Pesachim 9 - November 30, 14 Kislev

Study Guide Pesachim 9 Today's daf is sponsored by Naomi Ferziger in memory of her father, Chaim Zeev ben Pessel and Yoel Greenblatt z"l, on his 8th yartzeit. After one checks one's house for chametz, one does not need to be concerned that a marten or other creature moved chametz from one place to another. The gemara assumes from here that if one saw a marten with chametz, pne would need to check. Why can't one assume the marten ate it, as appears in the mishna in Ohalot 18:7 regarding a house of a gentile and assumption of impurity of a miscarried fetus. There is it assumed that if there are martens around that the fetus was eaten and there is no impurity. Rabib Zeira says one can distinguish between flesh and bread and Rava says there is no contradiction because that case has a 2 doubts and our case has one definite and one doubt and a doubt (was it eaten) can't remove a concern regarding a definite (the marten definitely moved the chametz). Is rava's principle really true? There gemara brings 2 sources to question that but resolves them. The mishna seems to contradict the end of the mishna where there they say to hide the chametz after checking, presumably because one is worried a marten may come. Three answers are brought. The gemara brings cases of doubt regarding piles of chametz and matza and doubt which was moved by mice. One case if compared to the famous cases of 10 stores - 9 kosher and one not kosher from Ketubot 15. If one buys from a store and not sure which one, we see it as a 50/50 chance one bought non kosher meat and it is forbidden. If the meat was on the street and it is unsure where it came from, we follow the majority. Also a comparison is made between another case and a case regarding regular and sanctified produce where we assume the regular went into the regular and the sanctified combined with the sanctified and we rule leniently. Can we assume the same with chametz? Why?  Study Guide Pesachim 9