Oholos 3:7 - 4:1

טפח על טפח על רום טפח – a board/plank which is a handbreadth wide by a handbreadth [long] and above from the ground a handbreadth, and overshadows over an olive’s bulk of a corpse or on vessels, brings the defilement on to the vessels.

מרובע – that if its width was less than that of a handbreadth, even though its length was two handbreadths, we don’t say – place what remains from its length upon its width and make it quadrilateral. For this, it (i.e., the Mishnah) teaches "מרובע"/cubic, that there must be in its width a handbreadth and in its length a handbreadth.

כיצד – meaning to say, how does it interpose before the defilement/uncleanness?

ביב שהוא קמור (a drain/pipe/gutter which is arched) – digging in the ground and its foundation, that is arched and there the waste-water (i.e., that which is poured in the gutter) that is in the house descends and from there exits to the public domain.

יש בו פוחת טפח – that is a handbreadth by a handbreadth at the depth of a handbreadth in the drain/gutter itself.

וביציאתו – in the opening of the drain/gutter that from it the waters go out to the public domain.

טומאה בתוכו – if there is an olive’s bulk from the corpse within the drain, for the olive’s bulk from the corpse its opening is with a handbreadth.

הבית טהור – that the defilement/uncleanness leaves through the opening of the drain that goes out to the public domain. And this is what is taught [in the Mishnah]: "חוצץ בפני הטומאה"/interposes before the uncleanness.

טומאה בתוך הבית הביב טהור – for there is no path for the uncleanness to bring it in through the opening of the drain, for the path of the uncleanness is to remove it through the opening of the house but not to bring it into the drain.

ואין ביציאתו פותח טפח טומאה בתוכו הבית טמא – for the uncleanness/defilement goes up from the drain to the house since it lacks a path to leave through the opening of the drain that goes out to the public domain, for all that is less than a handbreadth the defilement/uncleanness does not leave.

אין פו פותח טפח ואין ביציאתו פוחת טפח – it is is taken for naught for there isn’t in its outlet an opening of a handbreadth, for since it lacks an opening of a handbreadth, on its outlet we are not concerned,, for it is as if there is like there is no cavity at all and the drain is considered like the ground of the house, and the Sages stated: All that is in the tent will be defiled, including the bottom/ground of the house which is like it until the depth/interior of the earth.

אחד חור שחררוהו מים – this that is open a handbreadth that brings the defilement/uncleanness, there is no difference if this hole was made through the water or that reptiles/insect perforated it.

או שאכלתו מלחת (or a cave formed through saline corrosion) – the language of )Jeremiah 17:6): “In a barren land without inhabitant.” It is like white dust similar to salt and it consumes and falls and makes a hole on its own.

מרבך של אבנים (an irregular pile of large stones) – large stones that are arranged and set up one on the other. But sometimes it is arranged on two [stones] and the lower ones are separated from each other and there is a tent [overshadowing] a handbreadth.

סואר של קורות (a pile/frame of beams) – beams that are set up on top of the other that stand ready for building, but sometimes there is between them a tent overshadowing a handbreadth.

כל שאינו עשוי בידי אדם אינו אוהל – which we derive through an analogy/Gezerah Shavah from [the comparison of the usage of the word] אוהל (Numbers 19;14: "זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באוהל"/This is the ritual: When a person dies in a tent”) and אוהל (Exodus 40:19; "ויפרש את האוהל על-המשכן"/He spread the tent over the Tabernacle”), just as there (in the Tabernacle) it was done at the hands of a person, so also here (regarding the defilement of the corpse) at the hands of man.

בשקיפים (clefts) – It is the Aramaic translation of (Isaiah 57:5): “Among/under the clefts of the rocks,” the clefts of the rocks

ובסלעים – in the clefts of the stones/rocks, and the שקיפי and נקיקי הסלעים are one and the same, but one was made through the rain and the other was made on its own. But even though they were not made at the hands of man Rabbi Yehuda agrees/accepts them, for he does not derive the Gezerah Shavah/analogy of “tent”/”tent” from the Tabernacle (see above) but rather for an opening to be handbreadth alone, but more than a handbreadth, such as a fistful, we stated in [Tractate] Sukkah [at the beginning of] the chapter "הישן"/He who sleeps (Chapter 2 – folio 20b at the bottom and folio 22a at the top). For Rabbi Yehuda agrees that even if it was made of its own, it brings the uncleanness. And similarly with clefts and rocks. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

מגדל העומד באויר (a tower/cupboard standing isolated) – a wooden turret that has walls but the walls themselves have a cavity in their thickness, such as perforated holes that are open to the inside and the outside but they lack an opening of a handbreadth, and it is customary to hide there needles and hooks/curved pins and small vessels.

שהוא עומד באויר—underneath the airspace of the sky, such as that it stands in the courtyard.

טומאה בתוכו – in the cavity of the turret itself.

כלים שבעוביו – in the thickness of the cavity of the walls.

מחצה למחצה – from its half of the thickness of the cupboard/turret and towards the inside is like the inside, from its half [of the thickness] towards the outside is like the outside. Whether the defilement is in the turret/cupboard and the vessels are in its thickness, or whether the defilement is in its thickness and the vessels are in the turret/cupboard. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.

טומאה בתוכו – within the turret/cupboard.

הבית טמא – even though that its doors are sealed. As it (i.e., the Mishnah) explains the reason that the manner of the defilement/uncleanness is to depart from there to the house.

טומאה בבית מה שבתוך המגדל – this is with its doors sealed. For if they are opened, it is no worse than a window that is between the two houses. For the reason that what is within the turret/cupboard is ritually pure, is that there is no path for the defilement that is in the house to enter into the turret/cupboard.

אם יש שם פותח טפח – between the rims of the turret/cupboard and the ground or between the wall of the turret/cupboard to the wall or between the roof the turret to the ceiling of the house.

טמאים – on account of the defilement that is in the house. But if there isn’t there [an opening] of a handbreadth, the turret/cupboard is like a לבוד/joined (i.e., that two solid surfaces are considered to be joined if there is a gap less than three handbreadths between them). And the defilement of the house does not enter there.

טומאה שם הבית טמא – if there was defilement between the rims of the turret/cupboard to the ground of the house. Or [there was defilement] between the roof of the turret to the roof of the house or between the walls of the turret to the walls of the house, even though there isn’t between them an opening of a handbreadth. הבית טמא – for the turret/cupboard does not protect regarding the defilement that is below it within the house so that it doesn’t defile all that is in the house.