לזכות ידיד נפשי הרב גיל אמיר בן פנינה וכל בני ביתו!
The גמרא in Bava Kamma [2b] distinguishes between the אבות הטומאה and their תולדות; the אבות are מטמא אדם וכלים, while the תולדות are not.
Asks Tosfos: A טמא מת makes a כלי מתכת - metal utensil, טמא (by touching it) with the same level of טומאה as he is טמא; the כלי מתכת is an אב הטומאה, just as the טמא מת is, for the rule is that חרב הרי הוא כחלל - ‘the sword is equivalent to the corpse’ [and it is also equivalent to a טמא מת - the person who came into contact with the corpse if he came into contact with the טמא מת]. It is therefore evident that some of the תולדות of the אבות הטומאה are similar to the אבות. Why does the גמרא state that the תולדות of טומאה are not כיוצא בהן? They ARE כיוצא בהן because we see that the תולדה [i.e. כלי מתכת] has the same status as the אב [i.e. the טמא מת].
Tosfos is perplexing - if you think about it. The definition of אב הטומאה is NOT that something is טמא independently מצד עצמו and not from an external source. If that were the case, someone who was טמא מת would not be an אב הטומאה because he is only טמא because of the corpse with which he had contact. It must be that the definition of אב הטומאה is something or someone that it is מטמא אדם וכלים. That being the case, כלי מתכת would be defined very clearly as אב הטומאה because they are also מטמא אדם וכלים [due to the rule of חרב הרי הוא כחלל]. So what is the question of Tosfos that כלי מתכת proves that תולדותיהן כיוצא בהן? They are not תולדות at all!!:-)?
#ohmeohmy!!
