Parah 5:3 - 5:4

קרויה (pumpkin-shell used as a drawing vessel, cooler) – a dry, hollow gourd/pumpkin that absorbs water.

שהטבילוה – a mere preference for lustration, but not because of defilement, for we are speaking of something new that was never defiled.

במים שאין ראויין לקדש מקדשים בה – after it was wiped off. But we don’t concern ourselves that perhaps it absorbed water that are not appropriate for mixing, and it will return and emit them.

נטמאה אין מקדשים בה – but even though he returned and immersed it, for we are concerned that perhaps it would emit impure liquids that had been absorbed in it. For the Rabbis hold that we should be stricter with impure waters more than with waters that are not appropriate for mixing. The Rabbi Yehoshua harmonized his measures. But if you are concerned, here and there you should be concerned. But if you are not concerned, here and there you should not be concerned. But rather, whether one way or the other, whether at the beginning he immersed it in water that was not appropriate for mixing and dried it off, or whether at the end when it had become defiled and he immersed it even with appropriate [waters] for mixing and dried it off, he should not add into it mixed waters, for we are concerned that perhaps he will emit them. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

שפופרת (tube) – of reed.

שחתכה – he prepared it to place in it the waters of lustration or the ashes of lustration (i.e., of the sin-offering), even if a חבר/member of a group dedicated to the precise observance of the commandments who is not suspect regarding defilement.

ר' אליעזר אומר יטביל מיד – and there is recognition, that the [rituals surrounding] the cow/heifer are performed by someone who had immersed himself that day, because vessels that have been completed in ritual purity require ritual immersion for consecrated objects, lest there remain in the vessel the spittle that comes out from the mouth of a person who is not punctilious in his observance of the laws of tithing and ritual purity (i.e., a common, uneducated person/עם הארץ), and it is moist at the time at the time when he completes the vessel and he defiles it. But even though that this defilement does not require [waiting until] sunset but only ritual immersion, nevertheless, there is recognition, because regarding the cow/heifer of lustration (i.e., the sin offering), it makes him like someone who has been defiled by a corpse on his seventh day and he defiles people and vessels, and if there is of a heifer, he would require a sunset [to pass], and it (i.e., the tube of the reed) would also require it.

ר' יהושע אומר יטמא ויטביל – that in another matter there isn’t any recognition, since the vessels that are completed in ritual purity do not require [the passing of] a sunset to mix them. But the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehoshua.

הכל כשרים לקדש - all those who are poor are fit/appropriate to cast the ashes into the mater, and even women. As is it written concerning the collection of the ashes of the cow/heifer (Numbers 19:9): “A man/person who is pure shall gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp [in a pure place, to be kept for water of lustration of the Israelite community].,” and we expound [on the word] "איש"/a person or man, to permit the non-Kohen/”foreigner.” [The word] טהור/pure [means] even a woman; [the word] "והניח"/he shall deposit [implies] a person that has cognitive awareness/temperament to place it, excluding the deaf-mute, the imbecile and a minor who lack cognitive awareness. And after [the collection of its ashes], if is written that this Divine service of mixing – and there is no Divine Service that interrupts in the meanwhile. We learned that all who are fit/appropriate for the collection of its ashes are fit/appropriate for mixing.

ר' יהודה מכשיר בקטן ופוסל באשה – but if there is that everyone who is fit for the collection of [ashes] is fit for mixing, it (i.e., the Torah) should write, "ולקח"/and he takes, in the singular with regard to mixing, for just as (i.e., the Torah) wrote, "ואסף"/and he collected – in the singular for collecting [of the ashes], why does it write, "ולקחו"/and they shall take (see Numbers 19:17 – “Some of the ashes from the fire of purification shall be taken for he impure person,”/"ולקחו לטמא מעפר שרפת החטאת", that even those that are invalid there are fit/appropriate here, such as a minor. But not a woman, for it is written (Numbers 19:17): "ונתן עליו מים חיים אל-כלי"/and fresh water shall be added to them in a vessel), "ונתן"/and he shall give, and not "ונתנה"/and she gave.