The levels of ritual unreadiness TB Sotah 29

 If you’re interested in tumah (טומאה-ritual unreadiness) and taharah (טהרה-ritual readiness), daf TB Sotah 29 and 30 is your cup of tea. It’s a hard and complicated daf that explains how the rabbis reached their conclusions about the transmission of tumah. I’m just going to share with you the outcome.

An av hatumah is the source of contamination. It could be a dead sheretz, one of the creeping crawlers enumerated in the Torah, a zav, a man who had an abnormal seminal discharge from the male sexual organ, or a human corpse.

If anything comes in contact with an av hatumah it becomes a rishon letumah (ראשון לטומאה) commonly just called a rishon. A rishon can contaminate a person, food, or liquids.

If a person, food, liquids comes in contact with a rishon, it becomes a sheni letumah (שני לטומאה). When non-sacramental food or drink (חוּלִּין) becomes a sheni, it can no longer contaminate anything with one exception. As an aside, Rabbi Akiva is the only Sage who holds that a sheni can contaminate other food or drink to the level of a shelishi (שְּׁלִישִׁי). His view was completely rejected.

Terumah is the exception because it has a higher level of sanctity than just regular food. If a sheni touches terumah it becomes a shelishi needs to be burned. It can no longer be eaten by the kohanim.

Because anything that sacrificed on the altar has even a higher level of sanctity, if a shelishi touches a sacrifice, it becomes a reveii (לִרְבִיעִי). The contamination stops here.

We learn the laws of the sheni directly from verses in the Torah. The rabbis applied the rule “A conclusion drawn from a minor or lenient law, to a major or more strict one- מִקַּל וָחֹֽמֶר” to deduce the laws of a shelishi and reveii.