lower basin is usually called a 'bor' (pit), and in our mishnah it is called the lower gat.
The case before us:
In the lower basin, in the pit, there is grape juice of chullin, while from above grape juice of Terumah is flowing down. When the Terumah descends and becomes mixed with the chullin below, a medumah mixture is created. In our case, the grape juice in the lower basin is also tamei, so what results is a mixture of tamei chullin and Terumah: a tamei medumah mixture.
An ordinary medumah mixture can be sold to a kohen, who may eat it, or drink it when it is wine. But when the mixture is tamei, the kohen cannot drink it at all, and the mixture turns out to be completely useless. Therefore, when the Terumah wine flows downward, it is simply lost. The question is what our obligation is in rescuing that Terumah wine from tumah.
The halachic problem:
The mishnah describes a situation in which the person dealing with the spilled Terumah has only tamei vessels available. Consequently, if he wishes to save the Terumah from being lost in the tamei chullin at the bottom of the gat, he can only do so by catching it in a tamei vessel, that is, by transmitting tumah directly to the Terumah. This is forbidden, so what should he do?
The mishnah first addresses a different question: is he obligated to run quickly and obtain a tahor vessel for himself, with which he can save the remaining grape juice before it flows into the tamei chullin in the lower basin? To this the mishnah answers that he is indeed obligated to do so, even if he can save no more than a single revi'is, the measure of a Kiddush cup, roughly one hundred and twenty five cubic centimeters. That amount alone obligates him, because of his duty to protect Terumah from tumah, to run as fast as he can, bring a tahor vessel and save whatever he is able to save.
The words of the mishnah:
"Chavis shenishberah ba'gat ha'elyonah" - a barrel of Terumah wine that broke in the upper part of the press. Although the mishnah does not state this explicitly, the case is that the Terumah above is tahor.
"V'hatachtonah temei'ah" - in the lower basin there is tamei chullin.
"Modeh Rabbi Eliezer l'Rabbi Yehoshua" - the two Tannaim agree on this point. In the coming mishnayos we will see that in other cases Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua disagree with one another.
"She'im yachol l'hatzil mimenah revi'is b'taharah - yatzil" - if he is able to save even a single revi'is in a state of taharah, he is obligated to do so and to run as fast as he can to bring a tahor vessel.
"V'im lav" - if he cannot save even a single revi'is.
"Rabbi Eliezer omer: Teired v'sitamei" - let the Terumah go down from the upper gat into the lower basin and become tamei, and that is all that can be done.
"V'al yetamenah b'yadav" - but he may not render it tamei through a direct action of his own.
The intent is not literally his hands, but a direct action of the person: his hands should not become dirtied, as it were, with the sin of rendering Terumah tamei. It emerges, then, that according to Rabbi Eliezer the person stands and watches the tahor Terumah going to waste as it descends into the pit and mixes with the tamei chullin, and there is nothing he can do about it, nor is he required to do anything. For any action he takes would be done with a tamei vessel, and would constitute a direct act of rendering the Terumah wine tamei, which is forbidden.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned the law of a barrel of Terumah that broke in the upper vat, while ritually impure chullin lies in the lower vat. We saw that the mixture that results is impure medumma, which has no use whatsoever, and therefore the Terumah goes to waste. Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua agree that if even a revi'is can be saved in purity - one is obligated to save it; and when there is no such possibility, Rabbi Eliezer holds that the Terumah should go down and become impure on its own, provided that a person does not render it impure through a direct action with an impure vessel.
In the coming Mishnayos we will take up the approach of Rabbi Yehoshua.