Beitzah 37b part 2

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. The גמרא discusses the concept of ברירה. The סוגיא of ברירה is quite large and we will just touch on some key points. One fundamental aspect is the exact definition of אין ברירה. See רש"י in גיטין ע"ג ד"ה ומשני אמר רבה as well as in חולין דף י"ד ד"ה אוסרין who seems to understand that אין ברירה means that the מעשה or חלות you are attempting actually does work. However, it is unknown where or when your מעשה takes effect.  In other words if, for example, one said that the תרומה from a vat of wine should be חל on the two ounces of liquid that he will be מפריש tomorrow, then the תרומה is חל now but we just will never know where those two ounces are in the vat; whereas if you hold יש ברירה, then whatever you pick out tomorrow we consider to be the actual תרומה. See תוספות in גיטין דף ע"ג ד"ה אמר רבה who disagrees and say that if you hold אין ברירה, then the action or words don’t work at all, the two ounces do not become תרומה and the food remains טבל.

2. Another important issue involving ברירה is how do we differentiate ברירה from a regular תנאי which works according all opinions. See רש"י in גיטין דף כ"ה: ד"ה ולכי מיית who understands that a תנאי is different in that it is something you control and intend to do (such as our divorce should be valid if I walk to the store tomorrow). On the other hand, ברירה is when something is out of your control and happens on its own (such as this divorce should be valid a minute before death). See the ר"ן בדף י"ג בדפּי הרי"ף ד"ה ואיכא who quotes the רמב"ן as saying that a תנאי is when speaking about one thing with only two possible outcomes —it either will happen or it won’t. ברירה is where multiple outcomes are possible such as, whichever two ounces I am מפריש tomorrow should be תרומה. In that case, there are many different ounces that could become תרומה. See תוספות there in גיטין דף כ"ה: ד"ה ולכי מיית who says that a תנאי is when the eventual outcome will certainly become clear. ברירה is necessary when we may never find out the outcome, such as the person may never actually be מפריש the two ounces for תרומה.

3. Lastly, there is a מחלוקת as to how we pasken. See theר"ן בדף י"ב: בדפּי הרי"ף ד"ה וכולם who says that when the גמרא paskend אין ברירה by דאורייתא and יש ברירה by דרבנן, it means that we are מסופּק as to how to pasken and therefore we are מחמיר by a דאורייתא and מקיל by a דרבנן. As such, if saying ברירה would ever result in a חומרא, we would say ברירה even by a דאורייתא. See the ים של שלמה, ב"ק פּ"ה סימן ל"ב who disagrees and says that we pasken definitively that by דאורייתא we say אין ברירה,  whether it’s לקולא or לחומרא.

4. רש"י mentions that the טומאה that exists under the doorway from where the dead man will exit, is a הלכה למשה מסיני. See רש"י himself earlier on דף י. ד"ה כולם טמאים who says that this טומאה is only a דין דרבנן. See the תוספות יו"ט אוהלות פּ"ז מ"ג who says that רש"י earlier on דף י' really agrees it is דאורייתא. He just said “שגזרו חכמים” similar to the way the רמב"ם calls many דאורייתאs “דברי סופרים”, meaning it is found not in a פּסוק.

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