daf bit: Chullin 123

[cellio]

If one has become ritually impure through contact with an animal corpse (the g'mara specifically discusses tanning hides), he is supposed to immerse in a mikvah before doing certain acts. But what if there is no mikvah nearby? R. Abbahu said in the name of Reish Lakish: for kneading bread (for the levites?), for prayer, and for washing the hands before meals, if he can find a mikvah within four mils he must do so and otherwise he is exempt. R. Yose ben R. Hanina said: this applies only for going forward -- within the next four mils -- but he need not turn back even one mil. From this R. Aha ben Yaakov concluded that if it is a mil he need not turn back but if it is less than a mil he must. (123a)

(A mil seems to be approximately a kilometer.) From the explanations of R. Yose and R. Aha I infer that we are talking about a traveler, for whom backtracking would be an imposition.

Comments

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

for kneading bread my guess would be for taking challah.

[cellio]

Interesting idea. My first thought was to say "but you take challah after kneading, so why restrict at kneading?", but if you're going to knead (a sufficient quantity) you must take challah, so maybe it's a way of saying "don't start down that path"?

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

The problem is that if someone is tamei while kneading then the dough becomes tamei because they are handling it, so then they can't take challah properly.

[cellio]

Ah, got it now. Thanks!

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

If one has come in contact with something that makes him ritually impure (such as a corpse),

Clearly you mean the corpse of a swarming creature, since if it were the corpse of a human being he would need a red heifer's ashes.

[cellio]

Oh, thanks. Something was bothering me a little about this but I couldn't put my finger on it. The g'mara got here from a discussion of tanning hides (so not swarming, but creatures), so I guess it's talking only about that case here? (Will edit.)

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

Or anything else ritually impure: a metzora (someone with tzaraat, the affliction mistranslated as leprosy), a woman who recently gave birth, a neveila (an animal which died of something other than ritual slaughter), a menstruant, etc.

The neveila is probably the connection, but the rule would apply to any person who became ritually impure in a way that requires a mikveh to become pure (so basically anything but a human corpse).