Soncino English Talmud
Zevachim
Daf 79a
The latter is his own view; the former is his teacher's.1 For it was taught, R. Judah said on R. Gamaliel's authority: Blood cannot nullify [other] blood;2 saliva cannot nullify saliva; and urine cannot nullify urine.3 Raba said: We are discussing a pail which is clean on the inside and unclean on the outside:4 by law even a small quantity is sufficient,5 and it was only the Rabbis who enacted a preventive measure,6 lest one begrudge [the water] and not immerse it.7 Since then we have an excess [of mikweh water], nothing else is required.8 Raba said: The Rabbis have said that taste [is the determining factor]; and the Rabbis have said [that we decide] by the majority; and the Rabbis have said that [we go] by appearance. [When] one kind [is mixed] with a different kind, taste [is the determining factor]. [When] one kind [is mixed] with the same kind, the greater part [determines its status]; and where there is appearance,9 [we go] by looks. Now, [Resh Lakish] disagrees with R. Eleazar. For R. Eleazar said: Just as precepts cannot nullify one another, so can interdicts not nullify one another.10 Whom do you know to maintain that precepts cannot nullify one another? — It is Hillel. For it was taught: It was related of Hillel the Elder that he used to wrap them11 together, for it is said, they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.12 objections to this, and gives a different interpretation based on an emended text. which are clean, even though the latter exceed the former. This is a stringent view, and the similar stringent view above is likewise his teacher's ruling, not his own. that we can be sure that it has run over the edge, which is unclean. allow even a trickle of mikweh water to enter the pail. for his more lenient ruling. another. Passover.