Study Sukkah folio 21A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
יליף ״אהל״ ״אהל״ ממשכן. כתיב הכא: ״זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באהל״, וכתיב התם: ״ויפרש את האהל על המשכן״, מה להלן בידי אדם, אף כאן בידי אדם. ורבנן: ״אהל״ ״אהל״ ריבה.
He derives by means of a verbal analogy that only a man-made tent transmits impurity, deriving the tent written with regard to impurity imparted by a corpse from the tent written with regard to the Tabernacle. It is written here with regard to impurity imparted by a corpse: “This is the teaching when a man dies in a tent” (Numbers 19:14). And it is written there with regard to the Tabernacle: “And he spread the tent over the Tabernacle” (Exodus 40:19). Just as there, with regard to the Tabernacle, the tent was established by a person, so too here, with regard to impurity of a corpse, it is a tent established by a person. And according to the Rabbis, because the passage dealing with impurity imparted by a corpse, i.e., tent tent, is repeated several times, this amplifies and includes any structure that provides shelter, even if it is not a standard tent.
וסבר רבי יהודה כל אהל שאינו עשוי בידי אדם אינו אהל? ורמינהו: חצירות היו בנויות בירושלים על גבי הסלע, ותחתיהם חלל, מפני קבר התהום. ומביאין נשים עוברות ויולדות שם ומגדלות בניהם שם לפרה.
The Talmud asks: And does R' Yehuda hold that the legal status of any tent that is not established by a person is not that of a tent? The Talmud raises a contradiction from a Mishnah (Para 3:2): Courtyards were built in Jerusalem atop the rock, and beneath these courtyards there was a space of at least a handbreadth due to the concern lest there is a grave in the depths. In that case, the space served as a barrier preventing the impurity from reaching the courtyards above. And they would bring pregnant women, and they would give birth there in those courtyards. And they would raise their children there and would not leave there with the children until they grew. All this was done so that the children would be untainted by any impurity and would be able to assist in the ritual of the red heifer, whose ashes are used to purify those impure with impurity imparted by a corpse.