Oholos 12:5 - 12:6

מעזיבה (concrete of stone chippings, clay, used for paving floors, pavement covering the ceiling of the lower story and serving as flooring of the upper story) – plaster and stones that they regularly place on top of the beams.

תחתיה טמא – and that which is on top of it is ritually pure, for the beam interposes. And these words [apply] when there the beams have an opening of a handbreadth when they are a handbreadth wide, but if they are not a handbreadth wide, they do not bring the defilement and they do not interpose, and it is like one that they don’t have it. And it is found that defilement is like it stands in the airspace.

ביניהן טמא – and that underneath the lower [beam] and on top of the upper [beam] they are pure, for both of them interpose.

כנגדו עד הרקיע טמא – for underneath all of them (i.e., the beams) it is ritually pure.

כבין התחתונות – opposite the airspace of the lower ones. And their widths is like the measure of the airspace that is between them, for if they should raise up the lower [beams] or lower he upper [beams], it is found that everything is concealed.

תחת כולן טמא – it is as if the ceiling was level, and on top of them is pure.

תחת כולה – all the vessels that are under it (i.e., the beam) are impure, for it brings defilement to everything. But on top of it is pure, for it interposes in the face of the defilement.

ואם לאו – that it (i.e., the beam) is not a handbreadth wide.

בוקעת ועולה – for if defilement is underneath it, the vessels that are on top of it opposite the defilement are impure.

בוקעת ויורדת – that if defilement is on top of it, the vessels that are under it opposite the defilement are impure.

היקפה שלשה טפחים – that all that there is in its width a handbreadth, there is in its circumference three handbreadths, for such we found in [The Second Book of] Chronicles [Chapter 4, Verse 2]: “He made the sea of cast metal ten cubits across from brim to brim, perfectly round; it was five cubits high, and its circumference thirty cubits.”