Shabbat 15: Hillel and Shammai Actually Not Far Apart; Sages on Ritual Impurity Before the Temple was Destroyed

The rabbis say that Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai actually came to a consensus.  They had spoken of eighteen matters and Beit Shammai disagreed, but after there was a vote where it was decided that they only actually disagreed in three matters. 

The first regards the kav of dough, the portion of bread that is put aside for a priest.  The rabbis decide that separating challah is not measured at two kav, as Hillel says, nor one kav, as Shammai says.  Instead it is one and a half kav that is separated.  

The second dispute is where Hillel says that a full hin, twelve log, of drawn water is required for a a mikvah, ritual bath, even if the water already there  had the status of drawn water.  He says that this is because one must follow the language of his teacher.  Shammai says that nine kav of water is enough to disqualify the mikvah.  The Rabbis decide that the halacha does not follow either of them.  Instead their decision wait until two weavers came from the Dung Gate in Jerusalem in the name of Shemaya and Avtalyon that three log of drawn water disqualify the mikvah.  

The third dispute between Hillel and Shammai regards women and menstruation.  Shammai says that a woman can claim a state of ritual impurity from the moment that she sees menstrual blood; she need not assume that her time of ritual impurity began earlier than she felt a flow.  Hillel says that a woman who sees blood is considered to be impure retroactively until the last time that she examined herself even if that happened days earlier - which would mean that anything she touched in between those times was ritually impure.  The rabbis decided that the principal is that examinations take place every twenty-four hours so that women are not forced to be retroactively ritually impure for very long.

Several other different opinions of Hillel and Shammai are discussed.  One of them notes the generations of Sages of influence before the destruction of the Temple:

• Yosei ben Yo'ezer and Yosei ben Yochanan 
• Yehosua ben Perachya, Nitai of Arbel - the Evil Kingdom ruled HaAretz 180 years
• Shemaya, Avtalyon - 100 years
• Hillel, Shammai - The decree on glass vessels was issued 80 years
• Shimon -
• Rabban Gamliel the Elder - Sanhedrin went into exile 40 years
• Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel who was killed - when the Temple was destroyed

The rabbis continue to speak about cases where there was dispute between our Hillel and Shammai.  Further, they are guessing at the the time ranges mentioned and the rabbis imagine why the status of ritual impurity would change at different times.