[Si] un zav estaba acostado en cinco bancos o cinco bolsas de dinero, [si él estaba acostado sobre ellos] longitudinalmente no están limpios, [si estaba acostado sobre ellos] en toda su amplitud están limpios. [Si] él durmió [sobre ellos a lo ancho de ellos y] hay dudas de si los entregó [a lo largo de su longitud], son inmundos. Si estaba acostado en seis asientos, [con] sus dos manos en dos [asientos], sus dos pies en dos [asientos], su cabeza en un [asiento], [y] su cuerpo en un [asiento], solo el un [asiento] que estaba debajo de su cuerpo es inmundo. Si se acomoda en dos asientos, dice el rabino Shimon, si estaban distantes el uno del otro, están limpios.
Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
פונדיות (money-bags)- like long pouches/bags, receptacles.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
Introduction
A zav who lies on something makes it unclean. Our mishnah deals with cases where a zav lies on multiple items do they all become impure, or can we isolate which one(s) he really laid upon?
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Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
לארכן – that he lies on the length of the benches or the pouches/bags.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
A zav who lays across five benches, or five money-belts: If lengthwise, he [makes them] unclean; But breadthwise, they are clean. If the zav lies across the length of five benches or money-belts it is possible that at any one time most of his weight was on one of the benches or belts. Therefore, they are all impure. However, if he lies on them across their breadth then his weight is distributed equally among them all. Since he didn't lie on any one of them, they all remain pure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
טמאים – for on each one, the person with gonorrhea/the Zav leans upon them, sometimes on this one and sometimes on that one.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
If he slept [on them], and it was doubful that he had turned over onto them, they are unclean. If he slept on the benches or the money-belts then they are impure even if he slept across their breadth because we don't know if he turned around a lot while sleeping. Since he might have put all of his weight on one, they are all impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
לרחבן – that he lies his length on their width.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
If he was lying on six seats, with two hands on two [seats], two feet on another two, his head on one, with his body on another one, only that one on which his body lay is rendered unclean. Since the majority of his mass was on one of the seats, only that seat is unclean.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
טהורים – because the majority of his [body] does not lean upon one of them. And there is no lying or sitting ever until he leans most of his [body] upon it, as it is written (Leviticus 15:23): “Be it the bedding [or be it the object on which she has sat, on touching it he shall be unclean until evening], until his majority will be carried upon it.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Zavim
If [a zav] stood on two seats: Rabbi Shimon says: if these were distant one from the other, they remain clean. If the two seats are far apart from the other, then the zav would need both of them to stand on. Take one away and he would fall down. Since neither would support the full weight of the zav each remains pure. But if they were close together, at times the zav could shift all of his weight to one and then it would be defiled.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
ישן – widthwise, and there is doubt if he turned himself around/rolled over to lengthwise, they are ritually impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
כסיות – the plural language for “chair.”
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Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
שתחת הגוף – because the majority [of his body] is carried/borne upon him. But the others are ritually impure by contact of the person with gonorrhea. But they don’t have the law of lying and sitting to become a primary source of ritual impurity to defile people and vessels.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Zavim
אם רחוקים זה מזה טהורים – because the majority [of his body] is not carried/borne either on this one or on that one. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.
