Sotah - Daf 29
- Defilement for terumah is relevant during husband’s lifetime. Kehunah is only after his death.
In a Baraisa on the previous Daf, after Rebbe Akiva darshened that a suspected sotah is forbidden to the husband, the adulterer, and terumah, Rebbe Yishmael added that she should be disqualified for marriage to Kehunah as well, based on a kal vachomer from terumah. The Gemara explains that Rebbe Akiva has four pesukim to darshen (the word "נטמאה" written three times, and one with a “vav,” which Rebbe Akiva darshens), the fourth being for Kehunah. Rebbe Yishmael, who does not darshen the extra vav, derives Kehunah from a kal vachomer. The Gemara asks how Rebbe Yishmael can assume that the third נטמאה includes terumah, allowing him to derive Kehunah from a kal vachomer, when perhaps the third נטמאה comes to include only Kehunah itself, and terumah would be permitted to a suspected sotah?
It answers: מסתברא דומיא דבעל ובועל – It is reasonable that the third “defilement” is similar to the first two, those of the husband and the adulterer. מה בעל ובועל מחיים אף תרומה נמי מחיים – Just as the defilements to the husband and adulterer are relevant [even] during the husband’s lifetime, so too defilement for terumah is relevant during his lifetime, לאפוקי כהונה דלאחר מיתה – as opposed to Kehunah, which is only relevant after the husband’s death. While he is alive, she is either married to him or a divorcee, and forbidden to Kehunah regardless.
- The source for shelishi by terumah
In the Mishnah on Daf 27b, Rebbe Akiva darshened that a sheini of tumah can be metamei even chullin, making it a shelishi. Rebbe Yehoshua noted that Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakkai used to say that a later generation would rule a shelishi is tahor even regarding terumah, since he had no Scriptural source. The Gemara here asks that if there is no source, why then is a shelishi tamei for terumah? Rav answers that although there is no passuk, there is a kal vachomer: ומה טבול יום שמותר בחולין פוסל בתרומה – If a tevul yom, who is permitted to eat chullin (including maaser sheini, which is prohibited to a tamei), still is unfit to eat terumah, ככר שני שפסול בחולין – then a loaf which is a sheini, which is unfit as chullin (i.e., if it is maaser sheini, it is prohibited in consumption), אינו דין שיעשה שלישי בתרומה – is it not logical that it would make a shelishi of terumah? Ultimately, the Gemara concludes that it is derived through a tzad hashaveh (common denominator) from tevul yom and an earthenware utensil.
- The source for revii of kodesh, and its possible rebuttal
Rebbe Yose teaches that kodesh (meat of kodshim) can become a revii based on a kal vachomer from mechusar kippurim (one who requires a korban to complete his taharah process, after he has immersed and night has fallen, whose tumah is weaker than that of a tevul yom): מה מחוסר כיפורים – If even a mechusar kippurim, שמותר בתרומה פסול בקודש – who is permitted to eat terumah, yet is unfit to eat kodesh, שלישי שפסול בתרומה אינו דין הוא שיעשה רביעי בקודש – then a shelishi, which is unfit to be eaten regarding terumah (as derived above), is it not logical that it should make a revii of kodesh?
Rebbe Yochanan declared he could not understand Rebbe Yose’s reasoning, because the rebuttal of his logic is at its side: אוכל הבא מחמת טבול יום יוכיח – Food which became [tamei] through a tevul yom proves otherwise, שפסול בתרומה ואינו עושה רביעי בקודש – because it is unfit for terumah, yet it does not make a revii even of kodesh! The Gemara presents a machlokes Tannaim if food which became tamei from a tevul yom can make a revii of kodesh or not and explains how Rebbe Yochanan knew that Rebbe Yose holds it does not.
