Oholos 9:15 - 9:16

ארון שהיא רחבה – this bier/casket is a cliff/peak of a rock that protrudes from the mountain and is hewn/chiseled into a bier that is wide from the bottom and narrow from the top and its mouth is above.

הנוגע בה מלמטה טהור – for what is opposite its mouth is considered like the bier/casket, but not that which is on the sides.

‘רחב מלמעלה וצר מלמטה – or that it was equivalent, a person who touches it from any place is impure, according to the words of Rabbi Eliezer. For the covering splits the defilement in all of it, that the defilement ascends up to the covering and returns and descends over the face of all of it.

רבי יהושע מטהר – that it is not considered like a bier/coffin other than the handbreadth that is nearest to the cavity of the bier/coffin. Therefore, it does not burst forth from a handbreadth and below.

העשויה כמין קמטרא (that is made like a chest/box – for clothes, books) – it is vessel whose covering covers the thickness of the walls. It is the Aramaic for (II Kings 10:22): “He [Jehu] said to the man in charge of the wardrobe: [“Bring out the vestments for all the worshippers of Baal],” for the one appointed over the chest/box.

הנוגע בה מכל מקום טמא – for all that is opposite the covering is impure, for its covering covers all of it.

כמין גלוסקוס הנוגע בה מכל מקום טהור – its covering is not other than opposite its cavity like a peg that is inserted in a hole/incision in an emergency.

חוץ ממקום פתחתה – with a covering that is opposite its cavity.

חבית שהיא יושבת – their jars are narrow above to the side of the their mouths, and below to the side of the rims and wide in their middles, and they are like a kind of wide stomach that protrudes from them in their middles from the outside.

באויר – that is, in the airspace of the world, to exclude that which is under the tent.

קורקורתה (rimmed bottom of a vessel – corresponding to the bottom – under or on the rim of its bottom) – like its bottom and they are its rims.

בוקעת ועולה בוקעת ויורד – and all the vessels that are opposite the olive’s bulk [of defilement] are ritually impure, whether undeath it or whether above it or whether within it, something that is like the hive that is above [Mishnah 13] that sits o its rims. But that which is on the sides which is not opposite the olive’s bulk [of defilement] are pure.

והחבית טמאה – not that the jar itself is impure but we are dealing here with a jar that is not susceptible to receive ritual defilement as will be proven in the concluding clause [of the Mishnah], but that the jar is impure, meaning to say, even vessels that are outside of the jar opposite the defilement are impure, because a mere vessel,its mouth is wide like the measurement of its rimmed bottom and because there is no interruption between the airspace of its inside to the airspace that is on top of it above it [and] outside of it, because it doesn’t protect what is outside of it, it doesn’t protect what is inside/within it.

תחת דופנה מבחוץ טומאה בוקעת ועולה בוקעת ויורדת – and anything that is opposite the olive’s bulk [of defilement] is impure outside of the jar.

והחבית טהורה – that is, what is within the jar, even opposite the olive’s bulk [of defilement] for the walls of the jar protrude in the middle and when there is an olive’s bulk [of defilement] under the wall, its wall is similar to the hive which is lying on its side, that is inside is pure, because there is an interruption between the airspace of the inside that is opposite the olive’s bulk [of defilement] to the airspace that is outside of opposite the olive’s bulk [of defilement].

בתוכה ותחת דופנה – that is to say inside the cavity of its wall. We call it underneath its wall, because the wall goes and becomes narrow to the side of its mouth. And this excludes on its rim that is directed corresponding/opposite to its mouth.

אם יש בדפנות פותח טפח – that the belly of jar protrudes so much outward that there is in one place up until corresponding with the mouth of the jar a cubic handbreadth.

ואם לאו – but if there isn’t there a handbreadth.

טומאה בוקעת ועולה – and it is not impure other than opposite the olive’s bulk [of defilement].

במה דברים אמורים בטהורה – with a jar that is not susceptible to receiving ritual impurity.

אבל אם היתה טמאה – as for example, a mere jar that was smelted in a kiln/furnace, which does receive defilement.

או גבוהה אן הארץ טפח או מכוסה או כפויה – and even if it is pure.

וטומאה תחתיה או בתוכה או על גבה, הכל טמא – that if it susceptible to receive ritual impurity and sits on its rims and the defilement is underneath it or within it or on top of it, even though that an earthenware vessel is not defiled from above it, the jar itself is defiled here. Since this refers to vessels that are within after they are not surrounded by a tight-fitting lid, for a vessel does not protect even on wat is ithin it other than with walls of tents in a place where there isn’t an interruption from the airspace within to the airspace outside of it. And that which is below which is under its rims, and it doesn’t teach under its wall from the outside. But the jar itself is defiled, and since the jar itself is impure, all of the vessels that are within are defiled even that which is not opposite the defilement, for even though we hold that humans and vessels are not defiled from the airspace of an earthenware vessel, here, all the while that the olive’s bulk [of defilement] is underneath it, it defiles from the reason of attachments, since after the jar itself is impure. And similarly, something a handbreadth above from the ground even that is pure we view that which is underneath it as if it filled with defilement, and even the defilement above it. But now, all of these, their law is not equivalent (i.e., the same), for if the jar is susceptible to receive ritual defilement, whatever is within it, even if it is not opposite the defilement is impure. And one who overshadows over it from above, opposite the defilement is impure, but that which is not opposite the defilement is pure. But if it is a handbreadth above the ground or it is covered or turned upside down on its mouth, one who overshadows over it even that which is not opposite the defilement is impure. And we should not be astonished, that which is turned upside downs on its mouth and the defilement is above it, whatever is within it is like the pure vessels that are surrounded with a tight-fitting lid, but it is different here for there is no open space.