RABBI REUVEN SPOLTER Founder, Mishnah Project
Learning Taharot, Preparing for the Redemption Thoughts gleaned from the Mishnah, studied as part of the global Mishnah Yomit program. This week’s Mishnayot: Kinnim 3:4 – Keilim 2:2
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bout fifteen years ago while on a tour of an area surrounding Jerusalem (before I made Aliyah), the tour guide stopped on the side of the road and led us into a cave. In that cave, he showed us a pile of small, round cylinders of stone, which were clearly hewn out of the rock. What, he asked us, do you think these are? (Take a look at the attached picture and guess for yourself). After we offered several incorrect guesses, our guide explained that these stones were in fact garbage, the remnant insides of ancient cups hewn out of stone. We were in a quarry close to the Temple Mount where they prepared utensils for use in Jerusalem. Halachically, most utensils are mekabel tum’ah – susceptible to ritual
impurity. Once Tamei, if used accidentally they would disqualify any food, including sacrifices, from being eaten. For this reason, many Kohanim would only use utensils that could not become Tamei at all. Unfortunately, the list of usable materials is quite short. The Gemara (see Shabbat 58a) tells us that, “Vessels of stone, of dung and of earth cannot receive Tum’ah – both according to Torah as well as rabbinic law.” Dung plates were out, as well as mud plates which probably didn’t hold up all that well. That left actual stoneware as the only realistic option left to the Kohanim. Holding this artifact in my hand, I both marveled at the ability to literally hold a piece of history from the Second Temple, while shuddering at the thought of the challenge this piece of stone presented – and will one day (soon) present us as well. In the Temple era, one not only had to worry about kashrut and Shabbat and all the myriad laws that guide and govern our daily lives. Our ancestors had an entire additional category of halachot that governed everything from the food they OU ISRAEL CENTER
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