Study Chagigah folio 22B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
לעצמו טהרנו.
we declared them pure for the am ha’aretz himself, not for ḥaverim, since ḥaverim in any event do not consider anything touched by an am ha’aretz to be pure. A ḥaver would therefore never relate to the food of an am ha’aretz as pure, and he would not use the earthenware vessels of an am ha’aretz for preparation of pure food, since an earthenware vessel cannot be purified through immersion. However, he might borrow a metal vessel, for instance, and purify it through immersion before using it for pure food.
אבל נטהר את הכלי, שטהרתו לך ולו?
But how can we purify a vessel of metal and other materials, whose purity would be relevant both for you and for him? A ḥaver may one day borrow a metal vessel from the am ha’aretz, and not realize that it was once inside an earthenware vessel in the same room as a corpse and as a result requires extensive purification from corpse contamination through the ashes of the red heifer, rather than mere immersion. Therefore, the am ha’aretz is informed that his vessels of metal and other materials have contracted impurity from the corpse, and must undergo the extensive purification process, and after this is done these vessels will now be fit for use of the ḥaver after mere immersion.
תניא, אמר רבי יהושע: בושני מדבריכם, בית שמאי! אפשר אשה לשה בעריבה — אשה ועריבה טמאין שבעה, ובצק טהור? לוגין מלא משקין — לוגין טמא טומאת שבעה, ומשקין טהורין?!
It is taught in a baraita with regard to this debate between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel: R' Yehoshua said: I am ashamed of your words, Beit Shammai, for they are illogical. Is it possible that there should be a corpse on the first floor, with an earthenware vessel blocking the opening to the second story, and a woman is standing upstairs kneading dough in a metal bowl, and the woman and the bowl are impure for 7 days owing to the impurity of the corpse, while the dough inside the trough is pure? For that would be the result according to Beit Shammai, who distinguishes between food and earthenware vessels on the one hand and metal vessels on the other. Similarly: Is it possible that there is a metal pitcher [login] full of liquid in the second story, and the pitcher should be impure with impurity of 7 days, while the liquids remain pure?