Study Bava Kamma folio 25B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
are the ziva of a zav, and his spittle, and his semen, and his urine, and the blood of a menstruating woman, all of which impart impurity both by touching and by carrying.
The Talmud questions this assertion: But perhaps here too the reason for the severity of ritual impurity of the semen is indeed because it is impossible for it to emerge without small drops of ziva accompanying it, but it is not due to the impurity of the semen itself. The Talmud rejects this opinio
The Talmud returns to the primary discussion concerning the principle: It is sufficient for the conclusion that emerges from an a fortiori inference to be like its source. Rav Aḥa of Difti said to Ravina: But there is this tanna who does not apply the principle: It is sufficient, at all, even thoug
And the tanna cites this a fortiori inference both to derive the halakha that the mat becomes ritually impure with impurity that lasts until nightfall, as it would if it were to come into contact with a zav, and to derive that the mat becomes ritually impure with impurity that lasts for 7 days, as
Ravina said to Rav Aḥa: This question was already raised by Rav Naḥman bar Zekharya to Abaye, and Abaye said to him in response: This tanna does not derive the halakha with regard to the mat through an a fortiori inference from the case of a zav. Rather, he derives it from the halakha of a mat that