Daf Yomi

The Frankfurt Jews’ Street Dilemma

“All That Are Metam’ei Meis B’Ohel…”

(Chulin 124b)

Our sugya mentions the halachos of impurity due to the presence of a deceased in a building or structure – tum’as meis b’ohel. Let us explore and become acquainted with an important and basic disagreement among the poskim regarding these halachos.

Impurity Because of the Deceased

Of all the halachos concerning purity and impurity, tum’as meis is just about the only one relevant to our era. It is of great relevance to kohanim,whoare forbidden to become tamei meis. One of the issues is tum’as ohel – impurity in a structure (or lit. impurity via a tent), through which a kohen becomes impure even if he doesn’t touch the deceased. Tum’as ohel can come about in three ways: (1) if a person leans over the deceased; (2) if the deceased is above a person; (3) if the person and the deceased are under the same roof. To become impure in the third manner, the person and the deceased do not have to be in the same room. If there are two rooms in the same building with an opening between them, a kohen becomes impure in one room although the deceased is in the other. Tum’as meis can even pass between floors via stairwells or elevator pits as long as these are not entirely enclosed.

The author of Pnei Yehoshua details a surprising problem brought to him when he was appointed as the rabbi of Frankfurt (Responsa Pnei Yehoshua 10, also cited at the end of Pnei Yehoshua on Kesubos, Tnuas Bnei Torah edition, etc.). We present the problem in detail since it gives us a lot of important information concerning the halachos of impurity.

The Two Rows of Houses

At that time, the Jews of Frankfurt lived in two rows of houses along the “Jews’ Street.” Once, the PneiYehoshua was walking on the street when some learned kohanim greeted him and told him that they had suffered for many years from having to leave their homes if someone passed away in a house in either one of the rows. It also happened that a family of kohanim was preparing a wedding repast when an infant passed away in a certain house. Having no choice, they almost held the wedding meal in the open yard until they persuaded the infant’s father to take the body out to the yard where there was no structure overhead and the impurity could not pass to all the houses.

The Pipe Connecting the Houses

The PneiYehoshuawondered about the matter as there was no visible connection between the two rows to pass the impurity, and he didn’t understand why the members of the community had to be so strict. He was then told that in each house there was an opening to a drainage pipe connecting all the houses, and therefore the kohanim quickly left their homes when a corpse was in one of the rows as the impurity passed from row to row through the pipe’s openings.

ThePneiYehoshuawas the first halachic authority to discuss such a question, which arose due to the development of municipal sewage. He was followed by the author of Yeshuos Yaakov (Orach Chayyim 343), who agreed with him, and the Chasam Sofer, zt”l (Responsa, Yoreh De’ah 340), who strongly disagreed with them. Their disagreement concerns the explanation of the Mishna, as follows.

Everyone knows that someone who stays in a house containing a Jewish corpse becomes impure. However, if the corpse is in a room with a closed door, the impurity does not pass to other rooms. But if the room where the deceased lies has a hole in the wall a handbreadth wide (see Rambam, Hilchos Tum’as Hameis 4:1), the impurity spreads to the next room and, if there are similar openings from room to room, it spreads throughout the entire building. This halacha is agreed upon by all.

One Under the Roof of a Corpse Becomes Impure

The PneiYehoshuaasserts that to become impure, one must be in the same building or structure (ohel) as the corpse. If a person is in the same building with the corpse and there is a separation (chatzitzah) between them, he does not become impure. If the separation is removed, and an opening a handbreadth wide is formed, he is again considered to be in the same structure and becomes impure. In other words, the hole does not spread the impurity to places where it cannot reach, but its presence, even at that minimal breach, overrides the separation that until now prevented the impurity from spreading from its current location in the structure.

As such, it is obvious that where there is no breach, the pipe cannot spread the impurity to another house because the rule is that the corpse and the person becoming impure must be under the same roof, and since there is no roof uniting the two rows of houses, the impurity would not spread.

The Impurity Spreads Elsewhere

However, the ChasamSofer maintains that the hole can transfer the impurity elsewhere, even where the corpse is not present at all. He says that there is a halacha that impurity spreads through every possible opening until it reaches a place without a roof. Therefore, in his opinion, the pipe can spread the impurity to the other row of houses even though that is considered another place, as impurity also spreads through openings a handbreadth wide. (We should mention that this issue has another implication; see Chiddushei Rabbi Shmuel on Bava Basra 16, os 4, Ta’am V’da’as on Rambam, Hilchos Tum’as Hameis 14:1 and 20:3; and see ibid. – that it is possible to explain the Chasam Sofer’s opinion in another manner.) As for the halacha, most Acharonim follow the ChasamSofer (see ibid., s.k. 65).