Pesachim — Daf 9a

מתני׳ אין חוששין שמא גיררה חולדה מבית לבית וממקום למקום דא"כ מחצר לחצר ומעיר לעיר אין לדבר סוף:

גמ׳ טעמ' דלא חזינא דשקל הא חזינא דשקל חיישינן ובעי בדיקה

ואמאי נימא אכלתיה מי לא תנן מדורו' העכו"ם טמאים וכמה ישהה במדור ויהא המדור צריך בדיקה ארבעים יום

ואע"פ שאין לו אשה וכל מקום שחולדה וחזיר יכולין להלוך א"צ בדיקה

א"ר זירא לא קשיא הא בבשר והא בלחם בבשר לא משיירא בלחם משיירא

אמר רבא האי מאי בשלמא התם אימור הוה אימור לא הוה ואם תמצא לומר הוה אימור אכלתיה אבל הכא דודאי דחזינא דשקל מי יימר דאכלתיה הוי ספק וודאי ואין ספק מוציא מידי ודאי

ואין ספק מוציא מידי ודאי והא תניא חבר שמת והניח מגורה מליאה פירות ואפילו הן בני יומן הרי הן בחזקת מתוקנין והא הכא דודאי טבילי הני פירי וספק מעושרין וספק לא מעושרין וקאתי ספק ומוציא מידי ודאי

התם ודאי וודאי הוא דודאי מעשרי כדר' חנינא חוזאה דא"ר חנינא חוזאה חזקה על חבר שאין מוציא מתחת ידו דבר שאינו מתוקן

ואי בעית אימא ספק וספק הוא דילמא מעיקר' אימור דלא טבילי כר' אושעיא

דא"ר אושעיא מערים אדם על תבואתו ומכניסה במוץ שלה כדי שתהא בהמתו אוכלת ופטורה מן המעשר

ואין ספק מוציא מידי ודאי והתניא אמר ר' יהודה מעשה בשפחתו של מציק אחד ברימון שהטילה נפל לבור

MISHNAH. WE HAVE NO FEAR THAT A WEASEL MAY HAVE DRAGGED [LEAVEN] FROM ONE ROOM TO ANOTHER OR FROM ONE SPOT TO ANOTHER.1 FOR IF SO, [WE MUST ALSO FEAR] FROM COURT-YARD TO COURT-YARD AND FROM TOWN TO TOWN, [AND] THE MATTER IS ENDLESS. GEMARA. The reason is that we did not see it take [leaven]; but if we saw it take [it] we do fear, and it requires a [re-]search. yet why so; let us assume that it ate it? Did we not learn: The dwellings of heathens are unclean,2 and how long must he [the heathen] stay in a dwelling so that it should need searching?3 Forty days, even if he has no wife. But in every place where a weasel or a swine can enter no searching is required!4 — Said R. Zera, There is no difficulty: one treats of flesh, the other of bread: in the case of flesh it [the weasel] leaves nothing, [whereas in the case of bread it does leave [something] — Raba said: How compare! As for there, it is well: it is [a case of mere] ‘say’: say that there was [a burial there], say that there was not.5 And if you assume that there was, say that it [e.g., a weasel] ate it. But here that we see for certain that it has taken [leaven], who is to say that it ate it? Surely it is a doubt [on the one hand] and a certainty [on the other], and a doubt cannot negative a certainty. But cannot a doubt negative a certainty? Surely it was taught: If a haber6 dies and leaves a store-house full of produce [crops]. even if they are but one day old, they stand in the presumption of having been tithed.7 Now here these crops were certainly liable to tithe, and there is a doubt whether they have been tithed or not tithed, yet the doubt comes and negatives the certainty?-There it is one certainty against another certainty, as [we presume that] they have certainly been tithed, in accordance with R. Hanina of Hozae.8 For R. Hanina of Hozae said: There is a presumption concerning a haber that he does not let anything untithed9 pass out from under his hand. Alternatively: it is a doubt [on the one hand] and a doubt [on the other]; perhaps from the very beginning say that it was not liable to tithe, in accordance with R. Oshaia. For R. Oshaia said: one may practise an artifice with his produce and take it in its husks, so that his cattle may eat thereof and it be exempt from tithes.10 But cannot a doubt negative a certainty? Surely it was taught, R. Judah said: It once happened that the bondmaid of a certain oppressor11 in Rimon12 threw her premature-born child into a pit, through the roof or the backyard. If grain is brought in in its husks its work is not complete, as this is still to be separated, and it is not liable to tithe, and need not be tithed by Scriptural law; a human being may then make a light meal of it, while cattle may eat their fill. Thus there it may never have become liable to tithe at all. Though a human being may not make a meal of it, that is only a Rabbinical law and is certainly nullified here by the presumption that the haber had tithed it. But in its essence we see that it is doubt against doubt; the doubt whether it was liable to tithe at all offset by the doubt that it may have been tithed. the present Al-Rummanah, on the southern edge of the plain of Al-Battof, about ten kilometres north of Nazareth.