Sotah 30a — the Talmud in English

Food

that is

third

in tumah,

coming by force of a second-degree source: if the second itself is forbidden with ordinary produce, is it not a kal va-chomer that it makes a fourth degree in kodesh.

And the advantage of this kal va-chomer is that Rabbi Yosei would then have taught us an additional novelty: that he holds like Abba Shaul, that food coming because of one who has immersed during the day makes a fourth degree in kodesh.

Rather, certainly Rabbi Yosei does not hold like Abba Shaul, but like the Sages, that food coming because of one who has immersed during the day alone is invalid, but does not invalidate others.

And if you would say,

perhaps you will say that Rabbi Yosei did not learn a kal va-chomer from food coming because of one who has immersed during the day

because it can be refuted: What is special about one who has immersed during the day, since

when he was impure he was

a primary source of tumah,

and therefore its force is greater, so that even food coming because of him invalidates a fourth degree in kodesh.

This is not so with a second degree of tumah: since when it was impure it was not a primary source of tumah, the third degree coming because of it likewise does not make a fourth degree in kodesh.

But in fact, he holds like Abba Shaul!?

It is impossible to say so.

For

we have brought it from one lacking atonement!

Rabbi Yosei himself learns a fourth degree in kodesh by a kal va-chomer from one lacking atonement,

and did not refute it!

Yet here too it is possible to ask: What is special about one lacking atonement? He was a primary source of tumah, and therefore he makes a fourth degree in kodesh. This is not so with a third degree, which was never a primary source of tumah; therefore it should not make a fourth degree.

And it is proven from this that Rabbi Yosei does not regard this as a refutation, since now, after he immersed and the sun set for him, that severe tumah has already departed, and only the lesser tumah of one lacking atonement remains in him ; and if so, also in the case of one who has immersed during the day it is not possible to raise that refutation, for now he is no longer a primary source of tumah.

And in the conclusion, Rabbi Yohanan’s question against Rabbi Yosei remains: food coming because of one who has immersed during the day proves otherwise.

Rav Asi said in the name of Rav—and some say, Rabba ben Isi said in the name of Rav:

Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Elazar, and Rabbi Eliezer—all of them hold that a second degree does not make a third degree with ordinary produce.

Rabbi Meir

we find that he holds so from this,

as we learned

in tractate Para:

Every

person who is pure according to the Torah, but is a person

required to enter water [

immersion]

by rabbinic words,

such as one whose head and greater part entered drawn water, is rabbinically a second degree of tumah, and

renders kodesh impure,

making it a third degree of tumah, and that third degree is impure and makes a fourth degree in kodesh.

And invalidates teruma,

but does not itself become impure so as to make a fourth degree in teruma or in kodesh.

And it is permitted with ordinary produce and the second tithe,

for it does not render them impure,

the words of Rabbi Meir.

But the Sages prohibit

it

in

eating

the

second tithe.

Thus Rabbi Meir holds that a second degree does not make a third degree with ordinary produce [the Sages also hold so concerning ordinary produce, but the Gemara did not count them since their names were not specified; the reference is to Rabbi Meir and his disputants].

Rabbi Yosei: this is what we said,

from his words in our discussion it can be learned that he holds so.

For if it is so,

if he held that there is a third degree with ordinary produce,

let him bring it,

he should have brought and learned

a fourth degree with teruma,

for from the same kal va-chomer by which he learns a third degree with teruma, it is possible to add one further degree with teruma:

What of one who has immersed during the day, who is permitted with ordinary produce, yet is invalid with teruma?

A third degree, which is invalid with ordinary produce—is it not a kal va-chomer that it makes a fourth degree with teruma?

And to the same extent that he learns a fourth degree in kodesh, he could have learned a

fifth degree in kodesh.

For since a fourth degree is invalid with teruma, it is possible, in any event, to expound a kal va-chomer: What of one lacking atonement, who is permitted with teruma, yet invalidates kodesh? A fourth degree, which is invalid with teruma—is it not a kal va-chomer that it makes a fifth degree in kodesh?

Rather, certainly he holds that there is no third degree with ordinary produce.

By Torah law, a person cannot contract tumah from impure food, whether he eats it or touches it, for a person contracts tumah only from a primary source of tumah, and it is impossible for impure food to be on the level of a primary source of tumah. Rather, the Sages decreed concerning a person who eats impure food in the measure of two eggs that he becomes impure because of his eating.

And the reason for this decree is lest, at the time that he eats impure food, he bring pure liquids of teruma into his mouth, and the impure food render the teruma liquid impure, so that he is found rendering pure teruma impure.

And the tannaim disagreed as to what degree of tumah the Sages decreed upon one who eats impure foods.

Rabbi Yehoshua,

we find that he holds that there is no third degree with ordinary produce, from this

as we learned

in tractate Toharot:

Rabbi Eliezer says:

A person

who eats food

that is impure and is at the level of a

first

degree of tumah—the person who eats it becomes

a first

degree of tumah, by rabbinic decree.

And if a person ate food that is

a second

degree of tumah, the person who eats it becomes

a second

degree of tumah.

And likewise, if he ate food that is

a third

degree, he becomes

a third

degree, because the Sages decreed that the degree of tumah of one who eats impure foods should be like the degree of tumah of the food itself.

Rabbi Yehoshua says:

A pure person

who eats food

that is impure, whether it is

a first

degree of tumah,

or

whether he eats

food

that is

a second

degree of tumah, the person who eats the impure food becomes

a second

degree of tumah.

And if he ate food that is

a third

degree, the person who eats it becomes

a second—

only

with kodesh.

That is to say, if he touches kodesh, he makes it a third degree, and the third degree makes a fourth degree.

But

however,

there is no second degree with teruma.

For concerning teruma he does not have the status of a second degree of tumah, and if he touches teruma he will not invalidate it.

And the reasons of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua were explained in tractate Chullin.

And Rabbi Yehoshua continues and says: Where do we find food of ordinary produce that is a third degree? Is there not no third degree with ordinary produce?—

with ordinary produce made with the purity of teruma

whose owners of this ordinary produce were a kohen, accustomed to eating teruma, and accepted upon himself to eat even his ordinary food in purity, as though it were teruma, so that he would not stumble through eating impure teruma.

And with such ordinary produce it is possible for there to be a “third degree of tumah.”

And we infer: only ordinary produce made

with the purity of teruma, there is no

only in it is a third degree possible.

But ordinary produce made

with the purity of kodesh,

whose owners guard it from tumah as though it were kodesh,

not

is a third degree possible in it, because this person’s opinion is nullified, and there is nothing in his words, and the designation of the purity of kodesh does not take hold upon this ordinary produce; rather, it is like ordinary produce [and certainly a third degree is not possible with truly ordinary produce].

Thus,

it is proven that

he holds

Rabbi Yehoshua

that a second degree does not make a third degree with ordinary produce.

Rabbi Elazar: for it was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Elazar says: The three of them,

kodesh, teruma, and ordinary produce,

are equal

in this law, that

the first

degree of tumah

in kodesh, in ordinary produce, and in teruma,

whether this first degree was kodesh, ordinary produce, or teruma, it is—

renders two impure and invalidates one,

making a second, third, and fourth degree,

with kodesh.

renders one impure and invalidates one,

making a second and third degree

with teruma.

and invalidates one with ordinary produce,

making it a second degree, and no more, for a second degree does not make a third degree with ordinary produce. [

And the tannai who disagrees with Rabbi Elazar holds that if the first degree was ordinary produce, it does not extend as far as a fourth degree with kodesh; rather, this is so only if the first degree was kodesh.]

Rabbi Eliezer: as we learned

in tractate Halla:

Rabbi Eliezer says: Halla is taken from the pure for the impure.

One whose dough became impure deliberately, before halla was separated from it, is required to knead another dough in purity, so that he can separate halla from it for the impure dough.

How

will he act so that the doughs do not touch one another and the pure one does not become impure? Yet halla must be separated from “the surrounded,” so that it is adjacent and joined at the time that the name halla is pronounced?

If there were

two doughs, one pure and one impure—

he takes enough

of the measure

of halla

that he must take from the impure dough,

from

the

dough

that is pure,

before its halla was raised,

while it is still tevel, so that it should not be from that which is exempt for that which is obligated,

and he places less than an egg-bulk

of the pure dough

in the middle,

between the piece of dough that is intended to be halla and the impure dough,

in order to take

halla

from the surrounded,

for through this the halla is joined to the dough.

And the halla does not become impure through this, for impure food of less than an egg-bulk does not render others impure.