Zavim 5:1-2

Zavim 5:1

If a person touches a zav, or vice versa, or if he moves a zav, or vice versa, he conveys impurity to food, liquids and utensils that are immersed – through contact but not through carrying. Rabbi Yehoshua stated a general rule: anyone who conveys impurity to garments while in contact also conveys impurity to food and liquids rendering them unclean in the first degree, and to hands rendering them unclean in the second grade, but they don’t convey impurity to people or to earthenware vessels. After separating from the source of his impurity, he conveys impurity to liquids rendering them unclean in the first degree, and to food and hands rendering them unclean in the second grade, but not to clothes.

Zavim 5:2

They stated another general rule: anything that is carried over a zav is rendered unclean; whatever a zav is carried on remains clean except for things that are fit to sit or lie upon, and a person. For example, if a zav’s finger was under a layer of stones and a ritually clean person was on top, he conveys impurity to two degrees and disqualifies (trumah) one degree more. Once he separates (from the source of his impurity) he conveys impurity to one degree and disqualifies (trumah) one degree more. If the ritually unclean person was on top and the ritually clean person below, he conveys impurity to two degrees and disqualifies (trumah) one degree more. Once he separates (from the source of his impurity) he conveys impurity to one degree and disqualifies (trumah) one degree more. If food, liquids, what he could sit or lie upon, or something unfit to sit or lie on was above, they convey impurity to two degrees and disqualify (trumah) one degree more. Once separated (from the source of their impurity), they convey impurity to one degree and disqualify (trumah) one degree further. Anything fit to sit or lie upon that was beneath conveys impurity to two degrees and disqualifies (trumah) one degree more. Once separated (from the source of its impurity), it conveys impurity to one degree and disqualifies (trumah) one degree further. If food, liquids or utensils unfit to sit or lie upon are below, they remain clean.