Sukkah, Daf Heh, Part 2
Introduction
This is a continuation of the list of the seven species and the allusions each makes to a minimum measure in halakhah.
שעורה – דתנן: עצם כשעורה מטמא במגע ובמשא, ואינו מטמא באהל.
Barley As we have learned: A barleycorn’s bulk of a [human] bone defiles by contact and by carrying, but not by overshadowing .
The measure of a barleycorn is used with regard to the defilement caused by a dead body. A small piece of human bone the size of a barleycorn defiles by contact and carrying (even if there is no contact) but it doesn’t defile in a "tent" by being overshadowed by something else.
גפן – כדי רביעית יין לנזיר.
Vines [are an allusion to] the quarter of a log of wine [which is the minimum prohibited] to a Nazirite.
The vine measure is alluded to in the halakhah according to which a nazirite who drinks a quarter of a log of wine has transgressed the biblical commandment not to drink wine.
תאנה – כגרוגרת להוצאת שבת.
Fig-trees allude to the size of a dry fig [which is the minimum measurement for transgressing the law against] carrying out [food] on Shabbat.
Carrying from one domain to another or in the public domain is prohibited on Shabbat. To be liable for transgressing this biblical commandment by carrying food, the food must be at least the size of a fig.
רמון – דתנן: כל כלי בעלי בתים שיעורן כרמונים.
Pomegranates ? As we have learned: All vessels belonging to householders [become clean if the holes in them] are as large as pomegranates.
A vessel is susceptible to impurity as long as it is still usable. According to this mishnah (Kelim 17:1) householders (non-professionals) will use vessels that have holes in them unless the hole is as large as a pomegranate. At that point they will throw the vessel out.
+דברים ח+ ארץ זית שמן – ארץ שכל שיעוריה כזיתים.
"A land of olive-oil" [is an allusion to the] land all of whose [minimum] standards [for mandated and forbidden things] is the bulk of an olive.
When it comes to most issues, the minimum of what is considered biblically prohibited is an olive’s worth. For example, if one eats an olive’s worth of forbidden food he has transgressed. The same is true for performing a mitzvah. In order to fulfill one’s obligation to eat matzah on Pesah, one must eat an olive’s worth of matzah.
כל שיעוריה סלקא דעתך? הא איכא הני דאמרינן! אלא אימא שרוב שיעוריה כזיתים.
How can it possibly mean all minimum measures? But aren’t there those which we have just mentioned?
Say rather, The majority of whose [minimum] measures are the bulk of an olive.
The Talmud offers a minor correction to the above statement. Not all of the measures of the Torah are an olive. Some are figs, pomegranates etc. But most of them are indeed olives.
דבש – ככותבת הגסה ביום הכפורים.
Honey alludes to the size of a large date, [which is the minimum size forbidden] on Yom Kippur.
On Yom Kippur one who eats a piece of food the size of a date has transgressed.
אלמא דאורייתא נינהו.
ותסברא, שיעורין מי כתיבי? אלא: הלכתא נינהו, וקרא אסמכתא בעלמא הוא.
Therefor [the minimum measures] are clearly from the Torah.
Do you then imagine that measures were actually written in the Torah? Rather, they are traditions and the verse is merely a support.
This concludes the difficulty raised above. The fact that the Torah is read to refer to all of the typical minimal measures seems to bequeath to them the status of "from the Torah." So how can we say, as we did above, that these minimum measures are halakhic traditions (which is different from being "from the Torah")?
The answer is that while the Torah alluded to these measures, they weren’t actually written in the Torah. Rather these minimum measures are traditions which were later attached to the Torah. We can probably sense this as we read the passage above. For instance, when the Torah says, "A land of olive oil" it does not mean "a land where the minimum measure of transgressions and prohibitions is based on the olive." Rather, this is clearly a secondary midrash attaching an already known halakhah to a verse.