Zavim 5:3 - 5:4

מפני שאמרו – that is to say, because what they said – that foods and drinks and the indirect contact for conferring ritual impurity from below underneath the lying person [on a bed] with flux/gonorrhea (i.e., the Zav) are ritually pure because of that which they said that whatever carries and is carried [on top of a bed is pure.

כל הנושא – as for example, foods and drinks and indirect contact for conferring ritual impurity which are below from the lying person [on a bed] with flux/gonorrhea (i.e., the Zav) and they carry him, but they don’t touch him for there are things that interpose between them.

נישא על גבי המשכב – for these are above (i.e., foods and drinks, etc.) and the unclean person lying (i.e., the Zav – the person with flux/gonorrhea) on a bed below, and it is carried upon him, but they (i.e., the objects) do not touch him, they are ritually pure.

חוץ מן האדם – that a person who carries the unclean person (i.e., the Zav – the person with flux/gonorrhea) on a bed is defiled even though he did not touch him and did not shake/move him, because the Zav who is lying on a bed defiles through carrying, and similarly, if they placed an immovable stone used for closing a pit above from where the Zav is lying and a ritually pure person sat upon the stone, he is defiled, because he was carried on top of the bed [of a lying Zav/person with flux/gonorrhea]. In the same way as that if the Zav sat on the stone, the bed that is below from the stone is ritually defiled, so when the pure person that sat on the stone is defiled, and he is carried from the defiling bed [of the Zav] that is lying underneath it.

כל הנושא על גבי נבילה – it is speaking/dealing with a human being, meaning to say, that any human being who carries or is placed on top of a carrion.

טהור חוץ מן המסיט – that carries the carrion and does not move it from its place, also did not move it from its place but rather that placed it on top of him, as for example, that his friend came and placed it upon him, he is ritually pure, until he shakes/moves it.

רבי אליעזר אומר אף הנושא – in the Gemara (Tractate Hullin, folio 124b) it explains that this is what he (Rabbi Eliezer) said: “and he that carries”, meaning to say, the person who shakes/moves the carrion is not ritually impure other than when he carries it, that the carrion is above and he (i.e., the person who carries it) is below, but if the carrion is below and he is above, even though he shakes/moves it, he is ritually pure, all the while that he did not touch it. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.

חוץ מן המאהיל – that it is possible to be carrying [a corpse] or being carried by [a corpse] but not overshadowing it [with a tent] , as for example, an upper chamber/story forms a partition, that if the corpse is on the upper chamber/story, and foods and drinks and vessels in the house reach until the ceiling, and the planed boards are bent from the weight of the corpse and weigh down upon vessels, or the corpse is in the house adjacent to the ceiling, and the vessels in the upper chamber/story and the planed boards that are in the upper are story/chamber are bent from the weight of the vessels and weigh down upon the corpse, for in this manner, one carries and is carried by on top of the corpse but does not overshadow, and is pure.

ואדם בזמן שהוא מסיא – whether he carries the corpse or whether he is carried on top of the corpse, he is ritually pure, even though it (i.e., the corpse) did not touch him, but if the corpse does not move from its place as there is no shaking/movement here, he is ritually pure.

מקצה טמא על הטהור – even the finger of a Zav/person with flux/gonorrhea is on top of the pure person, or the finer of a pure person is on top of the Zav, or a connection, it is impure, as for example, his hair and his fingernail or his teeth, all these are called חיבורי/a connection, junction, even though there isn’t other than a minority of the impure on top of the pure person or a minority of the pure on top of the impure thing, the pure thing is defiled, for we don’t require that he carries the majority of a person with a flux/gonorrhea (i.e., the Zav) other than upon the lying but not upon a person.

ומקצת טהור על הטמא טהור – for we require that he carries its majority. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.