Nazir 9:3 - 9:4

המוציא מת מתחלה – it was not known that there were was a grave there, that is what we said in the Gemara (Tractate Nazir 65a): “he who finds and not that it was accessible, ” and furthermore, we derive from the language of our Mishnah that someone died, but not that he was killed.

מושכב – and not that he was sitting.

כדרכו – and not that his head was placed between his thighs, for all of these, we suspect of them that they are heathens, for it is not the manner of Israelites to bury their dead in such a manner.

נוטלו ואת תפושתו – it is permissible to remove him from there and to bury him in another place, and he must take from the dirt of the grave with him which is pressed by the body in the grave (and which is considered “the dead man’s property”) which is all the crushed, loose earth that is below him and he digs in virgin ground three fingers as it is written (Genesis 47:30): “[When I lie down with my fathers,] take me up from Egypt and bury me in their burial-place,” for it is not necessary to state “from Egypt,” but rather this is what he said: from the dust of Egypt take my people.”

מצא שלשה אם יש בין זה לזה מד' אמות עד שמנה – meaning to say from the first grave until the third [grave], there Is not less than four cubits and no more than eight [cubits].

הרי זו שכונת קברות – and it is recognized that for the sake of burial they were placed there and it is forbidden to remove them, and even one dead person, if it was known that for the sake of burial they were placed there, it is forbidden to remove it, other than that with one or two we leave undecided that they were not buried there other than temporarily and that it was their intention to remove them, but with three, it is proved that this is a special place for burials. And the length of the cave, its manner is to be six [cubits] and four [cubits] wide, and crosswise there is an excess of two cubits which is eight, therefore it is taught in the Mishnah: “from four until eight,” with the fulness of a coffin but those who bury it are not taught here.

ובודק הימנה ולהלן עשרים אמה – for the burial cave is four [cubits] by six [cubits] and the courtyard that the caves are open to it from here and there is six [cubits] by six [cubits]. And this is what the Rabbis hold in the chapter (Tractate Bava Batra] המוכר פירות/One who sells fruit [102b]. It is found that the length of two caves and the courtyard that is between them is eighteen cubits, and since that sometimes, he examines one cave with a diagonal line and the diagonal line of one cave has an excess of two cubits in nearness, which makes it twenty cubits: eight [cubits] of the first cave with a diagonal line and six [cubits] of the courtyard that is between the two caves and six [cubits] of the second cave, since we state one diagonal line/diameter. And further, one needs to check from above and from below twenty cubits which is forty cubits lest this is a cave that is in the east of the courtyard and there is yet another opposite on the western part of the courtyard. Alternatively, that which is in the western part of the courtyard, and there is yet another on the east of the courtyard.

מצא אחד בסוף עשרים בודק ממנו ולהלן כ' אמה – for who will say that from the cemetery there would be this cave for perhaps it is another grave, and another courtyard of another person, and one also needs to make for the sake of all of the examinations mentioned above just like there is a grave there, similarly, there are others.

שרגלים לדבר – that this field was made for graves and there were in it also other caves, and because of grounds for such a decision these Mishnayot are taught here.

כל ספק נגעים בתחלה טהור – such as the example of two [people] who came to a Kohen; on one of them was a bright white spot on the skin (eventually, one of the symptoms of leprosy) like the size of a bean, and on the other was a bright white spot on the skin like a Selah (a coin), and at the end of a week, on this one was like a Selah and that one was like a Selah and it was not known on which of them it spread, both of them are ritually pure, even though certainly one of them is ritually impure.

משנזקק לטומאה ספיקו טמא – such as the example of two who came to a Kohen; on one of them was a bright white spot on the skin like the size of a bean and the other, [a bright white spot on the skin] like the size of a Selah, and at the end of a week, this one’s was like a Selah and more, and the other one’s was like a Selah and more. Both reduced to become the size of like a Selah. Even though one of them is definitely ritually pure, for already, the spreading of the leprous spot occurred, both of them are impure, because a decision had been made in favor of uncleanness until they return to the size of a bean.

בשבעה דרכים בודקין את הזב – for if he saw, as a consequence of an accident, he is pure, for we expound upon זב מבשרו/”a discharge from his member/flesh” (Leviticus 15:2) and not on account of his accident.

עד שלא נזקק לטומאה – that is when he sees a second affliction/attack, he becomes a complete Zav/a man suffering from gonorrhea defiling by lying and sitting, but a first affliction/attack defiles by accident ritual impurity until nightfall according to the law of someone who experienced a seminar emission which combines with the second [affliction/attack], even if it was by accident.

במאכל – if he ate things that bring him towards a flux as for example, meat, oil, milk, and cheese, eggs and old wine.

ובמשתה – with increase/excess of drinking.

במשא – something heavy that he carried.

במראה – he saw a woman even without [impure] fantasy.

ובהרהור – even though he did not see [her], if one of these seven [things] happened to him before he saw the second affliction/attack, he does not become a Zav/gonorrhea, and a drop [of semen] does not defile through carrying.

משנזקק לטומאה – that he saw a second attack/affliction not by accident,

we don’t examine him, but even if he saw a third [attack/affliction] by accident, he becomes a Zab/one afflicted with gonorrhea for a sacrifice.

וספיקו ושבכת זרעו טמאים – uncertain on account of effusion of his semen, as for example if he saw effusion of semen first and a bit of gonorrhea that comes afterwards, it does not defile for the person who sees an emission does not defile with gonorrhea from the time of twenty-four astronomical hours. And until a decision has been not been made for uncleanness, the flux purifies the gonorrhea because it is an accident. But after a decision has been made for uncleanness, the flux purifies the gonorrhea which does not leave undecided/in doubt for on account of the flux comes the gonorrhea.

שרגלים לדבר – for that attack/affliction is on account of an accident, because he has already become a Zav/gonorrhea.

ר"נ פוטר שרגלים לדבר – for he did not die on account of a wound, since it was more lenient than what it was, and the Halakha is not according to Rabbi [Nehemiah].