Skip to content

Parallel

סוכה 6:1

Soncino English Talmud · Berean Standard Bible

6:1
if however he was dressed in his garments, and his sandals were on his feet, and his rings on his fingers, he becomes instantaneously unclean, but they remain clean unless he tarries there long enough to eat half a loaf of wheaten bread but not of barley bread, while in a reclining position and eating with condiment. ‘Barley’? As we have learnt, A barley-corn's bulk of a bone defiles by contact and by carrying, but not by ‘overshadowing’. ‘Vines’ are an allusion to the fourth part [of a log of wine which is the minimum prohibited] to a Nazirite. ‘Fig-trees’ allude to the size of a dry fig [which is the minimum measurement for transgressing the law against] the carrying out of [food] on the Sabbath. ‘Pomegranates’? As we have learnt: All [defiled wooden] vessels belonging to householders [become clean if the breaches in them] are as large as pomegranates. ‘A land of olive-trees’ [is an allusion to the] land all of whose [minima] standards [for permitted and forbidden things] is the bulk of an olive. How can it possibly mean ‘all whose [minima] standards’? Are there not those which we have just mentioned? — Say rather, ‘The majority of whose [minima] standards are the bulk of an olive’. ‘Honey’ alludes to the size of a large date, [which is the minimum size forbidden] on the Day of Atonement. Does it not then clearly follow that the [minima] standards are Pentateuchal? — Do you then imagine that the [minima] standards were actually prescribed in the Pentateuch? [The fact is that] they are but traditional laws while the Scriptural verse is merely a support. But are not [the laws of] interposition Pentateuchal, as it is written, And he shall wash his flesh in water [which implies] that nothing should interpose between him and the water? The traditional law comes [to teach] concerning one's hair, in agreement with a statement of Rabbah b. Bar Hana, for Rabbah b. Bar Hana stated: One knotted hair constitutes an interposition; three hairs do not, but I do not know [the law in the case of] two. But is not the law relating to one's hair also Pentateuchal, since it was written, And he shall wash [eth] his flesh in water and [the word] ‘eth’ includes that which is joined to his body, i.e., his hair? — The traditional law comes to teach with reference to [the ruling reported by] R. Isaac; for R. Isaac said: