Mishnayos Eduyos Perek 6 Mishnah 3

כזית בשר הפורש מאבר מן החי – a limb that separates from a living person, it’s law is that it defiles all the while it is a complete limb while in contact and while being carried and in the tent of the dead person himself, as it is written (Numbers 19:16): “[And in the open, anyone who touches a person] who was killed, or who died naturally...,” the limb that had been severed by the sword from the living, it is like the dead. And the flesh that separates from the living does not defile until it becomes a complete limb and when an olive’s bulk of flesh separates from the limb of a living person, Rabbi Eliezer defiles as it explains the reason further on.

עצם כשעורה – from the dead defiles through contact and through carrying but it does not defile in the tent, as it is written (Numbers 19:18): ‘”or on him who touched the bones [or the person who was killed or died naturally or the grave],” and it is a traditional interpretation of a written law that it defiles with a barley seed in bulk, and when it separates from a living limb, Rabbi Nehuniah defiles it, etc.

מצינו אבר מן החי כמת עצמו – that we derive it from the Biblical verse (Numbers 19:16): “who was killed or died naturally.”

אם טמאת כזית בשר הפורש מן המת – that is to say, it is a law that an olive’s bulk of flesh that separates from the dead person will be defiled, just as it has another stringency that the bone is like a barley-seed in bulk that separates from it is also impure.

אבל נטמא כזית בשר הפורש מאבר מן החי – in astonishment, for there isn’t in this that stringency.

שכן טהרת עצם כשעורה הפורש ממנו – for it is taught in the Mishnah above that a bone which is a barley-seed in bulk that separates from a living limb, Rabbi Eliezer and RabbiYehoshua declare if pure, but from its own words, they made an objection/refutation what did we find that he brought and similarly to Rabbi Nehunia..”

שהבשר נוהג בנבילות ובשרצים וכו' – as it is written (Leviticus 11:36): “[However, a spring or cistern in which water is collected shall be pure,] but whoever touches such a carcass in it shall be impure.” Such a carcass, and not the bones, and not the horns and not the cloven hoofs. So we see that the bones do not defile because of a carrion (that dies of itself).

אבר שיש עליו בשר כראוי – a limb does not defile other than if it has flesh and sinews and bones, as it is written (Numbers 19:16)” “or human bone,” just as a person who has flesh and sinews and bones, also all that have flesh and sinews and bones, and if it is missing from the flesh that was upon it and there remains upon it flesh as appropriate that will produce new flesh on a healing wound if it is attached to a living person, it defiles because of the limb, and that is - as we have said that if is missing the flesh, it is impure, but if it is missing a little bit from the bone in the limb, it does not defile because of the limb and that is as we have said, missing the bone, it is pure. That is to say, pure because of the limb, but it is impure because of the flesh and if so, we found that the defilement of the flesh is greater than the defilement from the bone.

והוא כברייתו – flesh and sinews and bones.

כזית בשר מטמא במגע ובמשא ובאהל – they said according to the beginning of the creation of man is as an olive’s bulk. Therefore the measure of his defilement is an olive’s bulk.

ורוב עצמות – the majority of the number of the bones of a human being, since the number of the bones of a human is two-hundred and forty-eight. It is found that the majority is one-hundred and twenty-five.

חסר הבשר – from the measurement of an olive’s bulk

טהור – completely from being defiled not through contact and not through carrying nor in a tent.

חסר רוב עצמות מטמא במגע ובמשא – for a bone like a barley-seed in bulk defiles through contact and through carrying, but does not defile in the tent. So we see that the defilement of bones is greater than defilement by flesh, for if it were the bones that were missing from their measurement, still defilement would remain in them, but flesh that is missing from its measure is completely pure.

רוב בנינו – such as two lower legs and one thigh and all of the skeleton of a person are two lower legs and the thighs and the ribs and the backbone.

אע"פ שאין בהן רובע – for one-quarter kab of ones of a dead person defile in the tent. Even though they don’t have the majority of the bones [of a human being] or the majority of the skeleton, they defile even though they lack the one-quarter [kab]. But flesh which is less than the equivalent of an olive’s bulk, you have nothing in it that will bring to him the defilement.

אם אמרתם במת שיש בו רוב ורובע ורקב – it is the law that the equivalent of an olive’s bulk of flesh and a barley-side’s bulk of a bone that separates from the dead will be impure, for there are stringencies regarding the dead of a majority and one-quarter [kab] and a mass of earth from a grave containing parts of a decayed human body.

תאמרו בחי שאין בו – these stringencies which is not the law that there would be neither the equivalent of an olive’s bulk of flesh nor a barley-seed’s equivalent of a bone that separate from the limb of a living person, they are [not] impure, but rather pure. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehoshua.

ורקב – the body of a dead whose moistness had ceased, and had become like dirt, this is רקב/decay of the body that defiles a spoon-filled of dust/tarvad-full of dust [from parts of a decayed human body] and its measurement is the handful of an intermediate-size individual. But a handful of a decayed human body does not defile other than from a dead person buried naked in an alabaster coffin which is covered with a marble cover until it is definitively known that there is no mixture of a decay of clothing or of wood or other dirt. But if the dead is buried in his clothing or in a wooden coffin or in the dust, there is no decay, and similarly, a dead person that is buried missing a limb, there is no decay.