Study Bava Batra folio 20A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
היא גופה תיחוץ, דהא כלי חרש אינו מטמא מגבו! אלא דפומא לגאו. ואי בעית אימא: לעולם דפומא לבר, הכא במאי עסקינן – בחבית של מתכת.
let the jug itself serve as a barrier. It should not be susceptible to impurity in this case, as an earthenware vessel does not contract impurity if its exterior is exposed to impurity. Rather, one must say that its opening faces inward, and it is rendered impure because the impurity enters through its opening. And if you wish, say instead that actually its opening faces outward, and with what are we dealing here? We are dealing with a metal jug, which does contract impurity through its exterior.
מיתיבי: עשבין שתלשן והניחן בחלון, או שעלו מאליהן בחלונות; ומטלוניות שאין בהן שלש על שלש; והאבר והבשר המדולדלין בבהמה ובחיה; ועוף ששכן בחלון, וגוי שישב בחלון, ובן שמנה המונח בחלון; והמלח, וכלי חרס, וספר תורה – כולם ממעטין בחלון. אבל השלג, והברד, והגליד, והכפור, והמים – כולן אין ממעטין בחלון.
The Talmud raises another objection to the assumption that an item for which there is a use does not reduce the dimensions of a window, even if is not susceptible to impurity, from a baraita (Tosefta, Oholot 14:6): With regard to grass that one plucked and placed in a window or that grew on its own in windows; and scraps of fabric that do not measure 3 by 3 fingerbreadths; and a limb or flesh dangling from an animal or an animal; and a bird resting in the window; and a non-Jew sitting in the window; and a child born after 8 months of pregnancy, who is not expected to survive, that is placed in the window; and salt; and an earthenware vessel; and a Torah scroll, all these reduce the dimensions of the window. Consequently, impurity passes through only if there remains an open space of a square handbreadth. But with regard to snow, hail, frost, ice, and water, all these do not reduce the dimensions of a window.