Parah 5:7 - 5:8

השוקת שבסלע (the trough which [is hewn] in the rock) – A שוקת/trough is a hollowed rock that is on the rim of a spring and the water enters in it through a hole that is in its wall and waters the animals. But here we are speaking of a rock that is attached that was hollowed out, it is not considered a utensil since it didn’t have the designation of a vessel when it was detached. But even that it was detached [other than] that they attached it and at the end hollowed it out.

ואינה צריכה צמיד פתיל – if it was in the tent of a corpse it protects on what is within it with the covering alone without the tightly fitted lid, because it is not considered a vessel but rather like a pit or a cistern that protects over what is inside of it with a cover without a tightly fitted lid/stopper, as is taught in Chapter Five of [Tractate] Ahilot [Mishnah 6].

ואינה פוסלת את המקוה – if rain water [fell] from it to the Mikveh/ritual bath, they are not considered drawn water to invalidate the Mikveh.

ופקקה (inserted a stop-gap) – stopped it up.

מפני שאינם עגולים כלי (because it is not wholly enclosed by the vessel) – meaning to say, that the vessel does not surround the water, that the perforation that is from the bottom neutralizes it from the category of a vessel, for the closing up of a rag does not make it into a vessel. But when the perforation/hole is from the side, the category of a vessel is upon it and we mix with the water that is within it, since the vessel surrounds them (i.e., the waters). And that is that the vessel is round.

עשה לה עטרה (made for it a molding of mud) – a detached trough that was attached with plaster/lime, which is considered a vessel and made a rim of mud/plaster for its fmoutjh and the trough was filled with water until it also filled the rim, the waters are invalid to mix because the addition is not considered a vessel.

ואם היה בריא (but if it was firm) – meaning to say, if this rim was strong and attached to the trough until that if he were to take the trough, he would also take the rim with it, they are fit/appropriate.

שתי שקתות שבאבן- here we are speaking of a stone that is carried that is not an attached rock, and these two troughs have the designation of a vessel.

קדש אחת מהן – that he placed ashes fo the heifer/cow in the water that is in one of them.

כשפופרת הנוד (tube/mouth-piece of the leather bottle) – like a kind of reed that he placed on the mouth of the leather bottle that through it he empties out the wine or the water within the bottom. And Is measure, in order that there would be the first two fingers of the palm of the hand are able to go back in through the space, not the thumb, but the fingers adjacent to it.

או שהיו מים צפין על גביהן – as for example that the intermediate wall interrupts between the two trough lower than the other walls.

כקליפת השום ([a film of water] of the thickness of a garlic peel) – that when both of them are filled, the water floats on the middle partition like the garlic peel.