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If one touches a marrow bone of a human corpse, he receives the impurity of the dead body. Actually, that is true even if the bone does not contain marrow, but since the rules below will mention specifically marrow bones, our teacher (Tanna) chose to start with it, for symmetry. As little as a barley-corn of a human bone transmits impurity. This impurity requires the ashes of the red heifer and two immersions in the mikvah, for the person to be purified.
The bone marrow of a sacrifice that became a leftover also conveys impurity. In contrast to the impurity of the human bone, this impurity is decreed by the Sages. They wanted the priests to be alacritous in their duties and eat the sacrifices on time, not leaving them over. They also wanted to prevent the priests from taking personal revenge on the people by bringing their sacrifices with the wrong intent of eating them beyond allotted time – and intent that would ruin the sacrifice. The Sages thus decreed impurity on the hand of the priests for these violations, which would deter them, since they would not be able to continue their service for the day.
Art: David The Younger Teniers - Sausage-making
If a hide has an olive's volume of dead meat (nevelah) attached to it, that piece of meat is ritually impure. If one touches it through a sliver attached to it, the sliver acts as a handle and transmits impurity to the person. A hair on the other side of the hide is regarded as a protector to the meat and transmits impurity from it, since it goes through the hide.
If there were two half-olive volumes of meat attached to the hide, they add up when they are carried, and thus transmit impurity to the one who carries the hide. However, if one touches them, even at the same time, he does not become impure, because these are two separate acts of contact – these are the words of Rabbi Ishmael. Rabbi Akiva says that the two half-olive volumes of meat are nullified by the hide and do not transmit impurity at all. That is because through his actions of separating meat from the hide, the butcher showed that he does not consider the pieces significant. Even Rabbi Akiva agrees that if one stuck the two pieces of meat on a splinter and moved them, he becomes impure.
Art: Bartolomeo Passerotti - The Butcher's Shop
The hide of an animal, although not in the same category as its flesh, can nevertheless transmit ritual impurity to and from the animal. In the case of a kosher animal, a person might be impure, and he may transmit his impurity to the carcass. In the case of a non-kosher animal, its meat is ritually impure, and it may transmit impurity to the person working with it.
If one is flaying a dead animal, whether domestic or wild, kosher or non-kosher, small or large, and his goal is to make a spread out of it, he first cuts the hide from head to hindquarters. The beginning of flaying is the hardest, and until he peels enough hide to grasp the carcass, the hide is considered a handle, and it transmits impurity both ways. If he wants to make a leather flask and strips the hide whole from the neck, the hardest is flaying the breast, so until the breast the hide is considered a handle and it conveys impurity. However, if in flaying for a flask, he begins from the hind legs, then all of the flayed hide is considered a handle, until he flays the breast.
Art: Vincent Van Gogh - Still Life With Four Stone Bottles Flask And White Cup
The hide of an animal is normally not considered as flesh, since it is tough and inedible. Therefore, though the meat connected to it may carry the impurity of dead meat (nevelah), the hide itself does not carry this impurity.
In contrast, the skin of the creatures discussed below is treated as their flesh. The first one is that of a human. Thus, the skin of a human corpse conveys corpse impurity. Incidentally, the human skin is prohibited for consumption, like its flesh. Actually, a corpse is prohibited for all benefit.
The skin of the domestic pig is soft and is commonly eaten, and is thus treated as flesh, and according to Rabbi Yehudah also the skin of a wild pig. Other skins are: the skin of the hump of a tender camel, the soft skin of the head of a tender calf, the skin of the hooves, the skin of the pudendum, the skin of a fetus, and the skin of the eight reptiles mentioned in the Torah.
If any of these skins were worked into leather, they become ritually pure, except for human skin. Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri does not consider the skin of the eight reptiles as flesh.
Art: Eugène-Alexis Girardet - Camel Train By An Oasis At Dawn
When a Jew slaughters a kosher animal, it is considered dead, even while it is convulsing. The Sages later prohibited eating meat from a convulsing animal, but the fact remains that it is already considered food, which makes it susceptible to ritual impurity. Should it, while convulsing, touch a dead lizard, it would acquire the ritual impurity of food.
If a Jew slaughters a non-kosher animal, then while it is convulsing, it cannot be eaten by anybody: by a Jew, because it is non-kosher, and by a non-Jew, because slaughter does not make it permitted for him, and he must wait till the animal completely dies. Nevertheless, if a Jew slaughters a non-kosher on behalf of a non-Jew, then, since the Jew's intention is to prepare it as food for the non-Jew, it, too, is susceptible to ritual impurity of foods while it is convulsing. Thus, paradoxically, it cannot be eaten, but it is already considered food. The same would be if a non-Jew slaughters a kosher animal.
If one sodomizes a convulsing animal, he is liable, since it is considered partially alive, as proved by the absence of the impurity of dead meat until it dies.
Art: Simon Van Den Berg - Minding the animals
Previously we learned that gravy combines with meat for the volume of an egg, necessary to convey ritual impurity. Rava said, “Gravy is the fat that rises to the top of meat sauce.” Abbaye said to him, “That would be food in its own right, not only in combination with meat! Rather, it is congealed glaze, which people don't eat by itself, but only with meat.” Why does it have to be congealed? Didn't Resh Lakish say that salad dressing combines with the salad to transgress the fast of Yom Kippur? – That would not be a contradiction: on Yom Kippur all depends on alleviating the affliction of hunger, and the dressing helps that, whereas only congealed glaze combines with foods.
If one cooked blood to make it solid and then ate it, or if he dissolved the prohibited fat and then ate that, he is liable. Now, we understand about blood: by his actions he showed that he values it as solid and it has the status of food in his eyes, but the fat is only prohibited to eat, not to drink!? As Resh Lakish explained, the extra word “that soul” prohibits drinking the fat.
Art: Aurelio Zingoni - The Hungry Chimney Sweep
Earlier we saw that there can be light and strict impurity. Light impurity is that of foods: it requires the larger volume of an egg to be transmitted, and it can be transmitted only to other foods. Strict impurity is that of dead meat (nevelah): it requires a smaller volume of an olive to be transmitted, and it can make ritually impure even people and utensils.
Furthermore, impurity can be transmitted not only through direct contact with the item, but also through contact with its handle or its protector. A handle is an appendage that can be used to grasp the item, such as the stem of a fruit. A protector is an appendage that protects the item, such as the peel of a fruit.
Thus, if the source of impurity touches the stem or peel of a susceptible fruit, impurity is delivered to the fruit via its attached handle or protector, even though they are not food and would not be susceptible to impurity in their own right. Conversely, if the stem or peel of an impure fruit touches a susceptible item, the impurity is delivered to the item via the fruit's handle or protector.
Art: Ignace Henri Jean Fantin-Latour - Still Life, Hyacinths and Fruit
