Today’s Daf contains a ruling that Samaritan women are considered Niddah (impure because of menstruation) from their birth. In the Talmud Samaritans are referred to as “Cutheans”. I had no idea who Samaritans were, so I looked on Wikipedia. I first learned that there are Samaritans today, so I should have said “I have no idea who Samaritans are.” Sorry to any readers who are Samaritan. Samritans. Like everything in Israel, facts about the Samaritans depend a lot on political viewpoint and any statement will be controversial. For purposes of our Talmud study only, I note that the Rabbis noted that Samaritans kept some Jewish religious practices, but had significant differences (not surprisingly, both the Rabbinic Jews and the Samaritans claim to be the “real Jews”). Samaritans are a recognized, but small and dwindling, group in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel (and, please, don’t get me started on my views of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel) consider Samaritans to be a branch of Judaism, but require official conversions if Samaritans want to be recognized as fully Jewish. That does not stop the Israeli government from requiring Samaritans in Israel (not the occupied territories) to serve in the armed forces. I do not want to devolve into a political dialogue about the modern state of Israel or minorities in Israel or Samaritans or whose religion is real, etc., etc. If any of my summary is offensive, first I apologize, and second please start or recommend a good blog where we can learn more about Samaritan life.

Before we get to Samaritans, today’s Daf returns to our conversation about glass. Yesterday, we compared how glassware compared to earthenware (which is pottery) and metalware. We learned that glass should be subject to Tumah like earthenware because it is made from sand, similarly to the way pottery is made from clay. However, today we learn that glassware becomes Tumah when something impure touches its outer surface. This is like metal, but very different than pottery. Pottery does not get Tumah from touching something impure. Instead, pottery becomes Tumah when something Tumah is suspended or placed in its cavity. Touching the outer walls of an earthenware vessel does not matter for purity purposes.

Purifying earthenware requires breaking it. Once it is broken, the material becomes clean and can be reconstituted into a vessel that can be used for Terumah. Metal cannot be broken (or pierced to be purified). We must immerse metal in a Mikveh to be purified. Yesterday we learned that glass could be purified by immersion in a Mikveh, but only in the special case that the glass had a hole that was plugged with lead. Metal that has Tumah and that is melted down retains its Tumah. Anything made from this material is still Tumah. Glass is different. If it is melted down, then it is no longer Tumah and anything made from that glass will be ritually pure. Glass is different than metal in this case, because metal contracting Tumah is a biblical law. Glass contracting Tumah is a Rabbinical decree. The fact that metal retains Tumah when it is melted is also a Rabbinical decree. With glass, we don’t need a Rabbinical decree to protect another Rabbinical decree. One other way glass and metal differ, flatware of metal becomes impure through contact. Flatware of glass (which I have never seen) never becomes Tumah.

After all these comparisons of glass to metal and pottery, Rabbi Ashi comes along and says, “Actually, things are much easier. Glass has the same rules as pottery, with one exception. Glass is transparent, so if something touches the outside, it infects the inside.” Wish we had started there!

At the end of Shabbat 14, we took a break from the Eighteen Enactments to discuss earlier rulings. We turn back to one of those earlier rulings. Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach, we learned, instituted marriage protections for women and instituted Tumah for metal. The Talmud notes that actually Tumah for metal comes from Numbers 31:22-23 (“Gold and silver, copper, iron, tin and lead – any article that can withstand fire – these you shall pass through fire and they shall be clean, except that they must be cleansed with water of sprinkling; and anything that cannot withstand fire you must pass through water.”) Rather, what we learn is that Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach made the decree that melted metal is still Tumah.

Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach had to institute this decree because of a crafty queen named Shaltzion. Shaltzion made a wedding feast for her son and all of the utensils became Tumah. (Commentators suspect someone died at the feast). Rather than going through the seven day cleansing process, Shaltzion broke or pierced all the utensils and gave them to a smith to remake. Shimon ben Shetach did not like the shortcut, so he made the rabbinic decree that melting metal does not remove its Tumah.

At this point we return to the Eighteen Enactments. We previously reviewed 9 of the enactments and one that we later discarded. The tenth enactment concerns water for a Mikveh. For a quick reminder, a Mikveh is a ritual bath that can be used in many situations to remove Tumah. The water in the Mikveh must be natural rainwater. If it is placed in a vessel first, the water is considered drawn and not suitable for a Mikveh. Water can flow through pipes, because they are not vessels as they are open on both ends. Shammai held that any water that is drawn renders a Mikveh unfit, even if the vessel used to collect water was placed under a pipe unintentionally. Hillel said that if the vessel filled with water unintentionally (meaning we did not place it to collect water at that time), then there was no problem using it in the Mikveh. Shammai’s ruling is surprising because usually if something is unintentional, then it does not matter.

Rabbi Yose does not believe that the matter is settled and we should not count this as the tenth enactment. Instead, Rabbi Yose believes the tenth enactment concerns the Samaritan women. Samaritans considered women who menstruated to be ritually impure, just like Talmudic Jews. However, Talmudic Jews held that a baby that had a vaginal discharge was also impure. Samaritan’s did not follow this rule. Therefore, we could not be certain about those Samaritan women and we should consider all of then Niddah.

The 11th enactment concerns a roof over a corpse. Human corpses are the “father of fathers” of ritual impurity. A human corpse transmits impurity to anything that is in a vertical line above or below it. The corpse also transmits impurity to anything that shares a roof with a corpse, which naturally leads to the question, “What is a roof?” The answer starts in our Daf, but really gets going tomorrow. So, I will leave it there.