Siman - Chagigah Daf 27
- Nowadays, one’s Shulchan is mechaper for him
The Gemara brings a passuk from Yechezkel describing the Shulchan, that states: The mizbeyach was of wood, three amos high, and its length two amos, and its corners and its length and its walls were made of wood, וידבר אלי זה השלחן אשר לפני ה - And he, (referring to a malach), said to me: “This is the Shulchan that is before Hashem.” The Gemara notes that the passuk begins with a reference to a mizbeyach and ends with a reference to the Shulchan, and asks why the Shulchan is called “the mizbeyach”? Rebbe Yochanan and Reish Lakish, both said: בזמן שבית המקדש קיים מזבח מכפר על אדם – During the time when the Beis Hamikdash stands, the mizbeyach would be mechaper for a person. עכשיו שלחנו של אדם מכפר עליו – Now, that there is no Beis Hamikdash, it is a person’s shulchan that is mechaper for him. Rashi explains that one’s table atones for him through hachnasos orchim, inviting and feeding guests.
- חכמים אומרים מפני שהן מצופין
We learned in the Mishnah on Daf 26b, that Rebbe Eliezer held that all the keilim in the Beis Hamikdash required tevillah after the regel, except for the mizbach hazahav, and the mizbach hanechoshes, because they are like earth and are not mekabel tumah. The Chochomim in the Mishnah say: מפני שהן מצופין – because they are plated. The Gemara provides two explanations for what the Chochomim are saying. The first understanding is that the Chochomim disagree with Rebbe Eliezer and hold that that the two Altars do require tevillah since they are plated. The second explanation is that they agree with Rebbe Eliezer that they do not require tevillah but disagree as to the reason. They are saying to him that if his reason for bringing the passuk that refers to them as מזבח אדמה an Altar of Earth, was מפני שהן מצופין - because they are plated, and otherwise one would have thought they are mekabel tumah, that is not necessary. Since the passuk above, from Yechezkel, described the Altars as wood, they are considered wooden utensils and the plating is batel to them. And since they are made to be stationary, they cannot be mekabel tumah. Therefore, no passuk is needed to teach that they are not mekabel tumah.
- The fires of Gehinnom do not rule over talmidei Chochomim and poshei Yisroel
Rebbe Abahu said in the name of Rebbe Elazar: תלמידי חכמים אין אור של גיהנם שולטת בהן – The fire of Gehinnom does not rule over talmidei Chochomim. It’s a kal v’chomer from the Salamandra, which Rashi explains is a beast created from a fire left burning for seven years straight. Just as a Salamandra, which is only an offspring of fire, fire does not rule over one who smears himself with its blood, then talmidei Chochomim, whose entire bodies are fire, as it is written, "הלוא כה דברי כאש נאם ה'" – Are not My words mighty as fire, says Hashem, all the more so fire does not rule over them. Reish Lakish said אין אור של גיהנים שולטת בפושעי ישראל - that the fires of Gehinnom do not rule over sinners of Yisrael, from a kal v’chomer from the mizbach hazahav. For just as the מזבח הזהב has only a dinar’s thickness of gold, yet the fire does not have power over it, then all the more so פושעי ישראל – the sinners of Yisroel, שמלאין מצות כרמון – that are full of mitzvos as the seeds of a pomegranate, as the passuk states: "כפלח הרמון רקתך" – like a section of a pomegranate are your temples, אל תקרי "רקתך" אלא ריקנין שבך – Do not read, “your temples” but “the empty ones among you.”
