Gittin - Daf 54
- Tamei terumah which was eaten, then repaid with tamei chullin
The Gemara on Daf 53b asserted that Rebbe Meir penalizes a שוגג as severely as מזיד for a Rabbinic prohibition. On this Daf it brings a contradictory Baraisa that states, according to the Gemara’s final version: אכל תרומה טהורה – If a [non-Kohen] ate tahor terumah (inadvertently), משלם חולין טהורים – he must repay the Kohen with tahor chullin (i.e., already tithed produce). שילם חולין טמאין – If, instead, he paid with tamei chullin (which cannot be eaten, since it becomes terumah), Rebbe Meir says: בשוגג תשלומיו תשלומין – If it was done unintentionally, the payment is valid. במזיד אין תשלומיו תשלומין – If it was done intentionally, the payment is invalid. (the Gemara in Yevamos explains this to mean the same as the Chachomim’s ruling below). The Chachomim say that in either case, the payment is valid, but he must pay again with tahor chullin. We see that Rebbe Meir did not penalize שוגג, although the prohibition to pay with tamei chullin is Rabbinical!? The Gemara answers that this is not comparable: התם גברא לשלומי קא מיכוין – There, when paying with tamei chullin, the man intended to pay as required. אנן ניקום וליקנסיה – Should we go penalize him for mistakenly paying with tamei produce?
- Claiming his friend’s tahor items became tamei, or his korban became piggul
It was taught in a Baraisa: היה עושה עמו בטהרות – If one was preparing tahor items for [another], ואמר לו טהרות שעשיתי עמך נטמאו – and he told him, “The tahor items I prepared for you became tamei,”היה עושה עמו בזבחים – or if he was preparing korbanos for [another] by sacrificing them, וא"ל זבחים שעשיתי עמך נתפגלו – and told him, “The korbanos I prepared for you became piggul,” נאמן – he is believed. However, if he said that items he prepared on a previous day became tamei (or piggul), he is not believed. Abaye explains the difference: כל שבידו נאמן – Anything within his ability to do, he is believed to say he did. In the first case, the items are under his control, and he can still make them tamei or piggul, respectively (because the korban still requires zerikah). In the second case, they are out of his control, so he is not believed. Rava says one is believed even after they are out of his control, but the second case is where they met once and he said nothing, and upon meeting a second time he told him what occurred, in which case he is not believed.
- Whether a sofer is believed when he says the sefer Torah he was paid to write is invalid
The Gemara relates an incident of a sofer who told Rebbe Ami about a sefer Torah he wrote for someone, אזכרות שלו לא כתבתים לשמן – “I did not write the mentions of Hashem’s Name לשמה,” which would invalidate the entire sefer Torah. After determining the Torah was in the purchaser’s possession, Rebbe Ami responded, נאמן אתה להפסיד שכרך – You are believed to forfeit your wages (since you admitted you did not perform the work properly), ואי אתה נאמן להפסיד ספר תורה – but you are not believed to disqualify the sefer Torah. The Gemara explains that although the rest of the Torah was written properly, he forfeits all his wages, because such a Torah is irreparable. In another incident, a sofer told Rebbe Abahu that the parchment on which he wrote a sefer Torah was not tanned לשמה, which invalidates the Torah. Although the Torah was in the purchaser’s possession, Rebbe Abahu said: מתוך שאתה נאמן להפסיד שכרך – Since you are believed to forfeit your wages for having written an invalid Torah, אתה נאמן להפסיד ספר תורה – you are even believed to disqualify the sefer Torah. Since he realizes he is forfeiting his entire wages, he would not make this claim if it were untrue (as opposed to the previous case, where one might mistakenly think he is paid for the rest of Torah which was written properly).
