Commentaire sur Oholot 13:1

העושה מאור ((he who leaves a light-hole/opening – in the wall – from the start – when building) – a window that is made for its light.

Introduction Chapter thirteen deals with the size that a hole in a building must be in order for corpse impurity found in a tent to travel to the other side.

בתחילה – because they need to need the concluding clause: "שיירי המאור"/”remnants of the light,” it teaches in the first clause, “from the start”/"בתחילה".

One who makes a new light hole, its minimum size is that of a hole made by the large drill of the Temple chamber. When one makes a new light-hole in a house, in order for it to bring impurity to something on the other side, it must be the size of a hole made by the large drill used in the Temple chamber. This drill is referred to also in Kelim 17:12.

מקדח גדול של לשכה (the full capacity of a large borer/drill of the chamber) – It is like the Italian Dupondium and like the Neronian Sela and it has the full capacity of a hole of a yoke/pole. If it has in the window like this measure, it brings the defilement to the other side.

The remains of a light-hole [the size is] two fingerbreadths high by a thumb-breadth broad. The following is considered the remains of a light-hole: a window that a person had blocked up but had not been able to finish [being blocked up]. The "remains of a light hole" is a light hole that they began to close up but they didn't finish closing it up. It needs only be two finger-breadths by a thumb-breadth. The concept behind this halakhah is that once something enters a certain category, it is harder to leave that category than it was to get there in the first place.

שיירי המאור – if thee remains from the window that is not concealed.

[A hole] that was bored by water, or by reptiles or eaten away by salt: the minimum size is that of a fist. If he intended to use it, its minimum size is one handbreadth square; For lighting its minimum size is that of a hole made by the drill. A hole made by a natural cause must be at least the size of a fist. This is larger than the hole made by the drill. See Kelim 17:12. However, if he intended to use the hole that was created by a natural cause, it takes on the halakhic requirements of a handmade hole, and it depends on what he wants to use it for. If he intends to use it to put his things there, then it must be one handbreadth square. If he intends to use it for lighting, then the size is smaller the size made by the drill (section one).

חררוהו מים- that the cave was not made at the hand of a person but rather through the running water.

The holes in grating or lattice-work may be joined together to form [an opening] the size of a hole made by the drill, according to the opinion of Bet Shammai. Bet Hillel says: unless there is a hole of the size made by the drill in one place. Bet Shammai holds that the small holes made in grating or in lattice-work join together to create the required sized hole to bring impurity from one side to the other side. Bet Hillel says that there must be one hole that is at least the size of the drill. In other words, the smaller holes are not combined.

או שרצים – as for example the mole/weasel and the mouse.

[The above applies] for purposes of allowing the uncleanness to come in or to go out. Rabbi Shimon says: only for allowing the uncleanness to come in; but for allowing the uncleanness to go out [the minimum size] is one handbreadth square. According to the first opinion, the measure of the size of a drill was stated both to allow impurity to enter a house from an adjacent ohel or to allow the impurity to escape from the house to an adjacent ohel. Rabbi Shimon says that the earlier halakhah concerning a hole the size of the Temple drill was stated only with regard to allowing impurity to enter. When it comes to allowing impurity to escape, there is a different requirement the hole must be one square handbreadth. This halakhah is also found in 3:6.

או שאכלתו מלחת (or formed through corrosion produced by saline corrosion) – that the land is filled with saline corrosion and it burst forth on its own.

מלא אגרוף – the fist of Ben Battiah (see Tractate Kelim, Chapter 17, Mishnah 12 – Ben Battiah is the nephew of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leaders of the terrorists during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans) – a large person whose fist was like the large head of all people.

חישב עליו לתשמיש – a window that that the running waters or the reptiles made, that he gave thought to use it and to leave there his belongings.

למאור – to bring in light.

הסריגות (the lattice In the windows) – the partitions which are like net-work in zig-zag that they make in widows of storehouses.

והרפפות (loose lattice work with wide meshes – used for sheds) – partitions that are zig-zag that they make in windows of summer houses where they sit there to cool off.

מצטרפות כמלוא מקדח – the airspace that is between the lattice in the windows, even though there isn’t in one place like the breadth of a hole of a borer/drill, they combine amongst all of them to the size of a borer.

להביא את הטומאה ולהוציא את הטומאה – this is not referring to the dispute between the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, but it refers to the measurements of the first clause of the Mishnah. And this is what he said: The size of the hole of the large drill/borer and the size of the fist [of Ben Battiah] and the opening of a handbreadth that we stated, all of these measurements, whether to bring in the defilement into the house or whether to remove the defilement from the house. But Rabbi Shimon disputes this, and holds, whether to bring in or whether to remove, for all of them their measurement is the opening of a handbreadth, and Shimon does not have the measurement of the size of the hole of the borer or the size of the fist at all. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.