Tum'at Okhalin - Chapter 11

When one harvests grapes to sell in the marketplace or dry, they do not become susceptible to impurity unless they come into contact with liquids when the owner desires that they do, as other foods.

If, by contrast, one harvests grapes to crush them and make wine, they become susceptible to impurity even if they had no contact with liquids at all. If they were touched by an impure object, they contract impurity. This is a decree of Rabbinic origin.

Why did the Sages decree that when one harvests grapes for the wine press, they become susceptible to impurity? For there are times when a person enters into his vineyard to see if the grapes are ready to harvest. He will squeeze a cluster of grapes to check them and then cast it on the grapes that have already been harvested, for all of the grapes are prepared to be crushed for their juice. Moreover, he is not careful regarding the cluster and will allow it to be pressed by the other grapes, causing its liquid to flow out. He is careful concerning the liquid, desiring that it not flow out on the ground. Thus all the grapes will become susceptible to impurity because of it. Therefore our Sages decreed that when anyone harvests grapes for the wine press, they become susceptible to ritual impurity.

When a person harvests grapes with the intent that, if he will not find purchasers for them, he will bring them back to the wine press, they do not become susceptible to ritual impurity until they are brought into the wine press. Similarly, olives that are brought into the olive press become susceptible to impurity, as will be explained.

When a person harvests grapes and places them in a storage pit or spreads them out on leaves, they become susceptible to impurity because of the liquids that are released by them, since he is concerned with the liquids. That is the reason he placed them on leaves or in a storage pit that is like a cistern. Therefore, if someone who was impure or merely whose hands were impure takes some of them, he imparts impurity to them.

If, however, he harvested the grapes and placed them in baskets or spread them out on the earth, they do not become susceptible to impurity, because he is not concerned with the liquid they release. Therefore an impure person may take them and partake of them. Even though they have split open and juice is dripping from them into the wine press, the grapes in the wine press are pure, because the grapes from which the liquid dripped were not made susceptible to impurity and were harvested for the purpose of consumption.

A similar ruling applies in the following instance. A person took the grapes from the baskets or from the earth where they were spread out and partook of them, leaving over a se'ah or two which he cast into the winepress. Even though the juice is sprinkled over the grapes in the wine press, they are not made susceptible to ritual impurity.

When one takes grapes that were in baskets or spread out on the earth to crush for wine, they become susceptible to ritual impurity. Hence they must be taken with pure hands, lest an impure person take from them and impart impurity to them.

When a vineyard grows in a beit hapras and one harvests the grapes for the wine press, they are not considered as susceptible to impurity as long as they are in the beit hapras. The rationale is that since the impurity of a beit hapras is a Rabbinic decree and the concept that when a person harvests grapes for the wine press they become susceptible to ritual impurity is a Rabbinic decree, the Sages were lenient regarding this decree in this instance and did not consider the grapes as susceptible to ritual impurity until they were taken out of the beit hapras.

Accordingly, a person who desires to harvest grapes growing in a beit hapras for the wine press in a state of ritual purity must do the following. He must purify the harvesters and the utensils, having the ashes of the red heifer sprinkled upon them on the third and seventh day. They must wait until nightfall of the seventh day so that it is obvious that leniency is being taken with the impurity of a beit hapras, only because it is a doubtful situation. Afterwards, they enter, harvest the grapes, and take them outside the beit hapras. Other pure porters receive the grapes from them and take them to the wine press. If the harvesters touch the porters, the porters contract ritual impurity and make the grapes impure. For the people in the beit hapras are impure and they impart impurity to those outside, causing them to be considered as primary derivatives of impurity. They then impart impurity to the grapes, for they became susceptible to ritual impurity when they were taken out of the beit hapras.

When a person harvests olives with the intent of pickling them or selling them on the market place, they do not become susceptible to ritual impurity unless they come into contact with liquids as desired by their owner, as is the law with regard to other foods. Similarly, when a person harvests olives to crush in an olive press, they do not become susceptible to ritual impurity until the work required to prepare them for pressing is complete.

Why are olives susceptible to ritual impurity when the work required to prepare them for pressing is complete? Because it can be assumed that they became susceptible to impurity because of contact with the fluid of the olives, for the owner desires it so that the olives will soften and be easier to crush. Before the work required to prepare them for pressing is complete, the fluid released by the olives does not make them susceptible to ritual impurity, because it is not desired.

Accordingly, when the work required to prepare olives for pressing has not been completed and impure liquids fall upon them, only the places touched by the liquids contract impurity, as is the law regarding all foods that have not become susceptible to impurity. When impure liquids fall upon them after the work required to prepare them for pressing has been completed, all the olives contract impurity. The rationale is that the impure liquids impart impurity to the fluid that flows from them and that fluid imparts impurity to all of them, for the fluid that is released by them after the work required to prepare them for pressing has been completed is considered as a liquid in the context of the laws of impurity and makes foods susceptible to impurity and imparts impurity to them.

When there is a jug of olives that are salted and pressed together, it is necessary to make a hole in the jug so that that fluid will drain off. If he does not make such a hole, the olives become susceptible to ritual impurity. If he made a hole for the liquid to drain off, but it became plugged by olive dregs and thus the olives became saturated with this fluid, they are not susceptible to impurity for their exposure to liquids was not desired by the owner, as indicated by his making the hole.

When is the work to prepare olives for pressing considered to be completed? When the entire harvest has been completed and they are deposited in one place, prepared to be pressed. Even though liquids did not fall upon them and liquids did not emerge from them, since the work necessary to prepare them was completed, they become susceptible to ritual impurity. Before the work necessary to prepare them was completed, by contrast, even though they were crushed, secreted liquids, and became stuck together because of the liquids, they do not become susceptible to impurity.

If one completed harvesting his olives, but intended to purchase other olives in the future and add them to them, even if only a kab or two kabbim, they are not susceptible to ritual impurity. If, however, he acts with guile, they become susceptible to ritual impurity.

If he completed his purchase of olives, but intended to borrow money and purchase more, but he was prevented by forces beyond his control or he became involved in a celebration and therefore did not add more, it is still considered as if the work necessary to prepare the olives for pressing was not completed and the olives are not susceptible to ritual impurity. Even though zavim and zavot tread upon them, they remain pure.

When a person stores his olives in two olive presses, when he completes loading one of them, the olives in that press become susceptible to ritual impurity.

When a person harvests his olives in the Upper Galilee and he has the intent to bring them to the Lower Galilee in the future, they do not become susceptible to ritual impurity until he brings them there. This applies provided he had this intent before he harvested them. If he does not have this intent until after he harvests them, his intent is of no consequence and they become susceptible to impurity. If he completed storing his olives, but had the intent of selling them in the future, they do not become susceptible to impurity. If he had the intent of covering them with leaves, they become susceptible to impurity.

The following law applies when a person purchases a storage vat of olives from a gentile. Even if there are olives to harvest on the earth, he should process the olives in a state of impurity, for it can be assumed that the gentile completed the harvest of that vat.

The word of an unlearned person is accepted when he says: "I did not complete storing olives in this vat."

When a person wishes to take and crush for oil some olives from a storage vat that has not been completely filled, he may take them while ritually impure, bring them to the olive press in a state of ritual impurity, and cover the olives remaining in the storage vat in a state of ritual impurity, because the olives in the storage vat had not become susceptible to impurity.

When a person places his olives in an olive press, so that they will soften and be easy to crush, they become susceptible to ritual impurity. If he left them to soften, so that he will salt them after they soften, they do not become susceptible to ritual impurity, for his intent is to pickle them.

When a person rubs or breaks apart olives that are terumah with impure hands, he disqualifies them, because breaking them open completes the work associated with them. If, however, he broke open the olives with the intent of salting them, they do not become susceptible to impurity. Similarly, if he broke them open in order to check them to see whether they have oil and are ready to be harvested, they do not become susceptible to impurity.

When a person leaves olives on a roof for them to desiccate and dry out, they do not become susceptible to impurity even if they are cubit high. If he brought them into the house to spoil some even though he will take them to the roof in the future or he brought them to the roof in a mound to spoil, even though he will break it open and spread them out to dry in the future, they become susceptible to ritual impurity. If he brought them into his house until he will make his roof fit for them or until he takes them to another place, they do not become susceptible to ritual impurity, because the work involved in their preparation has not been completed.

When a person stores his olives in a domain belonging to an unlearned person, and locks and seals the door, he need not suspect that the unlearned person has another key and seal. Even if he discovers the seal broken and the lock open, the olives are pure. The seal mentioned could be even a stone or a sliver of wood.

If there were holes and cracks in the storeroom, he need not suspect that the unlearned person inserted a rod and moved the olives. If there are windows four handbreadths by four handbreadths, they are considered as an entrance.

How should a person who crushed his olives in a state of impurity and, afterwards, sought to purify the utensils in the olive-press and the borders from the impure liquids that were absorbed in them act?

Keilim made of wood or stone should be washed thoroughly. If they are from reeds or the like, they should be dried. If they are from resinous cane, they should be left for twelve months, exposed to hot water or water in which olives were cooked, or placed under a drainpipe of running water or into a stream of flowing water for 12 hours.

Afterwards, he should immerse in a mikveh those keilim that require immersion and use them in a state of purity.