Oholos 15:2 - 15:3

טבליות של עץ – that are adjacent to one another and each of them are a handbreadth above the ground and touch at their corners – each other with its neighbor that is near it, and it is the manner of the corners of the boards that they are not a handbreadth wide, therefore, vessels that are underneath the first that the defilement is under it are impure, but that which is under the second are pure.

הנוגע בשניה טמא טומאת שבעה – and even though it is taught in the Mishnah in the first chapter [Mishnah 2] that: “Utensils which touch the corpse and utensils [which touch other] utensils are unclean with the uncleanness of seven [days]. The third, whether man or utensils, is unclean with the uncleanness [that passes at] evening.” But it is taught in the Mishnah there (i.e., at the conclusion of Mishnah 3): “The tent does not come under consideration.” Therefore, the board that the defilement is underneath it is not part of the count (i.e., is not included).

עד שיהא בו ריבוע בפותח טפח (until it has a squared handbreadth) – it is a kind of breached/broken-through chest that has four walls that they would make for a table when the table sits upon it, and that breached chest is called a square. And sometimes, that the table protrudes and extends outside from that square a handbreadth or less or more, and now it states that it needs that the table protrudes outward from that square with an opening of handbreadth, for just as what is within the square does not combine, if defilement is also within the square from the inside, the square interposes and prevents the defilement from passing to the outside.

חביות – many rows of jars [of clay], this one after that one and this over that one.

שהן יושבות על שוליהן – and their mouths are [facing] upward.

או מוטות על צדיהן – and their mouths are from the side.

באויר – in a garden or in a courtyard.

בפותח טפח – with the width of a handbreadth they touch one another.

טומאה בוקעת ועולה – to the sides it teaches [in the Mishnah]. That they lie on their sides, even facing the defilement, nothing is impure other than what is below them and on top of them, but what is within them is pure, since that an earthenware vessel does not become impure on top of it, it protects what is inside of it, and what is not facing the defilement, even that it is under them or above them, is pure. And when they sit on their rims, even what is within is not protected, because there is no interruption from the airspace inside it to the airspace that is outside of it, but the jar itself is defiled, and all of the vessels that are in it are defiled, and even if it is not facing the defilement, as we stated the reason at the conclusion of the chapter הכוורת/The Hive (Chapter 9 of Tractate Ohalot, Mishnah 16).

במה דברים אמורים בטהורות – for since they are pure, they are similar to boards of marble whose bottoms conceal the empty space/cavity of a handbreadth and the defilement bursts through and ascends.

אבל אם היו טמאות – even if they are not above the ground, the upper ones which are a handbreadth above the ground bring the defilement, for the lower ones do not conceal/stop up, since they are impure, this resembles the ones folded over/doubled on each other and boards on top of each other.

או גבוהות מן הארץ פותח טפח – they bring the defilement, and even the pure ones since they touch each other in a width of a handbreadth they are all considered like one tent.