I could not find any examples in which the Mishnah or Beraisa suggest that one discard an Isur into the "Yam ha'Gadol" to destroy it permanently. The Gemara always mentions "Yam ha'Melach" (and not "Yam ha'Gadol") when describing where one is supposed to eliminate prohibited objects.

In our Gemara, however, the Gemara is not telling us what one is supposed to do with a prohibited object. Rather, it is giving a commonplace example of where a prohibited object will most likely become permanently lost. If an object falls into an unknown location in the Yam ha'Gadol, it certainly is not expected to become available for use again in the future. (The SHITAH MEKUBETZES changes the Girsa from Yam ha'Melach to Yam ha'Gadol for the sake of consistency throughout the Sugya.) On the other hand, since there is a possibility that the object will later be retrieved by a person who will not be aware of its prohibited status, the Mishnah and Beraisa never advise us to rid ourselves of such an object in the Yam ha'Gadol. Rather, one should throw it into the Yam ha'Melach . There, no tides or waves will wash it to the shore, no pearl-divers will accidentally chance upon it, and after a number of years the object will be totally eaten away by the salt on the sea bottom.

We ought to point out, though, that there are times when the Mishnah or Beraisa advises us to throw a prohibited object into a river . I will an include an Insight that we wrote about this below; you will find there a reference to your question of disposing of Isurim in the Yam ha'Gadol as well.

Best wishes,

M. Kornfeld

Kollel Iyun Hadaf

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Bechoros 53

1) THE SALTY SEA

QUESTION: The Gemara tells us that what is Asur b'Hana'ah must be thrown into the "Yam ha'Melach" (salty sea, i.e. the Dead Sea). This implies that it is not sufficient to discard it in any river. Yet we find elsewhere (Erchin 29a etc.) that it suffices to throw such items into "a river," i.e. any river! (TOSFOS DH Ma'os)

ANSWER:

(a) TOSFOS (DH Ma'os) quotes a Gemara in Pesachim (28a) which explains that one may discard an object that is Asur b'Hana'ah into any river if he first grinds the object into fine pieces. It is in such a fashion that the Gemara in Erchin and elsewhere ordered the objects to be thrown into a river.

(b) Hagaon Rav Yakov Kaminetzky (Emes l'Yakov, Parashas Masei) points out that the RAMBAM (Perush ha'Mishnah to Kelim 15:1; Hil. Tzitzis 2:2) seems to use the term "Yam ha'Melach" to refer to the ocean. Since rivers feed into the ocean (Kohelet 1:7), what is thrown into a river will eventually reach the ocean. If so, the two Gemaras do not contradict each other after all!

> The SHITAH MEKUBETZES changes the Girsa from Yam ha'Melach to Yam ha'Gadol

It was suggested in our Shiur that barrels of liquid would float in the Yam HaMelach but not in the Yam HaGadol, hence the change in Girsa!

Kol Tuv

Mark Bergman