Chullin 33b — the Talmud in English

For it was taught

in tractate Parah [11:5]:

Every

person who is pure according to Torah law, except that he is a person [or a vessel]

requiring immersion in water

[such as a person who requires the washing of the hands for their purification from the impurity of liquids, or a person whose head and greater part entered drawn water, or a vessel that became impure through liquids]

by rabbinic enactment,

which they decreed in the upper chamber of Hanania ben Hizkiah—the eighteen matters —and among them the impurity of the hands, he is a second-degree source of impurity, and his law is that he

renders sacrificial food impure,

so that it becomes third-degree and renders sacrificial food like itself impure, making it fourth-degree,

and disqualifies teruma,

so that it itself becomes disqualified because of impurity, but it does not make a fourth-degree.

And he is permitted with ordinary non-sacred food and with maaser,

for there is no third-degree in them;

the words of Rabbi Meir. And the Sages prohibit

him

with maaser.

And it is proven that according to the Sages, the law of maaser differs from that of ordinary non-sacred food, and a second-degree impurity makes a third-degree in maaser.

Rav Shimi bar Ashi challenged

Rav Nahman:

From what

[what is the proof] that there is one who holds that there is a third-degree in maaser, and that it became impure from impure hands?

Perhaps,

the Sages disagreed only up to this point

in the Mishna in tractate Parah

with Rabbi Meir, but

only

regarding eating maaser,

and they hold that the prohibition against eating while the body is impure applies by rabbinic law to a person whom the Sages assigned “second-degree impurity,” such as one whose hands are impure or one whose head and greater part entered drawn water.

But concerning touching maaser

through a second-degree impurity, which does not render it impure as third-degree,

and concerning eating ordinary non-sacred food,

for washing the hands is not required before it,

they did not disagree

with Rabbi Meir, and they too hold that it is permitted with impure hands.

And so it also appears from the Mishna in tractate Parah, which used the wording “permits” and the wording “prohibit,” that their dispute concerns only the prohibition of eating maaser. But if their dispute had concerned the receiving of impurity, the Mishna there would have used the wording “impure” and “pure.”

But this,

whereas our Mishna here is dealing with the matter of

touching,

and you cannot establish it as referring to the prohibition of eating by one who is impure with a rabbinic second-degree impurity.

Since it teaches

in our Mishna that the meat of a domesticated animal, wild animal, and bird that was not rendered susceptible through the blood of slaughtering are

“eaten with impure hands,”

and it did not teach, “one eats them with impure hands,” so that we could infer that if they were rendered susceptible through the blood of slaughtering, they would be forbidden to be eaten with impure hands.

Are we not dealing,

also with a case in which the one whose hands are impure is not the person eating, but rather

his fellow is feeding it to him,

his fellow feeding him the meat with impure hands, because the meat was not rendered susceptible through the blood of slaughtering?

And it follows that if the meat had been rendered susceptible through the blood of slaughtering, it would have been forbidden for a person whose hands are impure to feed it to the pure person. This is not because of a prohibition of eating on the part of the person eating, but because the touch of the second-degree impurity of the person feeding, whose hands are impure, disqualifies maaser, making it third-degree impurity with regard to maaser.

And the question returns: there is no one who holds that a second-degree impurity disqualifies a third-degree impurity in maaser!?

Rather, Rav Pappa said:

Our Mishna is speaking of meat of ordinary non-sacred food, and not of ordinary hands, which are second-degree impurity, but

here we are dealing with primary hands

[first-degree]

we are dealing,

which make the food second-degree impurity.

And

the Mishna is according to

Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar,

who holds that there are hands that are first-degree, even with regard to ordinary non-sacred food.

For it was taught:

In truth,

hands are never primary with regard to

the matter of rendering

ordinary non-sacred food

impure. That is to say, even where they decreed that the hands should have the status of primary sources, this does not apply with regard to ordinary non-sacred food, but only with regard to teruma and sacrificial food.

Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says in the name of Rabbi Meir:

There are

hands

that are

primary with regard to ordinary non-sacred food, and

hands that are

secondary;

for example, ordinary hands, they are impure

with regard to teruma,

for a second-degree impurity disqualifies a third-degree impurity in it.

And the Gemara is astonished: Is it possible that there should be hands that are

primary with regard to ordinary non-sacred food, but with regard to teruma, no!?

Is ordinary non-sacred food more stringent than teruma!?

And we explain:

This is what he is saying,

Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar: Those hands that are primary are

primary even with regard to ordinary non-sacred food.

And all the more so with regard to teruma. And hands that are

secondary with regard to teruma, yes; with regard to ordinary non-sacred food, no.

And we ask:

Are there, then, primary hands?

For if a person touches a primary source of impurity, his entire body becomes first-degree impurity, and not only his hands. And if he touched with his hands a first-degree impurity, in which case his body does not become impure even by rabbinic law and only his hands become impure, then they become secondary-degree impurity!

And we answer:

Yes,

according to Rabbi Akiva, there is a case in which the person does not become impure from a primary source of impurity, while his hands become impure from it and are first-degree impurity.

For it was taught

in tractate Yadayim [3:1]:

One who inserted his hands into a house afflicted with leprosy,

but did not enter the house with his body,

his hands are primary, the words of Rabbi Akiva. And the Sages say: His hands are secondary.

Everyone

holds

that partial entry is not considered entry,

and one who inserts his hands into the house is not included in what is stated in the Torah, “and the one who enters the house shall become impure” [Leviticus 14:46].

And here, it is a decree

that the Sages decreed concerning

his hands

that entered a house afflicted with leprosy, that they should become impure

on account of his body

that entered,

they disagree.

One master,

Rabbi Akiva,

holds: The hands are like his body,

which is first-degree impurity;

the Sages made them so.

And the other master,

the Sages,

holds: These hands

upon which they decreed on account of his body were not given the status of the body, but rather

like ordinary hands,

which are secondary-degree impurity;

the Sages made them so.

The practical difference resulting from this decree is in a case where he inserted his hands into the house after washing them, and they were not impure with the impurity of ordinary hands.

And we ask Rav Pappa: Why does he need to establish the Mishna according to Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar?

Let him establish it according to Rabbi Akiva, who says that hands are primary,

since most anonymous Mishnayot are according to Rabbi Meir in accordance with Rabbi Akiva!

And we answer: Although first-degree impurity by Torah law renders foodstuffs impure and makes them second-degree, whether they are ordinary non-sacred food or teruma, with rabbinic impurities there are sometimes cases in which, with regard to teruma, they are first-degree and the teruma that touches them renders other teruma impure, while with regard to ordinary non-sacred food they are second-degree and do not render it impure.

And likewise in the words of Rabbi Akiva, one may say:

Perhaps, when Rabbi Akiva said

that the hands are first-degree,

this applies only with regard to teruma and sacrificial food, which are stringent. But with regard to ordinary non-sacred food, they are secondary-degree.

But Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar explicitly said that the hands are primary even with regard to ordinary non-sacred food.

And we ask:

And let those hands also be

about which our Mishna is speaking

secondary-degree,

and we can say that it is speaking of ordinary hands and not of hands that entered a house afflicted with leprosy, and the Mishna can be established according to Rabbi Akiva,

for we have heard Rabbi Akiva say: A second-degree impurity makes a third-degree in ordinary non-sacred food,

unlike that which is established for us, that a second-degree impurity does not make a third-degree in ordinary non-sacred food!

For it was taught

in tractate Sotah [27b]:

On that very day

when Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah was appointed nasi,

Rabbi Akiva expounded:

It is written in the Torah, in the section concerning the impurity of creeping creatures [Leviticus 11:33–34]:

“And every earthenware vessel

into whose interior any of them falls, everything that is within it shall become impure, and it you shall break. Of all the food that is eaten, upon which water comes,

it shall render impure.”

The Torah stated that if a creeping creature falls into the airspace of a clay oven, the oven becomes a first-degree source of impurity, and the loaves within it become impure and become second-degree impurity.

“Impure” is not stated, but “it shall render impure,”

which should be expounded as “it shall render others impure,” meaning that it has the power

to render others impure.

The verse taught

that there is

a second-degree loaf that makes a third-degree in ordinary non-sacred food.

For it does not indicate that there is a distinction between ordinary non-sacred food and teruma.

And we answer: The Mishna cannot be established according to Rabbi Akiva, because

perhaps

that which he said—that a second-degree impurity makes a third-degree in ordinary non-sacred food—

applies in

impurity

by rabbinic law,

such as hands,

not.

And the Gemara brings another way of explaining the Mishna: it is speaking of secondary-degree hands and ordinary non-sacred food in which there is a third-degree.

Rabbi Eleazar said that Rabbi Hoshaya said: Here we are dealing with ordinary non-sacred food prepared according to the purity of sacrificial food,

for there are people accustomed to eating sacrificial food, and in order to guard it from impurities that disqualify it, they practice guarding their ordinary non-sacred food in purity like sacrificial food; and the Sages instituted that this practice should be effective, so that it receives impurity from a second-degree source like sacrificial food.

And we say

: And

our Mishna is

not according to Rabbi Joshua,

who holds that ordinary non-sacred food prepared according to the purity of sacrificial food does not have the status of sacrificial food; rather, the judgment of the one who treats it with the status of sacrificial food is disregarded. Only with regard to teruma, since it is more commonly found, did the Sages institute that ordinary non-sacred food prepared according to its purity should have a third-degree.

And the Gemara brings a Mishna that deals with the impurity of the body, from which Rabbi Joshua’s view concerning ordinary non-sacred food prepared according to the purity of sacrificial food can be learned.

By Torah law, no food renders a person or vessels impure, because food does not become a primary source of impurity, and a person and vessels do not receive impurity from a first-degree impurity, but only from a primary source of impurity.

The Sages instituted that when a person eats impure food, the food renders the person who eats it impure, but not a person who touches him. Even through eating, the person who eats does not become impure until he eats the measure of half a pras of impure food. By Torah law, everything that touches impurity and becomes impure from it descends one degree in the level of impurity. But concerning the “impurity of the body,” which the Sages instituted, the tannaim disputed in the Mishna brought here whether one should be stringent and assign the food the status of the food, since according to the Sages’ enactment eating is more stringent than touching, or whether the level of impurity descends.

For it was taught

in tractate Tohorot [2:2]:

Rabbi Eliezer says:

A pure person

who eats food

that is

first-degree

impurity becomes

first-degree

impurity, and what touches him is second-degree impurity.

And a pure person who eats food that is

second-degree,

he is

second-degree,

and disqualifies teruma.

And a pure person who eats food that is

third-degree,

he is

third-degree,

and disqualifies sacrificial food.

Rabbi Joshua says: One who eats first-degree food

thereby descends in the level of impurity and becomes second-degree.

And

likewise, if he ate food that is

second-degree,

he too is

second-degree,

but in this case he does not descend in the level of impurity.

And if he ate food that is

third-degree,

the person who eats becomes

second-degree with regard to sacrificial food.

And the sacrificial food that he touched becomes third-degree and makes a fourth-degree.

And

he does not become

second-degree with regard to teruma,

and does not make a third-degree in it.

And later in the Gemara it will be explained why sometimes the person who eats descends in the level of impurity from that of the food, sometimes remains at the level of impurity of the food, and sometimes is more stringent than it.

Rabbi Joshua explains his words: That impure food with which I am dealing is ordinary non-sacred food. And if you say, “Is there not a third-degree in ordinary non-sacred food?”—the answer is that it is speaking

of ordinary non-sacred food prepared according to the purity of teruma.

And the Gemara infers from Rabbi Joshua:

With regard to purity of teruma, no; with regard to purity of sacred offerings, it cannot

become third-degree.

He holds

Rabbi Yehoshua:

Hullin made on the purity of sacred offerings do not have a third-degree impurity.

And therefore, our Mishna cannot be established as referring to hullin made on the purity of sacred offerings and in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua.