Sotah 28 – Laws of purity

Laws of purity are learned from the laws of a suspected wife. Here's how. Her innocence is in doubt because she went into a private hiding place with a particular man. But her purity would not be in doubt if she was talking with him in public.

In the same way, if there is a doubt about some other purity, such as, for example, a man who might have touched a dead rat, the question now is whether he is considered ritually impure. If this happened in the street, he is declared pure; if it occurred in a cave, he is impure. This unusual law goes beyond the regular rule of "let's treat it as a doubt." There is no doubt that he is definitely pure in the street but impure in the cave.

Another law can be learned by noticing that a suspected wife is a human being who can be asked about her status. So with other situations, the distinction between happenings in the street and in a cave applies only to a human who can be questioned. For example, he is unsure whether he touched a rat. Then the rule about the street or cave applies. But if he is sure that he touched the rat, and the doubt is about the rat itself, such as whether it was alive at this time or already dead – then he is always declared pure because a rat cannot be asked.

Art: Two Rats by Vincent Van Gogh