Shabbos 58
“All utensils descend into their state of ritual impurity by means of thought alone.”
After a few days of discussing larger issues, such as flawed heroes and if all those who die have sinned, we return to a discussion of household objects and ritual purity. The discussion veers into an examination of objects that can be disassembled and if one ritually impure part can infect another. The general principle is that “if one part becomes ritually impure, the other parts become ritually impure as well.” I imagine the Rabbis huddled in a science lab in their Yeshiva examining one household item after another to determine ritual purity.
Among the objects examined by the Rabbis are a cloak and a seal. They lay the cloak before them, take turns placing it over their shoulders, and attach and reattach a seal to it. They ultimately conclude from this experiment that a servant cannot wear the cloak over his shoulders in an attempt to hide the seal in the public domain on Shabbat. They also conclude that wearing a cloak over one’s shoulders is not the appropriate way to go out into the world. (I always thought a man with a cloak over his shoulders was elegant, like Pavarotti.)
They next determine that all those affiliated with the House of Exilarch cannot go out with seals affixed to their cloaks on Shabbat. The notes in the Koren Talmud indicate that men would affix seals to their outerwear in order to alert authorities that they have paid their taxes. This is prohibited on Shabbat in fear that the seal would fall off and they would have to carry it in their hands in order to demonstrate compliance with tax laws. Rav Hinnana bar Sheila is granted an exemption and can swirl a cape over his shoulders and traipse around the marketplace on Shabbat in any manner that he wishes.
Next up for examination is the common bell with a clapper that reverberates with sound. A servant can go out into the public domain on Shabbat with a bell woven into his clothing, but not tied around his neck (which sounds as demeaning as having a seal fixed to his clothing.) An animal cannot go out with a bell around his neck or on his clothes (perhaps a saddle or blanket), since this would be considered a burden on Shabbat (but for some reason it is not a burden for a servant to have a bell woven into his garments.)
The Rabbis compare a bell from an animal with one on a door for their purity status. They determine that while the bell from an animal can become ritually impure, because the house bell is attached to a structure that is planted in the ground it retains its purity status. They experiment with moving a bell from door to animal and it becomes ritually impure in the process; moving the bell from animal to door retains its impurity status, even though it follows the principle of being grounded to the earth. We are told this is “because all utensils descend into their state of ritual impurity by means of thought alone.” Simply moving a ritually impure object will not change its status and some sort of action would have to occur if its purity were to change.
The Rabbis continue with their experiment and consider the clapper that resides within a bell. A bell without a clapper cannot become ritually impure, because it is silent. The Rabbis consider craftsmanship when they debate if the bell remains impure if it had a clapper that is removed. They determine that its state of impurity is unchanged because “a common person is able to replace the clapper.” This Rabbinical experiment would have a different outcome if reinsertion of the clapper into the bell required a skilled craftsman (who presumably do not work on Shabbat.)
Today’s discussion of ritual impurity resonates with concern for objects and surfaces that might be contaminated with virus particles. We have entered an age of hyper-vigilance about cleanliness and what resides upon everyday objects. We know that COVID-19 spreads from person to person through droplets in the air. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study in March indicating that the virus can also spread through contact with infected surfaces, such as countertops, subway poles, elevator buttons and doorknobs. The study found that the virus lives on hard metal surfaces and plastic for up the 3 days and on cardboard for up to 24 hours. Today, the notion of contamination and impurity has a heightened significance for how we go about our lives.