beis hastarim
We know that tumas maga is not metamei in beis hastarim so if you take a sheretz and stick it inside someone's mouth then he is not tamei. Someone asked me tonight if it works the other way. If you are tamei and someone sticks something tahor in your mouth does that beomce tamei? It is mashma from todays gemara (nidda 43b) and the mishna that it does become tamei because we're talking about the teruma that is already in the Kohen's mouth and we want to prevent it from becoming tamei. I guess that means that it could become tamei even in beis hastarim or it could be that I'm misunderstanding something.
UPDATE: (1/31 in the morning) Rashi says straight out on daf 43a that if a tamei person touches something that is tahor in the beis hastarim it does not become tamei. The Rambam in hilchos avos hatuma also uses the phrase that "maga beis hastarim aino negia." Rabbi Tendler pointed out that our gemara is no raya that there is tuma because the fear isn't necessarily that the truma will become tamei but only that a tamei person will eat truma tehora. The only problem I have with that is that the Tosafos Harash says clearly that the fear in this gemara is that the teruma will become tamei.
posted by David @ 10:28 PM
2 Comments:
how can that make sense? what would be the logic behind something *not* becoming tamei just because it's in the beit nistarim? It's almost backward logic.
The truth is that most of the halachos of tuma and tahara "don't make sense." The classic example is the mei parah which are metamei the tahor and metaher the tamei but there are many more examples. Most of the halachos are learned out from pesukim. Rashi explains on 43a that it's a gezeiras hakasuv from the fact that when the pasuk teaches tumas heset by a zav it uses the term negia and it says "v'shataf yadav ..." It teaches that tumas maga and tumas heset is only transmitted if it's negia similar to yadav - out in the open and not inside.
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