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Ohalos 15:10-16:1

Ohalos 15:10

If someone touches both a corpse and utensils, or overshadows a corpse and touches utensils, the utensils are rendered unclean. If someone overshadows both a corpse and utensils, or touches a corpse and overshadows utensils, the utensils remain ritually clean. If his hand has an opening of a handbreadth, the utensils are rendered unclean. If two houses each have a half-olive volume of a corpse and he puts one hand into each, then if his hands have an opening of a handbreadth, he conveys impurity; if this is not the case, he doesn’t convey impurity.

Ohalos 16:1

All movable objects convey ritual impurity when they are the thickness of an ox prod. Rabbi Tarfon exclaimed that he should see the demise of his children if this isn’t a demised law that was misunderstood by someone who heard it. A farmer was passing through a cemetery with an ox prod on his shoulder, one end of which overshadowed a grave. It was declared unclean as a utensil overshadowing a corpse. Rabbi Akiva said that he could correct things so that the words of the Sages could be retained: All movable things convey ritual impurity to the one carrying them when they are as thick as an ox-prod; they themselves contract ritual impurity in any thickness and they convey impurity to other people or utensils when they have an opening of a handbreadth.

Author: Rabbi Jack Abramowitz