Siman - Pesachim Daf 9
- A chuldah bringing chametz into a house
The next Mishnah states that אין חוששין שמא גיררה חולדה מבית לבית וממקום למקום – We are not concerned that a chuldah dragged chametz from house to house or from place to place within the house. The Gemara says that this implies that we are not concerned for the possibility, but if we do indeed see a chuldah bringing chametz into a place that was already searched, then we do have to search again for chametz in that area. The Gemara asks on this ואמאי נימא אכלתיה – Why does another search have to be done, we should assume that the chuldah ate the chametz? The Gemara brings a proof to this concept from a Mishnah that says that if a chuldah enters a place where there might be a dead body buried there, we can assume that he ate it. Rebbe Zeira answers הא בבשר הא בלחם – This one (the Mishna discussing a dead body) is meat, and this one (our Mishna that discusses chametz) is bread,– a chuldah completely finishes eating meat and leaves nothing over, but does not completely finish eating bread and leaves some over. Since a chuldah leaves over bread, we have to search again if we see it bringing chametz into an already checked area.
- Hiding the found chametz
On this that the Mishnah states that we are not worried that a chuldah will drag a piece of chametz from a non-checked area of the house into a checked area of the house, the Gemara asks that at the end of a Mishnah on Daf 10b we learn מה שמשייר יניחנו בצנעה – the chametz that one wants to leave over after his search for chametz, in order to eat it, he needs to place in a guarded place שלא יהא צריך בדיקה אחריו – so that he will not need to do another bedikah. Meaning, that if one did not place his chametz in a guarded place, we are concerned that a chuldah would take it, and then one would have to do another search in his house. If so, why does our Mishnah say that we are not worried that a chuldah will bring chametz from a non-checked area of the house into a checked area of the house?
Abaye answers הא בארבעה עשר הא בשלשה עשר – The later Mishnah is on the fourteenth, and our Mishnah is on the thirteenth. Abaye explains that בשלשה עשר דשכיח ריפתא בכולהו בתי לא מצנעא – on the thirteenth, when there is chametz in every house, a chuldah does not hide the chametz that he has, because it is not worried that it will run out of food, and on the fourteenth, when chametz is not found in every house, the chuldah does hide the chametz. Therefore, on the fourteenth we are concerned that the chuldah took away the chametz and hid it. Rava and Rav Mari give two other answers.
- A pile of chametz and a pile of matzah
The Gemara discusses a case of one pile of matzah and one pile of chametz, and there are two houses there, one which was searched and one which was not. Two mice came, and one took from the pile of matzah and one took from the pile of chametz, and each one entered a different house, and we don’t know which one entered which house. The Gemara says that this is comparable to a case of a Baraisa that says that if there were two baskets, one full of chullin fruit and one full of fruits of terumah, and next to them were two containers, one holding fruits of chullin and one holding fruits of terumah, and each one of these containers fell into a different basket, then we assume that the chullin fell into the chullin and the terumah fell into the teruma. So too in our case, we can assume that the chuldah with the chametz dragged it into a house that was not checked, and the chuldah with the matzah dragged the matzah into the house that was checked. The Gemara concludes that the Rabbanan were lenient because both cases involved a d’Rabbanan. Terumah nowadays is a d’Rabbanon and bedikas chametz is a d’Rabbanon.
