If there is an olive's volume of corpse in the mouth of a raven, and it is uncertain if it was in an enclosed space over a person or over vessels in a private domain [which would have rendered them impure], the person's uncertainly is impure [i.e. the purity status of the person is uncertain, and therefore impure]; the vessels' uncertainty is pure [i.e. their purity status is uncertain, and therefore pure]. If one is filling ten buckets [from a well] and a vermin is found in one of them, it [the bucket in which it was found] is impure, and they [the rest] are all pure. One who pours from one vessel to another and a vermin was found in the lower one, the upper one is pure.
Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
ספק אדם – there is doubt if it (i.e., the raven with an olive’s bulk of a corpse in its mouth) overshadowed over a person.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
An olive's bulk of corpse was held in a raven's mouth and it is doubtful whether it overshadowed a person or vessels in a private domain: The person's condition of doubt is deemed to be unclean But the vessels’ condition of doubt is deemed clean. There are two reasons why the person is unclean. First of all, a person has the ability to be asked (see mishnah 3:6) and any time someone can be asked, the doubtful case is deemed impure. Second, although the impurity is moving, there is a special rule with regard to impurity transmitted through overshadowing (ohel) it defiles in cases of doubt even though it is moving. The vessels remain pure because they don't have intelligence such that they can be asked.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
טמא – for he has awareness/knowledge to be interrogated, and he is not ritually pure for the reason that the defilement [of the olive’s bulk of a corpse] is in the mouth of the raven and it is passing defilement , and everything that overshadows is considered that there is defilement in the palce, and even that which is thrown.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
One who drew water in ten buckets and a dead sheretz was found in one of them, it alone is deemed unclean but all the others remain clean. The dead sheretz found in one bucket clearly defiles that bucket. We might have thought that the other buckets should also be impure because they may have had contact with the dead sheretz while it was in the cistern. The mishnah teaches that the other buckets are pure for if we know that impurity is in one place (the bucket in which it is found) we do not assume that it might have been in another place. Furthermore, the sheretz doesn't defile the water, for water that is still connected to its source in the ground (the well or cistern) is not susceptible to impurity.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
ספק כלים – there is doubt whether it (i.e., the raven) overshadowed [with the olive’s bulk of a corpse in its mouth] over the vessels.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
If one poured out from one vessel into another and a dead sheretz was found in the lower vessel, the upper one remains clean. If one is pouring from one vessel to another and a dead sheretz is found in the lower vessel, only the lower vessel is impure. We don't assume that the sheretz was originally in the upper vessel, for the same reason that we said in section two impurity found in one place is not assumed to have been in another.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
טהור – for they lack awareness/knowledge to be interrogated.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
הממלא בעשה דליים – one after another.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
ונמצא שרץ באחד מהן הוא טמא וכלן טהורים – and these words [refer to the situation] where [the bucket] lacks basins, all of them are ritually impure, for perhaps the creeping animal was the first [inside], and that which didn’t fall in with the water, we state that the basins prevented it.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
העליון טהור – [but we are not concerned that perhaps it was from the upper one] it (i.e., the creeping animal) fell to the lower one (i.e., vessel).
