[Avodah] Chamor defiled Dinah

[Akiva Miller]

.
R' Micha Berger wrote:

> R Yehudah (Menachos 29a) says that Shelomo melted the gold and
> spilled off the dross so many times, that is took him 1,000
> kikarim of initial gold to get something from which he would
> make the menorah.
> "Zahav tahor" means (b), gold with no other metals alloyed
> into it.

I looked at that gemara, and I don't see where it mentions "zahav tahor".
The refining process there is used for making "zahav sagur", which I
presume to be something else.

I'd like to suggest a different proof for the translation of "zahav tahor"
as "24K, 100%, unalloyed gold".

Namely: Is it possible for a blob of unformed metal to be tamei? I suspect
that gold cannot become tamei until it has been made into a keli, such
jewelry, or a coin, or a menorah. If so, then a requirement to use zahav
tahor *must* refer to metallic purity, simply because the ritual purity is
a given.

Can someone confirm or deny this guess about an unformed lump of metal?

If my guess is correct, then it opens the door to using the words tumah and
tahara in a colloquial context, and the possibility that "Chamor defiled
Dinah" in an antisocial manner, rather than invoking technicalities of
Tum'as Keri.

Akiva Miller
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20231217/4aa5fee2/attachment-0003.htm>