There were courtyards in Jerusalem built on rock and below them was hollow because of graves of the deep. [Stepping over a human grave causes ritually impurity, which can be blocked by a sufficiently wide space between the body and the covering; by building a courtyard over a hollow, one guarantees that any graves which are too deep to be discovered can not make people in the courtyard above impure.] They would bring pregnant women to there [these courtyards], and they would give birth there and raise their children there [to ensure that the children never become ritually impure]. They would bring oxen and on their backs slats [literally: doors] and the children would sit on top of them with stone cups in their hands. When they reached the Shiloach [stream], they would descend and fill [the cups], and remount and sit atop them. Rabbi Yose says: From his place [atop the oxen] one would lower and fill [his cup].
Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
בנויות על גבי הסלע – The flinty rock that was known that was there from the beginning of the Creation of the world. But nevertheless, they were stringent to make a cavity underneath it, because of the grave in the depth, lest there is underneath it a grave and there no tent for the corpse that is a handbreadth hollow, and the defilement that is pressed ritual impurity (i.e., a corpse or part of a corpse located beneath a roof or a covering imparts ritual impurity only to objects beneath that covering – if there is a handbreadth of space between the corpse and the roof or covering) and it burst forth and rises, therefore, they would build it on top of arches, for even if there is a grave underneath them, the cavity interrupts it. And all the language of defilement of the depths that is in the Gemara, is the language of doubt and covered, like this depth that is not revealed.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
Introduction
This mishnah discusses how they would preserve the purity of the children of priests so that they could perform the red cow ritual without ever having become impure. This was an extra stringency due to the high degree of gravity with which they took the red cow ceremony.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
ומביאים נשים מעוברות ויולדות שם - all of these are additional preferences that they made, just as so that they would not disregard/despise it, because hey would do it with a person who immersed himself that day.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
Courtyards were built in Jerusalem over rock, and beneath them there was a hollow which served as a protection against a grave in the depths. They would not build the courtyards directly over the ground just in case there was a grave deep in the ground, and the dead body's impurity would rise and defile the priests above. The hollow between the rock and the building platform would serve to capture the impurity and prevent it from rising. This was a concept we learned much about in Tractate Ohalot a space the size of one handbreadth by one handbreadth prevents impurity from rising up above the space.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
ומגדלות שם את בניהן – until they would be eight [years] old, but not more so that they don’t see a nocturnal emission.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
And they used to bring there pregnant women, and there they gave birth to their children and there they raised them. They would bring pregnant women there to give birth and raise their children there so that the children would never become impure. Again, this is not strictly necessary but it demonstrates the extra degree of severity with which they treated this purity ritual.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
ומביאים שוורים – whose stomachs are wide in order that the feet of the young children who sit upon them overshadow over the land because of the grave of the depths.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
And they brought oxen, upon whose backs were placed doors, and the children sat upon them with stone cups in their hands. The following two sections describe how they would draw water from the Shiloah spring without possibly coming into contact with a source of impurity. The children would ride oxen down to the spring. The doors on the oxen's backs would prevent the children from overshadowing (making an ohel over) any source of impurity. They used stone cups because stone cannot become impure.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
When they reached the Shiloah spring they got down and filled the cups with water and then they ascended and sat again on the doors. Rabbi Yose said: each child used to let down his cup and fill it from his place. They filled their cups from the Shiloah spring which is on the southern side of Jerusalem (also called the Silwan). Rabbi Yose says that they didn't even get off the backs of their oxen to do so. Again, this was an extra stringency to make sure they did not become impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
וכוסות של אבן בידם – for all of the act of the “heifer” are in vessels of untrimmed stone and vessels of stone and vessels of earth that are not susceptible to receive defilement.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
ומלאו – [and they filled] from it water to sanctify the waters of the sin offering that they sprinkle on the [Kohen] who burns the heifer all seven [days]. But within the river there is no [reason] to doubt about the grave of the depths, for they don’t make graves in the rivers.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
רבי יוסי אומר – from on top of the oxen they would lover a rope and fill up [the cups] with water, but they would descend into [the waters of] the Siloam. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.
