Oholos 15:4 - 15:5

שחצצו – that he made in it a partition (i.e., a room which one partitioned off with boards or tapestry on the sides – walls – or on the ceiling).

מן הצדדין – that the curtains and the boards were placed opposite/corresponding to the walls of the house.

או מן הקורות – that they were placed underneath the ceiling of the house.

כלים שבחצץ טהורים (vessels that are in the space between two partitions/the vacuum) – that the curtains and the boards interpose, and are considered like vessels that are on the roof and like vessels that are outside of the wall.

כלים שבבית טמאים – for there is no interposition for defilement, for this resembles an earthenware vessel that is surrounded with an airtight lid, for if the defilement that is in the house it protects over what is within it, but if the defilement is within it, there is no airtight lid for defilement.

כלים שבחצץ – the vessel that is with the defilement with in the partition.

אם יש פותח טפח – that there is an empty space/cavity which is a handbreadth wide.

ואם לאו טהורים – the vessels that are in the space between the two partitions/the vacuum [are pure]. But a house however is impure.

חצצו מארצו (if one partitioned it off from the floor - laying an additional floor with a vacuum between) – that he covered the bottom [of the floor] of the house with boards or curtains.

טומאה בחצץ – even if it has a handbreadth [in length] by a handbreadth [in width] at the height of a handbreadth [vessels that are in the house are impure].

כלים שבבית טמאים – like a gutter/canal that is arched over underneath the house, as is taught in the Mishnah above in Chapter 3 [Mishnah 7]: “If it is a handbreadth wide, and its outlet is not a handbreadth-wide, the uncleanness is in in it - the house is unclean. Uncleanness is in the house – what is in it is clean.”

שארצו של בית כמוהו – when it lacks an opening of a handbreadth.