[Avodah] Tum'at Yadayim

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, November 19, 2007 11:08 am, Gershon Dubin wrote:
: From: Galsaba at aol.com
: <<Takanat Chachamim that Sefer Torah makes hands to be secondary
: Tumeah.Sefer Metamei Yadaim Lihyot Sheniyot.
:
: What about the Seffer Torah itself.
: Is it Tamei? or just Metamei?>>
:
: The difference being....?
:
: <<The Gemara (Berachos 22a) where R. Yehudah ben Beseira said, "The
: words of Torah do not receive Tum'ah". This is learned from Yirmiyahu
: 23:29 - "are not all my words like fire, said Hashem?". Just as fire
: does not receive Tum'ah, so too the words of Torah cannot become
: impure - also, the Beis Yosef OC 88 DH v'Aha.>>

: This is intended, both in the Gemara and in the Shulchan Aruch, to say
: that when a PERSON is tamei, he may still learn Torah.  Nothing at all
: to do with touching KISVEI HAKODESH, whose tum'ah (one of the 18
: gezeros in the 1st perek of Shabbos) is for a completely unrelated
: reason.

The case in the gemara in Berakhos 22a is of a baal qeri learning from
a seifer Torah. Yes, the gemara concludes that learning doesn't
require Taharah, but the fact is, RYbB didn't tell him to be careful
about touching the seifer.

It is also unclear, going further in the beraisa, how far this can be
generalized. There are shitos that allow mishnah only (R Yonasan bar
Yosef, R' Meir), neither (R' Yehudah b Gamliel, ver I), both (ver II).

The ra'ayah from Yirmiyahu is clearly about the words being ones of
Torah "are not all My words like fire?" -- it wouldn't make sense if
the topic were speech in general.

Given that at the time of the beraisa's quotes, both were TSBP, it can
not be ruled out in principle that tum'ah doesn't affect words.
Rather, it would seem to be about miqra, and possibly even the
physical scroll.

Which may be why Shabbos 14a describes the gezeira as being about a
seifer Torah being metamei. MideOraisa, only a tamei can be metamei.
But this is a gezeira. If one wants, one could have said the chakhamim
made everything that touches a seifer Torah tamei. But it seems from
the zav that the seifer Torah itself was placed mideOraisa outside the
realm of tum'ah.

And that, to answer RGD's question, is the difference.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
http://www.aishdas.org   you must know where to slaughter and what
Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv