Taharos 9:8 - 9:9

בריחים (in the millstones) – that they grind/mill the olives before placing them in the olive press and afterwards they place them in the olive press and mill them with a beam.

ואם היה משקה – the liquid is defiled by the [dead] creeping thing, and all of the olives are defiled through connection of the liquid.

נמצא על גבי העלים – if the [dead] creeping thing is found on top of the leaves that cover the olives, and the leaves are not receptacles of defilement.

ישאלו הבדדים (ask the olive press workers) – commoners who are not careful in their observance of the laws of Levitical purity and tithing whom the owner of the oil purified to work on his olives in ritual purity, and they are believed to state: “we have not touched the creeping thing that is on the leaves and we were not defiled.

ואם היה נוגע באום – if the creeping thing left from the leaves that cover the olives and touched the cluster/mass of olives.

אפילו וכו' – one hair from the creeping thing touches the cluster/mass [of olives].

טמא – all of the cluster/mass [of olives is ritually impure], for it is considered attachment/joining. [The word] אום/cluster, mass, the olives that are collected together and attached each with another in the vat are called an אום.

נמצא על גבי פרודים (if [the insect] was found on top of the broken olives) = after he inserted a peg in the cluster/mass of olives to separate the cluster to several separate parts, and in each clod of earth from these parts from the cluster, there are olives that are attached.

והוא נוגע בכביצה (and it touches an egg’s bulk) – that if he came to combine the olives that the creeping insect touches that have an egg’s bulk.

טמא – all of the clod of earth [is impure] even though the clod of earth is attached from when inserted the peg in the mass/cluster to separate them, nevertheless, since there is in this clod of earth impure olives like the appropriate measure to defile others, which is like an egg’s bulk, it becomes attached to defile all the rest of the olives in it.

פירודים על גבי פירודים (broken-off blocks on top of other broken-off blocks) – there are clods of earth on top of clods of earth that the creeping inspect is on the uppermost clod.

אע"פ שהשרץ נוגע בכביצה – of that clod of earth.

אין טמא אלא מקום מגעו – of the creeping insect [only what it touched through contact is impure], that is to say, that clod of earth that the creeping insect touched, but the rest of the clods of earth are ritually pure.

נמצא – the creeping insect [is found]

בין כותל לזיתים טהור - and we are not concerned that perhaps it (i.e., the creeping insect) was on the olives.

נמצא בגג – that one brings up olives from the vat to the roof and the creeping insect is found afterwards in the olives that are on the roof.

המעטן טהור – meaning to say that the olives that are in the vat are ritually pure, and we don’t say with the olives that were brought and were in the vat.

נמצא במעטן – olives that he brought up on the roof, are ritually impure, for before he brought the the olives to the roof the creeping insect was in the vat.

נמצא שרוף (if it found burned – and clean on the olives) – but a burnt creeping insect does not defile, as it is written (Leviticus 11:31): “whoever touches them when they are dead [shall be impure until evening],” similar to their being dead. And when it is found burnt on top of ritually pure olives, we are not concerned that perhaps it touched them before it was burned.

מהוהא (tattered, scorched) – a cloth that was burned by fire and became like a kind of קורי עכבים/an impeding beam, and it no longer is susceptible to receive ritual defilement.

טהורה – and we don’t say that perhaps it was ritually impure from the outset before it was singed/burnt.

בשעת מציאתן – whether or leniency or whether for stringency (see Tractate Taharot, Chapter 3, Mishnah 5 where this principle is enunciated – at the time when they are found).