Oholos 9:1 - 9:2

כוורת – that it has rims [at the bottom] and holds forty Se’ah in wet which are two KOR in dry, that it is susceptible to receive ritual defilement, and reclines on its side within the opening and part of it is outside and part of it is in the house.

ופיה לחוץ – and its rim is inside.

כזית מן המת נתון תחתיה – from outside.

כל שהוא כנגד הזית – if the olive’s bulk [of the corpse] is underneath it and vessels are on top of it opposite it, or the olive’s bulk [of the corpse] is upon it and vessels are underneath it opposite it.

תחתיה וגבה טמא – but what is within it is ritually pure. For even though the hive protects over what is within it, it does not protect on what is underneath it or on top of it opposite the olive’s bulk of defilement, for on what is within it, it is the law that it protects, for even if it is placed in the tent of a corpse it protects with a tightly-sealed cover/airtight lid, since it is not susceptible to receive ritual defilement, but what is underneath it and on its back it does not protect since it is a vessel, as is taught in the Mishnah above in Chapter 6 {Mishnah 1]: “Humans and vessels are made into tents to defile, but not to purify.”

וכל שאינו כנגד הזית תוכה והבית טהור – this is what he said: vessels that are underneath it and on top of it that are not opposite the olive’s bulk of defilement, and within it, meaning to say, vessels that are within it and even if hey are opposite the olive’s bulk [of defilement], and vessels also that are in the house, everything is ritually pure.

בבית אין טמא אלא הבית – if the olive’s bulk [of defilement] is in the house, there is nothing ritually impure other than the house, but the vessels that within the hive are pure, for its mouth is towards the outside.

בתוכה הכל טמא – if the olive’s bulk [of defilement] is within the hive, everything is ritually defiled, for we are dealing with a hive which is perforated from the walls with an opening of a handbreadth, as we are required to state further on [Mishnah 3] but rather that the incisions/holes are stopped up with straw, but the closing is not fastened, and it is the manner of the holes/incisions that the defilement goes out to the house since they are not fastened, and even vessels that are under it and on top of from the outside are ritually impure, for since the olive’s bulk [of defilement] we see it as is if it is filled with defilement, and a vessel cannot protect what is underneath it or on top of it. But when the defilement is in the house, we stated above [in this Mishnah] that there is no defilement other than the house, for the defilement does not enter in the hive through the incisions/holes even though they have an opening of a handbreadth, for since they are stuffed up, but it (i.e., the defilement) does not enter through its mouth for its mouth is towards the outside.

היתה גבוהה מן הארץ טפח – that now there is a tent of a handbreadth underneath it.

הכל טמא – that it brings the defilement into the house since it is a handbreadth high, and vessels that are on top of it, even those that are not opposite the defilement are also impure and even outside, for underneath it is like one that is full of defilement. And it doesn’t protect what on top of it, for the vessel does not protect. And similarly, if the defilement is also in the house everything is ritually impure from this reason, for the tent of the house brings the defilement to what is underneath it and doesn’t protect that which is on top of it. But if the defilement is on top of it, since it doesn’t protect over what is underneath it, we view what is beneath it as one that is filled with defilement, therefore, whatever is in the house and what is underneath it and what is on top of it -everything is impure.

אלא תוכה -that is to say, everything is impure except for what is within it (i.e., the house) which is pure.