Daf Yomi, Marriage Counseling, Psychotherapy, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Torah and Psychology
Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses modes and bridges that transmit ritual impurity. Generally only foods or utensils are subject to impurity or transmit acquired impurity from one object to another. The Gemara examines the status of a non-edible item that is attached to a food and used to hold the food, such as a bone attached to a piece of meat. Can this bone conduct impurity from contact with something impure into the meat itself?
The Gemara rejects a position that the bone could conduct and import impurity but then not have the ability to conduct and export the impurity. They reason: if it can conduct impurity to an item that was never impure, surely once the object has become impure it is easier for it to export that impurity. By metaphor, if you can break into a vault and access the diamonds, it is a lot easier to then break out and escape.
Hon Ashir (Mishna Terumos 5:1) asks: but this is not universally true. A number of Rishonim hold that a food item can be as small as a kzayis in order to become impure, but must be a larger size—a k’beitzah—to impose impurity on another item (see Tosafos Yom Tov, Ohalos 13:5). If so, doesn’t the logic of our Gemara apply—if it can become impure with only the volume of a kzayis, surely it should be able to impart impurity?
He offers a logical distinction. When we are discussing the bone, we are dealing with a bridge or doorway that transmits impurity. However, when we are discussing the volume of food that can contain and/or transmit impurity, it is different. The ability of volume to contain impurity and transmit it is not an issue of a gate or door; it is about a degree of assigned validity (machshiv) that makes it susceptible to impurity. On that level, a smaller volume might be choshuv enough to contract impurity but not enough to transmit it. Using the earlier metaphor of breaking into a vault, the sack that you put the loot in might be strong enough to hold the loot but might tear if you try to carry it.
Psychologically speaking, there is also truth to these concepts. It is much harder for someone to learn a new idea or thought than it is to express it to others (once it has been adequately understood). The process of changing one’s mind and letting go of prior assumptions, as well as the actual cognitive load of integrating the information, is far more complex than expressing what was learned. That is in regard to expression, which is the conduit or doorway. However, a weaker, less confident person (metaphorically a kzayis) is easier to convince than for such a person to convince others.
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Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation
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Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, LMFT, DHL is a psychotherapist who works with high conflict couples and families. He can be reached via email at simchafeuerman@gmail.com