Avodah Zarah, Daf Lammed Zayin, Part 5

 

Introduction

This section continues to try to figure out what it is that Yose b. Yoezer permitted and why the other rabbis called him Yose the permitter.

 

אמר להו רבא לאו אמינא לכו לא תתלו ביה בוקי סריקי ברב נחמן הכי אמר רב נחמן ספק טומאה ברשות הרבים התיר להן

 

Rava said to them: Have I not said to you not to hang empty pitchers on R. Nahman! This is what R. Nahman said: He [Yose b. Yoezer] permitted a doubtful case of impurity in a public domain.

 

Rava completely dismisses the statement attributed to R. Nahman at the end of yesterday s section. He has another interpretation altogether of what R. Yose b. Yoezer said that made him seem overly lenient he stated that cases of doubtful impurity in the public domain should be ruled leniently.

 

והא הלכתא מסוטה גמרינן לה מה סוטה רשות היחיד אף טומאה רשות היחיד

 

But this is a rule which is drawn by analogy from the case of a woman suspected of infidelity, just as [the case of doubt in connection with] the suspected woman can only occur [when seclusion with the man takes place] in a private domain, so too [the case of doubt in connection with] defilement can only occur [when the contact with the corpse takes place] in a private domain.

 

The Talmud points out that the rule for when we rule strictly in cases of impurity in the public domain is learned from the sotah, the woman suspected of adultery. We take these suspicions seriously only when she may have been defiled (had adultery) in the private domain. So too when it comes to doubtful cases of defilement, they are ruled impure only the potential contact occurred in the private domain. Thus we have here the same problem we had before. Yose b. Yoezer s ruling is the same as the law agreed to by everyone. How then is he a permitter?

 

הא א"ר יוחנן הלכה ואין מורין כן ואתא איהו ואורי ליה אורויי

 

R. Yohanan said: This is indeed the traditional rule but we do not rule in public this way, until [Yose b. Yo’ezer] came and ruled this way in public.

 

R. Yohanan says that indeed the halakhah is that doubtful cases of impurity are considered pure if they occur in the public domain. But no one told other people this until R. Yose b. Yoezer came along and taught it in public.

 

תניא נמי הכי ר’ יהודה אומר קורות נעץ להם ואמר עד כאן רשות הרבים עד כאן רשות היחיד

 

It was also taught in a baraita: R. Judah says: [Yose b. Yo’ezer] stuck stakes [in the ground] for the people, declaring, Up to here is a public domain and up to there a private domain.

 

This baraita demonstrates that Yose b. Yo ezer took efforts to define the public and private domains. The assumption is that this was in order to delineate when doubtful cases of impurity are treated as impure in the public domain they are not, and in the private domain they are.

כי אתו לקמיה דרבי ינאי אמר להו הא מיא בשיקעתא דבנהרא זילו טבולו:

 

When persons came in front of R. Yannai, he used to tell them, There is plenty of water in the depth of the river; go and immerse yourselves.

 

According to Rashi people used to come in front of R. Yannai and ask him about cases of doubtful impurity in the public domain. He would tell them to go immerse in the deep waters of the river, as if to say, what s so hard about that?