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Week 32 - Thursday - 6 July 2000

YOMA: CHAPTER 8 : MISHNA 2

If a person eats the bulk of a large date including its stone, or if he drinks a mouthful - he is liable. All foods combine to make up the bulk of a large date and all drinks combine to a mouthful. What one eats and drinks does not combine.

Kehati

This mishnah teaches for which amount of food and drink consumed on Yom Kippur a person incurs the punishment of karet.

If a person eats - on Yom Kippur, the bulk of a large date including its stone - which is somewhat less than the bulk of an egg and more than an olive or if he drinks - on Yom Kippur, a mouthful - the amount of his entire oral cavity. The Gemara explains that this is not really a mouthful, but so much that if he moves it to one side, it looks like a mouthful; for an average person, this is less than a revi'it, he is liable - to karet, if performed intentionally and a sin-offering if performed unintentionally. The reason for these quantities (although the normal quantity defining "eating" is the bulk of an olive and that for "drinking" is a revi'it), is that regarding Yom Kippur the Torah does not use the term "eating," but "affliction" ("For whatever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off..."), and it was perfectly clear to the Sages that if a person does not eat at least as much as a large date, his mind will not be at ease, and he is still considered to be "afflicted," but eating as large as a date's bulk, even though it does not satisfy him, nevertheless clears the mind of an afflicted person, and therefore he is liable for eating this amount. Regarding, however, the drinking of "a mouthful," even though for an average person this is less than a revi'it, this amount nevertheless clears the mind of the afflicted person, and therefore the person who drinks "a mouthful" is liable.

All foods combine to make up the bulk of a date - if a person ate less than the bulk of a large date, of each of two foods, but together they add up to the bulk of a large date, and the interval between the first and second eating was not longer than the time required to eat a peras (the amount of three eggs, according to Rambam; see Eruv. 8:2), he is liable, and all drinks combine to a mouthful - if a person drank from each of two types of drink a quantity less than a mouthful, but together they add up to a mouthful then, "if from the beginning of the first drinking until the end of the last drinking it did not take longer than the time it takes to drink a revi'it" (Rambam; see Rabbeinu Nissim), then they join together to make him liable to karet or a sacrifice.

What one eats - e.g., the bulk of a large date, and drinks - e.g., one half of a mouthful, does not combine - and he is exempt, because this does not cause his mind to be at ease.

Rabbi Yohanan and Resh Lakish discuss in the Gemara whether half a quantity is prohibited by Torah law. According to Rabbi Yohanan, it is prohibited, but a person is liable to a penalty only for the full quantity. Resh Lakish holds that half a quantity is permitted by Torah law, but prohibited by Rabbinic law. Hence, the Gemara explains that this is why the mishnah (8:1l, above) states, "[On] Yom Kippur eating and drinking...are prohibited," though they are not merely prohibited, but also carry the penalty of karet, because the mishnah refers to eating and drinking half the amounts. According to another interpretation, the mishnah used the term "prohibited" because of the other afflictions, the transgressions of which are merely prohibitions.

YOMA: CHAPTER 8 : MISHNA 3

If a person ate and drank in one state of unawareness - he is liable only to one sin-offering. If he ate and performed an activity - he is liable to two sin-offerings. If he ate foods that are not fit for eating or drank liquids that are not fit for drinking, or drank brine or fish-brine - he is exempt.

Kehati

If a person ate and drank - on Yom Kippur, in one state of unawareness - he did not know that it was Yom Kippur, or he did not know that it is forbidden to eat and to drink on Yom Kippur, and he became aware of it after he had eaten and drunk he is liable only one sin-offering - because drinking is included in the category of "eating," and he therefore transgressed only one prohibition, that of failing to fast. But if it became known to him between the eating and the drinking, or between one act of eating and a second act of eating, and he forgot a second time, then he is liable to two sin-offerings, for there have been two states of unawareness.

If he ate and performed an activity - on Yom Kippur, even in one state of unawareness, he is liable to two sin-offerings - because he transgressed two different prohibitions, as it is written, "Howbeit on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement...and you shall afflict your souls...And you shall do no manner of work in that same day...For whatever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from his people. And whatever soul it be that does any manner of work in that same day, that soul will I destroy from among his people" (Lev. 23:27-30).

If he ate foods that are not fit for eating - such as bitter herbs, which are unfit for human consumption, or drank liquids that are not fit for drinking - such as raw vinegar or drank brine - the liquid that issues forth from salted fish, or fish-brine - the liquid from pickled fish, he is exempt - from karet; however, he has transgressed a Rabbinic prohibition, and he is liable makat mardut (lashes liable to by Rabbinic law).

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