Taharos 10:1 - 10:2

הנועל בית הבד מפני הבדדין – commoners who are not careful in their observance of Levitical uncleanness and tithing who do work in the olive press, the owner of the olives purified the in order that they would make the [olive] oil in ritual purity, and locked the olive press in their faces so that commoners should not enter there and they should not leave and be defiled through the contact of their commoner colleagues.

והיו שם – within the olive press.

כלים טמאין מדרס – which is a primary source of ritual impurity an they defile humans whether by contact, whether by carrying or whether by shaking.

ר' מאיר אומר בית הבד אמא – for we are concerned that perhaps these ritually pure commoners were defiled and they returned and defiled everything, for they are not concerned about being careful on [matters of] defilement.

רבי יהודה אומר בית הבד טהור – for they are careful on definitive defilement, since this member of the order for the observance of Levitical laws in daily intercourse purified them for this.

ר' שמעון אומר אם טהורים להם – these are the vessels. As for example, that the wife of a commoner sat upon them or that they belonged to a commoner, that in their eyes were ritually pure.

בית הבד טמא – for the workmen in the olive press are not careful from touching them, and one has to be concerned that perhaps they were defiled.

ואם טמאין הן – as, for example, that they knew that a menstruating woman or a woman with a flux sat upon them.

א"ר יוסי – like Rabbi Meir, he (i.e., Rabbi Yossi) holds that the olive press is ritually impure, but the reason of Rabbi Meir is because the olive press workmen are not concerned about defilement, whereas Rabbi Yossi holds that they are concerned about contact but they are not expert in [questions of] shaking, and they think that they are pure all the tine that they didn’t touch it. Therefore, the olive press is ritually impure, for we are concerned that perhaps they shook it, even though they didn’t touch them. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yossi.

ומשקין טמאין בתוך בית הבד – and they are spilled on the ground and the olive press workmen tread upon them and they (i.e., the liquids) become attached to their feet and they return those liquids and defile the olives when the olive press workmen ascend and tread upon the olives unless there is land between the liquids and the olives in order that they can dry their feet from the impure liquids through their treading/walking on the land. But when there aren’t shoes on their feet and the impure liquids that are on their feet dried through their treading on the land, furthermore, the olives do not become defiled when they tread on them, for ritually impure liquids defile vessels but do not defile humans.

הבדדין והבוצרין – surely that it (i.e., the Mishnah) did not use [the language] of those who harvest olives and those who cut grapes/"המוסקים והבוצרים" , because they (i.e., the Sages) made a degree on the cutting of grapes that it should be done [in a state of] ritual purity, but they didn’t make a decree on those who harvest olives, and the reason is explained in the first chapter of [Tractate] Shabbat (17a), for sometimes a person goes to his vineyard to know if his grapes have arrived [at the proper time] to cut them or not, and he takes a cluster of grapes and wrings them out and sprinkles them over the grapes, and at the time of the cutting of the grapes liquid still flows upon them and they have been made fit to be susceptible to receive ritual defilement. And this reason does not belong with the harvesting of olives.

נאמנים לומר לא נגענו – and as for example, that a member of the order for the observance of Levitical laws in daily intercourse/חבר stands with them in the olive press, and we are not concerned that perhaps they touched it but it was not the intention of the member of the order for the observance of Levitical laws in daily intercourse.

התינוקות – olive press workmen who brought their children with them, and purified them for this, and when their sons want to defecate, their fathers exit outside with them and they defecate beyond the wall, and we are not concerned that perhaps he touched defilement, and it was not the intention of the member of the order for the observance of Levitical laws in daily intercourse/חבר.