Study Avodah Zarah folio 73B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אמר חזקיה: הגדילו באיסור — אסור, הגדילו בהיתר — מותר.
Ḥizkiyya says: If the volume of the water and the wine was increased by the forbidden wine, i.e., the forbidden wine fell in last, the mixture is forbidden, because the forbidden wine renders the permitted wine forbidden by the principle of a substance in contact with the same type of substance, and the water does not nullify the forbidden wine. But if the volume of the water and the forbidden wine was increased by the permitted wine, i.e., there was a mixture of wine used for a libation and water, and the wine used for a libation was nullified by the water and then permitted wine fell into the mixture, in such a case the permitted wine is not rendered forbidden by the forbidden wine that had already been nullified, and so the entire mixture is permitted.
ורבי יוחנן אמר: אפילו הגדילו באיסור — מותר.
And R' Yoḥanan says: Even if the volume of the permitted wine and the water was increased by the forbidden wine, the mixture is permitted.
אמר ליה רבי ירמיה לרבי זירא: לימא חזקיה ורבי יוחנן בפלוגתא דרבי אליעזר ורבנן קמיפלגי?
R' Yirmeya said to R' Zeira: should we say that Ḥizkiyya and R' Yoḥanan disagree with regard to the issue that is the subject of the dispute between R' Eliezer and the Rabbis?
דתנן: שאור של חולין ושל תרומה שנפלו לתוך העיסה, לא בזה כדי לחמץ ולא בזה כדי לחמץ, ונצטרפו וחמצו,
As we learned in a Mishnah (Orla 2:11): In the case of non-sacred leaven and teruma leaven that fell into a non-sacred batch of dough, and neither is this one alone potent enough to cause the dough to become leavened, nor is that one alone potent enough to cause the dough to become leavened, and they combined and caused the dough to become leavened, there is a dispute as to whether this dough has the status of teruma, and is therefore forbidden to non-priests, or non-sacred bread.