Study Avodah Zarah folio 37B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
סוסביל, בראשו ארוך — כולי עלמא לא פליגי דאסור, והכא בכנפיו חופין את רובו על ידי הדחק קמיפלגי: מר סבר רובא כל דהו בעינן, ומר סבר רובא דמנכר בעינן.
it is a susbil, and accordingly, with regard to a long-headed locust, everyone agrees that it is prohibited. And here they disagree with regard to a locust whose wings barely cover most of its body: One Sage, Yosei ben Yo’ezer, holds that we require only a minimal majority of the locust’s body to be covered by its wings, and one Sage, the Rabbis, holds that we require a noticeable majority of the body to be covered.
ועל משקה בי מטבחיא דכן. מאי ״דכן״? רב אמר: דכן ממש, ושמואל אמר: דכן מלטמא אחרים, אבל טומאת עצמן יש בהן.
§ It was stated above: And Yosei ben Yo’ezer testified with regard to the liquids of the slaughterhouse in the Temple that they are ritually pure. The Talmud asks: What did Yosei ben Yo’ezer mean when he said they are pure? Rav says: He meant that they are actually ritually pure. And Shmuel says: They are pure in the sense that they do not impart ritual impurity to other substances; but they themselves can contract impurity.
רב אמר: ״דכן ממש״, קסבר: טומאת משקין דרבנן, וכי גזור רבנן טומאה במשקין דעלמא, אבל במשקה בי מטבחיא לא גזרו רבנן.
The Talmud explains the reasons for these opinions. Rav says that these liquids are actually pure, as he maintains that the ritual impurity of liquids applies by rabbinic law, and when the rabbis decreed impurity upon liquids, they did so only with regard to ordinary liquids. But the rabbis did not issue their decree with regard to the liquids of the slaughterhouse in the Temple.
ושמואל אמר: דכן מלטמא אחרים, אבל טומאת עצמן יש בהן, קסבר: טומאת משקין דאורייתא לטמא אחרים דרבנן, וכי גזרו רבנן במשקין דעלמא, במשקין בי מטבחיא לא גזרו.
And Shmuel says: The liquids are ritually pure in the sense that they do not impart impurity to other substances; but they themselves can contract impurity, as Shmuel maintains that the ritual impurity of liquids themselves is by Torah law, whereas their capacity to impart impurity to other substances is by rabbinic law. And when the rabbis issued this decree, they did so only with regard to ordinary liquids. But they did not issue their decree with regard to the liquids of the slaughterhouse in the Temple.