Zavim 5:1 - 5:2

הנוגע בזב. וכלי שטף במגע (he who touches a Zav/person with a flux. And a vessel that requires only rinsing to be restored to Levitical cleanness) – for just as a person who touches a Zav/person with a flux defiles clothing at the time of his contact/touching, so he defiles all vessels that touch them at the time of his [physical] contact with a Zav, except for humans and earthenware vessels. As it is taught in the [Halakhic Midrash] of the Torah of the Priests (i.e., Sifra), from where do we make the rest of vessels like clothing? The inference teaches us (Leviticus 15:5): “and remains impure/וטמא [until the evening].” I might think that it makes a person and earthenware vessels [impure], the inference teaches us "בגד"/”All cloth [or leather on which semen falls shall be washed in water and remain impure until evening]” (Leviticus 15:17); it defiles clothing, but it does not defile human beings and earthenware vessels. And especially at the time of contact with the Zav/person with a flux, but if he separates [from the things that make him unclean], it does not, as it is written (Leviticus 15:5): “Anyone who touches his bedding shall wash his clothes, bathe in water and remain impure [until evening];” at the time of his contact he defiles his clothing, [but if] he separates, he does not defile clothing.

אבל לא במשא (but not what he carries) – if at the time of his contact with a Zav/person with a flux he carried clothing but did not touch them, they are ritually pure.

כל המטמא בגדים בשעת מגעו – as for example, a person who touches a man with a flux/gonorrhea, or a woman with a flux, or a woman who has just given birth and with their discharges, with what they lie upon (i.e., bedding) and with what they sit upon.

מטמא אוכלים להיות תחלה – because he is considered like a primary source of ritual defilement at the time of his contact, since the Torah stated that he defiles clothing.

ואת הידים להיות שניות – but the body of a person, he (i.e., the Zav) does not defile, as it is taught in the concluding clause that he does not defile a person and an earthenware vessel.

ולאחר פרישתו ממטמאיו מטמא את המשקין להיות תחלה – and even though he is not aught but first degree of ritual impurity, he makes the liquids first remove, for even second degree of ritual impurity defiles liquids to be first remove. But they are likely/liable to catch uncleanness and don’t require fitness to become unclean (which arises from contact with certain liquids) like foods, they (i.e., the Rabbis) decreed concerning them that they are always of first remove, as a decree because of liquids that come on account of [contact with] a reptile which are first remove from the Torah.

והאוכלים והידים להיות שניות – since he separated from the things which make him unclean, it is not other than a mere first [degree of ritual defilement].

כל הנישא על גבי הזב – the uppermost part of the person with a flux/gonorrhea and even if the person with a flux/gonorrhea did not touch him and even if there are many things that interpose between him and between the person with a flux/gonorrhea, everything is ritually impure, as it is written (Leviticus 15:10): “Whoever touches anything that was under him [shall be impure until evening].” What is underneath him? If you were to say, underneath the person with flux/gonorrhea, that is his lying, but rather with anything that the Zav/person with flux will be underneath him, that is, the uppermost part of the Zav. And this applies to all things, even with something that is not normally upon him, and not with that is similar to what is below him, for it is not practiced other than something that appears to him.

חוץ מהן הראוי למשכב ולמושב – and the same law applies for what he is riding upon, but that which is not appropriate is pure, as for example, if he inverted a Seah which is not made for sitting and he sat upon it, it is possible that it would be impure for sitting, as the inference teaches us (Leviticus 15:6): “Whoever sits on an object on which the one with the discharge has sat,” that which is special fro sitting, excluding this that we say to him: “stand and perform our work.”

נדבך (a frame carried to the building ground with the tools and vessels above and under it) – a row of the building of the wall, like (Ezra 6:4): “With a course of unused timber [for each three courses of hewn stone].”

הטהור מלמעלה – on the frame/course of stones and weighing down upon the finger of the person with flux/gonorrhea (i.e., the Zav), for now it is carried above the Zav and is considered a primary source of ritual defilement.

מטמא שנים ופוסל אחד – it defiles first degree [of ritual impurity] and second degree [of ritual impurity], and renders heave-offering/priest’s due] impure with one further remove.

פירש – the pure person came down from the course of stones/frame, or that the person with flux/gonorrhea (i.e., the Zav) removed his finger from underneath the course of stones/frame. It defiles the pure with one remove and invalidates one remove, because the pure thing is not other first degree of ritual impurity for since it separates, it further does not defile clothing and makes heave offering/priest’s due second and third remove.

הטמא מלמעלה – on the course of stones/frame, and the finger of the pure person is underneath the course of stones/frame and the impure person weighs down upon him, for the Zav/the person with a flux/gonorrhea is carried upon it, therefore it defiles two removes and renders unfit one further remove.

והמדף – all the vessels that are not lying or sitting are called מדף/indirect contact for conferring ritual impurity.

מלמעלה – [above] the course of stones/frame, but the finger of the Zav/person with flux/gonorrhea is from below, they are not other than first degree of ritual impurity,

and they defile one remove and renders unfit [still] one [further] remove, but after they have separated, also this is the law.

פירשו מטמאין שנים ופוסלין אחד – the person who lies and who sits is always a primary source of ritual defilement, even though they (i.e., the defiling agents) have separated themselves.

טהורים – as we have stated that all that the Zav/person with flux/gonorrhea is carried upon is pure, except for from lying and sitting and the human being.