Commentary for Parah 12:6
הַמַּזֶּה בְאֵזוֹב טָמֵא, אִם יֶשׁ בּוֹ כַבֵּיצָה, הַמַּיִם פְּסוּלִים, וְהַזָּיָתוֹ פְסוּלָה. אֵין בּוֹ כַבֵּיצָה, הַמַּיִם כְּשֵׁרִים, וְהַזָּיָתוֹ פְסוּלָה. וּמְטַמֵּא אֶת חֲבֵרוֹ, וַחֲבֵרוֹ אֶת חֲבֵרוֹ, אֲפִלּוּ הֵן מֵאָה:
One who sprinkles with an impure hyssop, if it has [the volume] equivalent to an egg, the waters are invalid, and his sprinkling is invalid. If it does not have [the volume] equivalent to an egg, the waters are valid, and his sprinkling is invalid. And it renders its fellow [hyssop] impure, and its fellow [renders] its fellow [impure], even if there are a hundred of them.
Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
המזה אזוב טמא – as for example, the hyssop of a garden that was picked/harvested for eating.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
One who sprinkles with unclean hyssop: if [the hyssop] was the amount of an egg the water becomes invalid, and the sprinkling is invalid. If it was less than the amount of an egg, the water remains valid but the sprinkling is invalid. The hyssop needs to be the volume of an egg in order to convey impurity (see 11:3). If one dips the unclean hyssop into the water it defiles the remaining water and the sprinkling is invalid. However, if there is less than an egg in volume, the water remains valid because less than an egg is insufficient to convey impurity. However, the sprinkling is still invalid because the hyssop was not pure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
אם יש בו כביצה – which is the measure of food, whether to susceptible to receive ritual defilement or whether to defile others.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
It also defiles other hyssop, and that other hyssop to other, even if they be a hundred. If there is an egg's worth of hyssop it defiles other hyssop by contact such that the other hyssop also cannot be used for the hatat ritual. Similarly, the newly defiled hyssop will defile any hyssop with which it has contact and it too will not be valid for the hatat ritual. The reason is that when it comes to the hatat ritual, there is no such thing as "first degree impurity" "second degree impurity" etc, as there is with other matters of purity. Rather, the level of impurity is never reduced.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
והזאתו פסולה – as it is written (Numbers 19:19): “The pure person shall sprinkle it,” that the person who will be sprinkling is pure and the hyssop is pure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
אפילו הן מאה – all of them are ritually impure for purification/sin-offering, for we don’t count first-degree and second-degree for purification but rather all of them are first-degree.
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