YOMA - 083a – יום הכפורים – פרק שמיני - יומא, פג ע”א

(Tehillim 58) “The wicked are estranged from the womb.”^[1]

זורו רשעים מרחם - They became strangers and estranged from their Father in heaven.

Shabsai, the hoarder of produce, came forth from her.

אצר פירי - To drive up prices; and it was taught (Bava Basra 90b): One may not hoard produce in Eretz Yisrael, nor anything that is a necessity of life, because they drive up prices.

A sick person is fed according to the word of experts.^[2]

Rabbi Yannai said: If the sick person says, “I need [to eat],” and the doctor says, “He does not need,” we listen to the sick person.

What is the reason?

(Mishlei 14) “The heart knows its own bitterness.”

That is obvious!

You might have said that the doctor knows better;

[so] he teaches us [otherwise].

If the doctor says, “He needs,” and the sick person says, “I do not need,” we listen to the doctor.

What is the reason?

Confusion has taken hold of him.

תונבא - Folly – אשטורדישו"ן^[3] – because of his illness.

We learned: “A sick person is fed according to experts” – according to experts, yes; according to himself, no; according to experts, yes; according to one expert, no!

על פי בקיאין - Two [experts]: by one expert, no; by himself, no – a refutation of Rabbi Yannai on both counts.

Here we are dealing with a case where he says, “I do not need.”

הכא במאי עסקינן - Where the sick person says, “I do not need,” and our Mishnah teaches that we listen to the doctors.

Then let [the Mishnah] add “according to one expert”!

וניספו ליה על פי בקי - For Rabbi Yannai said that we listen to the doctor even when there is only one.

It is needed where there is another [expert] with him who says, “He does not need.”

“He is fed according to experts”:^[4]

That is obvious! It is a case of doubt about life, and doubt about life is treated leniently!^[5]

It is needed where there are two others with him who say, “He does not need.”

And even though Rav Safra said, “Two are like a hundred, and a hundred are like two,”^[6] that applies to testimony, but regarding assessment^[7] we follow the number of opinions.

ואע"ג דאמר רב ספרא - For when the Rabbis said, “Two are like a hundred and a hundred are like two,” they said it regarding testimony, but regarding assessment we follow the number of opinions. Our Mishnah teaches us that when we say, “Follow the number of opinions,” that is in an assessment of money, such as the appraisal made for a creditor; but in assessing a sick person, even though the majority say he does not need, since there are two who say he needs, doubt about life is treated leniently.

And that applies to an assessment of money, but here it is a case of doubt about life.

But since the latter clause teaches, “If there are no experts there, he is fed according to himself,” it follows that the first clause speaks where he says, “I need”!

מכלל דרישא דאמר צריך - And even so, our Mishnah teaches: according to experts, yes; according to himself, no.

Words are missing, and this is what it teaches: When was this said? Where he says, “I do not need.” But if he says, “I need,” then if there are not two experts there but only one who says, “He does not need,” he is fed according to himself.

במה דברים אמורים - That he is fed according to experts – i.e., we need experts where he says, “I do not need,” and the experts say he needs, then he is fed. But if he says, “I need,” if there are not two experts there who say he does not need, but only one, he is fed according to himself, like Rabbi Yannai, who said we listen to the sick person.

Mar bar Rav Ashi said: Wherever he says, “I need,” even if there are a hundred who say, “He does not need,” we listen to him, as it says, “The heart knows its own bitterness.”

מר בר רב אשי אמר - Do not explain this latter clause in this way, which implies that where he says, “I need,” and there are two who say he does not need, we do not obey him; we do not say so, but rather, where he says, “I need,” even if there are a hundred who say he does not need, we obey him. What is the reason? “The heart knows its own bitterness.”

We learned: “If there are no experts there, he is fed according to himself”:^[8] the reason is that there are no experts; but if there are experts, no!

הכי גר' - The reading is: We learned: “If there are no experts there, he is fed according to himself” – the reason is that there are no experts; but if there are experts, no! This is what it means: When was this said? Where he says, “I do not need.” But if he says, “I need,” there are no experts there at all, he is fed, etc. “There are no experts there” means their expertise counts for nothing.

This is what it means: When was this said? Where he says, “I do not need.” But if he says, “I need,” the experts there count for nothing at all, and he is fed according to himself, as it says, “The heart knows its own bitterness.”

Mishnah

One who is seized by bulmos^[9] is fed even impure foods until his eyes light up.

מתני' מי שאחזו בולמוס - An illness that seizes a person from hunger; his eyes grow dim and he is in danger of dying; and when his sight returns, it is known that he is healed.

One bitten by a mad dog^[10] is not fed the lobe of its liver,^[11]

כלב שוטה - This is explained in the Gemara.

אין מאכילין מחצר כבד שלו - Even though doctors practise this cure, it is not a proven cure that would permit him the prohibition of an impure animal for it.

and Rabbi Masya ben Charash permits it.

ור' מתיא בן חרש מתיר - He holds that it is a proven cure.

Rabbi Masya ben Charash said further: One with a pain in his throat – medicine may be put into his mouth on Shabbos, because it is a doubt about life, and every doubt about life overrides Shabbos.

If rubble fell on someone, and it is doubtful whether he is there or not, whether he is alive or dead, whether a gentile or a Jew – the heap is cleared off him.^[12]

If they found him alive, they clear it; and if he is dead, they leave him.

Gemara

The Rabbis taught: From when would they know that his eyes had lit up?^[13]

From when he can tell good from bad.

Abaye said: And by taste.

גמ' אמר אביי ובטעמא - From when he knows how to tell the taste of a good dish from the taste of a bad dish.

The Rabbis taught: One seized by bulmos is fed the lightest [prohibition] first:^[14]

מאכילין אותו הקל הקל - If we do not have enough permitted food for his need, and there are kinds of forbidden food before us, he is fed the lightest of them first.

Tevel and neveilah – he is fed neveilah;^[15]

tevel and shevi’is – shevi’is;^[16]

טבל ושביעית מאכילין אותו שביעית - After the time of bi’ur; for tevel carries death at the hands of Heaven, while shevi’is is a positive commandment.

tevel and terumah^[17] – this is a dispute of Tannaim, as it was taught: He is fed tevel and is not fed terumah; Ben Teima says: terumah and not tevel.

Rabbah said: Where it is possible [to feed him] with chullin, all agree that we fix it^[18] and feed it to him;

בדאפשר בחולין - That there is enough chullin in this tevel to feed him after its terumah is taken.

דכולי עלמא לא פליגי דמתקנינן ליה ומספינן ליה - [We feed him] chullin, and feed him neither tevel nor terumah.

where they disagree is where it is not possible with chullin: one master holds tevel is more severe, and one master holds terumah is more severe.

כי פליגי דלא אפשר בחולין - Unless he eats all of it. And [the Tanna Kamma] says that he is fed the tevel as it is, and they do not separate its terumah from it so as to feed him terumah by itself and chullin by itself; and Ben Teima says it is better that they separate its terumah and feed him each by itself, and not feed him tevel as it is.

מר סבר טבל חמור - For it is not fit even for kohanim.

ומר סבר תרומה חמורה - For it has no permission [for a non-kohen]; but tevel can be fixed, and the chullin becomes fit for anyone.

One master holds tevel is more severe, but terumah is fit for a kohen; and one master holds terumah is more severe, but tevel can be fixed …

הא מדקתני סיפא אם אין שם בקיאין מאכילין אותו ע"פ עצמו מכלל דרישא דאמר צריך - And this is what it means: as long as we can turn to experts, we turn to them, and we do not rely on the sick person himself, except where there are no experts at all; and all the more so where an expert doctor says he does not need and the sick person says he needs, that we do not rely on him to contradict the expert.

מר בר רב אשי אמר כל היכא דאמר צריך אני - It is a dispute among the great authorities whether the halachah follows Mar bar Rav Ashi or not. The Seder Tannaim va’Amoraim^[19] writes that the halachah follows Mar bar Rav Ashi throughout the Shas, except for “reversing an oath” and “admission” – reversing an oath in Perek Shevuas HaDayanim (Shevuos 41a), and admission at the end of Perek Zeh Borer (Sanhedrin 29b). Rabbeinu Chananel writes that the halachah follows him throughout the Shas except for reversing an oath, and “the whitest of white” regarding the meeting-point of the sinews, at the end of Perek Beheimah HaMakshah (Chullin 76b) – and your mnemonic is “reverse white.” Rav Hai and Rabbeinu Gershom ruled that the halachah follows him only in reversing an oath and admission, and not elsewhere in the Shas.

Notes

1. 1. At the end of 82b: a pregnant woman craved food on Yom Kippur; they whispered to her that it was Yom Kippur, but she was not calmed. The child she bore became Shabsai, who hoarded produce, and they applied this verse to her.
2. 2. The Mishnah on 82a: a sick person on Yom Kippur is fed when experts (doctors) say he needs to eat. The Gemara now examines how far the experts’ word, and the patient’s own word, count.
3. 3. A word in Old French (la’az), meaning dizziness or confusion of mind.
4. 4. The Mishnah’s ruling that the patient is fed on the experts’ word, now set in the case just established, where the patient himself says he does not need to eat.
5. 5. Safek nefashos lehakel: wherever there is a doubt of danger to life, we rule leniently and set aside the prohibition.
6. 6. In testimony, two witnesses count as fully as a hundred: we do not follow a majority of witnesses, and two sets of witnesses who contradict each other cancel out.
7. 7. Umdana: an expert estimate, such as the appraisal of land for a creditor or doctors’ assessment of a patient. Here the majority of opinions does count.
8. 8. The latter clause of the Mishnah: where there are no experts present, the patient himself is believed when he says he needs to eat.
9. 9. Bulmos: a faintness caused by hunger, in which the eyes dim; it is dangerous to life.
10. 10. A rabid dog; its signs are listed in the Gemara on 83b. Its bite is deadly.
11. 11. The lobe of the dog’s liver, a folk remedy of the time. The dog is a non-kosher animal, so eating it is forbidden unless the cure is proven.
12. 12. Saving a life overrides Shabbos even in a case of doubt. The Gemara on [יומא פה, א] discusses how far one must search.
13. 13. This explains the Mishnah’s “until his eyes light up”: at what point his sight has returned and it is known that he has recovered.
14. 14. When there is no permitted food and several prohibited foods are available, he is fed the least severe prohibition first.
15. 15. Tevel: produce from which terumah and tithes have not been separated; eating it carries death at the hands of Heaven. Neveilah: an animal that died without shechitah; it is a plain negative commandment, and so lighter.
16. 16. Shevi’is: produce of the Shemittah year. After the time of bi’ur it may not be eaten, but that prohibition is only a positive commandment.
17. 17. Terumah: the kohen’s portion of the crop. A non-kohen who eats it is liable to death at the hands of Heaven, and it can never become permitted to him.
18. 18. That is, we separate terumah and tithes from it, and the remainder becomes chullin, permitted to anyone.
19. 19. A work from the time of the Geonim setting out rules of halachic decision – which Sage the halachah follows.