Study Keritot folio 21B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
לאפוקי מת, אף על גב דממליא ליה – לא מטמא טומאת אוכלין, משום דבטלה דעתו אצל כל אדם.
to the exclusion of less than an olive-bulk of a human corpse. With regard to a human corpse, even if one completes its amount to an egg-bulk, it does not become impure by the impurity of food, because his intention is rendered irrelevant by the opinions of all other people, since people do not eat human corpses. This explains why the baraita stated that animals are susceptible to light and severe forms of ritual impurity whereas people are susceptible only to severe ritual impurity.
רב חנניא אמר: אפילו תימא דהוי כזית, הכא במאי עסקינן? כגון שחיפהו בבצק.
Rav Ḥananya said: With regard to the assertion that the carcass of a non-kosher animal becomes susceptible to the impurity of food only if one intends to eat it, you may even say that the piece of the carcass is an olive-bulk. What are we dealing with here? We are dealing with a case where one covered it with less than an egg-bulk of dough. Since it is covered with dough the carcass cannot come into contact with anything else in order to transmit impurity to it, and since there is less than an egg-bulk of dough, the dough itself is not susceptible to the impurity of food. But if the carcass and the dough combined are a full egg-bulk, they are susceptible to the impurity of food and can transmit that impurity to other food items.
אי הכי, הכשר נמי ניבעי! הני מילי באוכלין אחריני, דלא מטמו לא במגע ולא במשא. אבל הכא, נהי דלא מטמא במגע, דקמחפי בבצק, במשא מיהת ליטמא, דהא טעון ליה.
The Talmud objects: If so, let it also require contact with a liquid in order to be rendered susceptible to the impurity of food. The Talmud responds: That statement applies with regard to other kinds of food, which do not transmit impurity at all, neither through direct contact nor through carrying. But here, granted that the piece of animal carcass does not transmit impurity through contact, as it is covered with dough, it should at least transmit impurity through carrying, as it is laden upon him, despite the fact that he does not touch it.