Ukẓin
UKẒIN
UKẒIN (Heb. עֻקְצִין; "Stalks"), 12th and last tractate in the order Tohorot in the Mishnah and the Tosefta. There is no Gemara, either in the Babylonian or the Jerusalem Talmud. Ukẓin deals, in three chapters, with the problems of ritual impurity affecting roots, stalks, husks, shells, kernels, etc., and the imparting of the uncleanness to the fruits to which they are attached. This tractate was considered one of the most difficult even in talmudic times (Ber. 20a; Hor. 13b).
Chapter 1 distinguishes first between yad ("handle") and shomer ("protection"), the former referring to that part of the fruit which one holds when eating the fruit, and the latter to such parts as protect the fruit; both are relevant to the question of ritual purity. It then goes on to consider the roots and stalks of a great variety of vegetables and fruits, determining whether or not (or to what extent) they fall under the terms of yad and shomer. Chapter 2 continues this subject, in particular whether kernels, shells, husks, and encasing leaves are to be regarded as part of the fruit. Toward the end of the chapter, the problem of *hekhsher is touched upon, i.e., the susceptibility of food to ritual impurity, a subject dealt with in detail in tractate Makhshirin. Chapter 3 continues with the subject of hekhsher, introducing also the associated notion of maḤashavah, i.e., the intent to use the respective foods (vegetable or meat) for human consumption. Then there is a detailed discussion of various cases where one of the elements, hekhsher or maḥashavah, or neither of them, or both, are required in order to make the food susceptible to impurity.
Most of the laws in this tractate are found scattered among the other tractates, e.g., Tohorot 1:1–4; 8:9; Tevul Yom 3:1–3; and Makhshirin. R. Samson of Sens (in his commentary at the beginning of Tohorot) suggests that Ukẓin logically precedes Tohorot, which continues with the subject matter of Ukẓin's final chapter. The laws of Ukẓin were known to be very difficult to understand, and when Rav Judah studied it he would say, "we see here questions of Rav and Samuel." In Horayot 13b it is related that several rabbis strove to embarrass the nasi Simeon b. Gamaliel by challenging him to teach them Ukẓin. If the reference is to the tractate and not to the individual laws, it proves that at least parts of the Mishnah were edited before Judah ha-Nasi. According to Epstein, Mishnah 3:2 represents the revised opinion of Akiva (cf. Tosefta 3:2) and Mishnah 3:10 represents the view of Meir.
The Tosefta also consists of three chapters, but many paragraphs in it, such as 2:1–10 and 3:6–14, are not directly related to any Mishnah; and even when there is a correlation, the order of the Tosefta does not correspond to that of the Mishnah. It may be noted that the view of Resh (Simeon b.) Lakish, placing Tohorot as the sixth and last order of the Mishnah, having been accepted (Shab. 31a), Ukẓin appears as the last tractate of the whole Mishnah (as well as of the Talmud and Tosefta). It is an unusual subject with which to round off the Oral Law. According to Maimonides, its position does not express any particular appreciation for this tractate; on the contrary "it has been left to the end", he says, "because it is based on rabbinical speculation, without any foundation in the Bible" (Introduction to Zera'im). To give the Mishnah a fitting close, later editors of the Mishnah added an aggadic passage to the original text of Ukẓin, speaking of great reward for the pious and the divine blessing of peace, and quoting in conclusion Psalm 29:11: "The Lord will give strength unto His people, the Lord will bless His people with peace." It was translated into English by H. Danby in The Mishnah (1934). For bibliography see main articles *Mishnah; *Talmud; *Tosefta.
[Arnost Zvi Ehrman]