Resources for Chagigah 27

1.     The גמרא gives two explanations of the שיטת חכמים who say in the משנה the words “מפּני שהם מצופּין”. One is that the חכמים disagree with ר"א and hold the מזבח does need טבילה since it is מצופּה. The second possibility is that the חכמים agree with ר"א that it doesn’t need טבילה but hold it is not because of a פּסוק. Rather, the only reason it would need טבילה is because it was מצופּה and the ציפּוי is not an issue since it is בטל to the מזבח. It should come out that according to both explanations, a ציפּוי is a reason to make something טמא. However, see the רמב"ם inהלכות כלים פּרק ד׳ הל׳ ד who says that any כלי with a ציפּוי is automatically not מקבל טומאה since the ציפּוי is מבטל the כלי and the ציפּוי itself is always טהור (based on a דרשה) . This seems to be explicitly against our גמרא. The כסף משנה brings the מהר"י קורקוס who says the רמב"ם is paskening like the second explanation. He learns that the גמרא is answering that the מזבח can’t be טמא due to the ציפּוי since the ציפּוי is בטל to the כלי (perhaps that is the reasoning for the דרשה), and the כלי itself can’t be טמא since it’s מצופּה and a ציפּוי is מבטל a כלי.

2.     The גמרא says that even פּושעי ישראל are מלאים מצות כרימון. Considering they are פּושעי ישראל, which מצות are they full of? There is an interesting מרומי שדה here who says it refers to acts of charity and kindness. He quotes the גמרא in בבא בתרא דף ט׳ ע"א which says that one should always give 1/3 of a שקל to צדקה as it says in נחמיה “והעמדנו עלינו מצות” to donate to the בית המקדש. We see from here that סתם "מצות" refer to charitable donations.

3.     The גמרא says that post חורבן when there is no מזבח, a person’s table is מכפּר for them. It is not clear from the גמרא in what way a person’s table is like a מזבח to be מכפּר? Both רש"י and תוספות in ד"ה שלחנו say that it is מכפּר through הכנסת אורחים (see the גמרא in ברכות דף נ"ה that says it refers to specifically food to a poor person). As we all know, the משנה in פּרקי אבות פּרק ג׳ משנה ג says that one who says דברי תורה at their meal is as if he ate from שלחנו של מקום and quotes the same פּסוק as our  גמרא, “זה השלחן אשר לפני ה”. That משנה seems to be saying our tables are a מזבח due to the Torah learning done there. See the עיון יעקב in מנחות דף צ"ז who points out that we appear to be learning two different ideas from the same words in the פּסוק. How can that be? He explains that both ideas are מכפּר as it says "בחסד ואמת יכופּר עון". חסד refers to things like charity and הכנסת אורחים and אמת refers to Torah learning. There is also a third idea which is quoted in שלחן ערוך או"ח סימן קס"ז סעיף ה which says that one should not eat a meal before salt is brought to the table since a person’s table is a מזבח and his אכילה is considered a קרבן and you need to have salt for קרבנות. That idea sounds like when a person eats לשם שמים, their eating is like a קרבן in which case the table is like a מזבח. However, this last idea is more directly related to the אכילה as opposed to the table itself. This seems to be how the משנה ברורה there understood it.

Rabbi Yechiel Grunhaus - Points to Ponder

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