Commentaire sur Oholot 4:7

מגדל העומד באויר (a tower/cupboard standing isolated) – a wooden turret that has walls but the walls themselves have a cavity in their thickness, such as perforated holes that are open to the inside and the outside but they lack an opening of a handbreadth, and it is customary to hide there needles and hooks/curved pins and small vessels.

A cupboard standing in the open air: If there is uncleanness within it, vessels in the [niches in the] thickness [of its walls] remain clean. If there is uncleanness in [the niches in] its thickness, vessels inside [the cupboard] remain clean. Rabbi Yose says: half and half.
When it is standing inside a house: If there is uncleanness inside [the cupboard], the house is unclean; If there is uncleanness in the house that which is within [the cupboard] remains clean, for the manner of uncleanness is to go out and not to go in.
Vessels which are between [the cupboard] and the ground, or between it and the wall, or between it and the roof-beams: If there is a space of one cubic handbreadth there, they become unclean. If not they remain clean.
If there is uncleanness there, the house becomes unclean.
Section one: The cupboard in our mishnah is large enough such that it doesn't receive impurity in itself. The cupboard is outside in the open air and not in the house.
If there is a source of impurity in the cupboard, and there are vessels in niches in the thickness of its walls, these vessels remain pure. These niches are not considered to be in the space of the cupboard. Similarly, if there is a source of impurity within the niches, the vessels inside the cupboard are pure.
Rabbi Yose disagrees. He divides these niches in half and says that the inner half is considered to be like the cupboard and the outer half is considered to be like the space outside the cupboard.
Section two: If the cupboard is within a house, then the impurity can escape the cupboard and go into the house (even if the cupboard is locked), but impurity from the house does not enter the cupboard (as long as the cupboard is closed). This is because of the rule that impurity escapes but does not enter.
Section three: This section describes a situation in which vessels are found in between the cupboard and the walls, floor or roof of the house, and there is a source of impurity in the house or in the cupboard. If there is a space that is at least 1 x 1 x 1 handbreadths, then the impurity goes in there through the fact that the house acts as an ohel. But if the space is smaller, the impurity does not enter, for impurity does not enter such small spaces.
However, if there is impurity in that space, then the house is impure because the impurity is inside the house. The cupboard is impure because impurity goes out but does not enter.

שהוא עומד באויר—underneath the airspace of the sky, such as that it stands in the courtyard.

טומאה בתוכו – in the cavity of the turret itself.

כלים שבעוביו – in the thickness of the cavity of the walls.

מחצה למחצה – from its half of the thickness of the cupboard/turret and towards the inside is like the inside, from its half [of the thickness] towards the outside is like the outside. Whether the defilement is in the turret/cupboard and the vessels are in its thickness, or whether the defilement is in its thickness and the vessels are in the turret/cupboard. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.

טומאה בתוכו – within the turret/cupboard.

הבית טמא – even though that its doors are sealed. As it (i.e., the Mishnah) explains the reason that the manner of the defilement/uncleanness is to depart from there to the house.

טומאה בבית מה שבתוך המגדל – this is with its doors sealed. For if they are opened, it is no worse than a window that is between the two houses. For the reason that what is within the turret/cupboard is ritually pure, is that there is no path for the defilement that is in the house to enter into the turret/cupboard.

אם יש שם פותח טפח – between the rims of the turret/cupboard and the ground or between the wall of the turret/cupboard to the wall or between the roof the turret to the ceiling of the house.

טמאים – on account of the defilement that is in the house. But if there isn’t there [an opening] of a handbreadth, the turret/cupboard is like a לבוד/joined (i.e., that two solid surfaces are considered to be joined if there is a gap less than three handbreadths between them). And the defilement of the house does not enter there.

טומאה שם הבית טמא – if there was defilement between the rims of the turret/cupboard to the ground of the house. Or [there was defilement] between the roof of the turret to the roof of the house or between the walls of the turret to the walls of the house, even though there isn’t between them an opening of a handbreadth. הבית טמא – for the turret/cupboard does not protect regarding the defilement that is below it within the house so that it doesn’t defile all that is in the house.

תיבת המגדל -it is customary to make small chests within the wooden turret/cupboard, in order to hide in them vessels and food and liquids.

[With regard to] a drawer of the cupboard, which is one cubic handbreadth, but whose outlet is not a square handbreadth, if there is uncleanness inside it, the house becomes unclean; The mishnah now discusses a drawer inside the cupboard. The drawer is one handbreadth cubed, meaning that it is large enough to be considered an ohel. However, its opening is less than a handbreadth's in size. Nevertheless, if there is a piece of corpse (or other corpse type uncleanness) in the drawer it escapes the drawer and defiles everything in the house. This is the same principle we learned in 3:7 impurity can escape an inner ohel and go into a larger ohel (the house).

בה פותח טפח – there is in its cavity an opening of a handbreadth, but there is no defilement hidden.

But if there is uncleanness in the house, that which is within [the drawer] remains clean, for the manner of uncleanness is to go out and not to go in. However, impurity does not go into a smaller ohel (the drawer) from the larger ohel. Therefore, if there is impurity in the house it does not defile things that are in the drawer.

ואין ביציאתה – in the hole of its opening, there isn’t a handbreadth.

Rabbi Yose declares [the house] clean, since he can remove [the uncleanness] by halves or burn it where it stands. Rabbi Yose says that even things in the house are pure, in a case where there is a source of impurity in the drawer. He holds that impurity escapes holes smaller than a handbreadth only if it is inevitable that the source of impurity will at some point have to leave its current place (the drawer). In other words, he would state that the contents of the larger ohel are impure only if we can anticipate that the impurity will leave its current ohel and actually enter the larger. However, in this case, it is not inevitable that the impurity will actually enter the house, or at least that an olive's worth of it will. One could either burn the impurity while it's still in the drawer, or he could remove it in pieces smaller than an olive. Since the impurity may not enter the house, the contents of the house are not defiled.

טומאה בתוכה הבית טמא – and even though that its opening is small. As it explains the reason, because it is the manner of the defilement to go out, by force, its end is to exit through the path of this opening, therefore, it defiles immediately in the path of its exiting.

שבתוכה טהור מה– since there isn’t in its removal an opening of a handbreadth, it doesn’t bring in the defilement.

ואין דרך טומאה ליכנס – that its conclusion is not to bring into it a corpse.

ור' יוסי מטר – for perhaps its end is not exit through the path of this opening which has the measurement of defilement/uncleanness, for it is able to be remove it by halves or to burn it in its place. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.

היה – the turret/cupboard was standing within the house, but the opening of the drawer was towards the outside.

[In the case where] the cupboard is standing in the doorway and is opened outward, if there is uncleanness inside it, the house remains clean. The impurity escapes from the cupboard to the outside and therefore the contents of the house remain pure.

טומאה בתוכה בבית טהור – for what is there is a reason to defile it? For there is no defilement that has an opening of a handbreadth and it is not hidden within. And because the departure of defilement also does not defile, because its departure/exuding is not inside within the house.

If there is uncleanness in the house, that which is within [the cupboard] becomes unclean, for the manner of uncleanness is to go out and not to go in. The impurity escapes from the house through the cupboard, thereby defiling all that is in the cupboard.

טומאה בבית מה שבתוכו טהור- for it is not the manner of defilement to enter/seep in there.

If its wheeled base protruded three fingerbreadths behind it and there was uncleanness inside it under the roof-beams, the house remains clean. The cupboard is sitting in the doorway on a wheeled base. The wheeled base is in the house, but only by three fingerbreadths, less than a handbreadth. The wheeled base has something unclean (piece of corpse) on it and it sits underneath the roof-beams of the house. Since the wheeled base is within three fingerbreadths of the cupboard, it is treated like the cupboard itself and the impurity on the wheeled base does not go into the house, even though it is under the beams of the house.

מוכני (wheel-work, machine for lifting weights) – a wheel that is made for the turret/cupboard to bring it from place to place.

When does this ruling apply? When there is a space of one cubic handbreadth, when it is not easily detachable, and when the cupboard is of the stipulated size. The rule in section three is true only if the following three conditions are met: 1) The wheelbase has the dimensions of an ohel a square handbreadth. With these dimensions it can prevent the impurity from escaping into the house. 2) The wheelbase is firmly attached to the cupboard, thereby allowing it to be treated as part of the cupboard. 3) The cupboard is large enough to hold 40 seahs of liquid/60 seah of dry goods, which is the size the cupboard needs to be for it not to be impure. If the cupboard is smaller, it does not prevent impurity from escaping or entering (we will return to this subject in 8:1).

משוכה לאחוריו (if its base protruded -backwards)- distanced from the back of the turret/cupboard to the side of the house. For the turret stands on the opening and the wheel-work/base protrudes backwards towards of the house inside, but the defilement there within the wheel-work is opposite the beams of the house. Even though the house overshadows upon it.

הבית טהור – for the wheel-work/base is considered like a turret/cupboard, for the turret stands at the entrance and opens outward. And the three fingers that it (i.e., the Mishnah) took, if it was protruding more than three fingerbreadths, it would not be like a turret/cupboard, for it is not the manner to distance the wheel-work/base from the turret so much.

בזמן שיש שם פותח טפח – for the cavity of the wheel-work/base that the defilement is contained in is open a handbreadth, in order that there not be pressed ritual impurity that it breaks through and rises.

ואינה יוצאת – for the wheel-work/base is not detached completely from the turret/cupboard.

והמגדל בא במדה (and the cupboard comes in requisite size) – that it holds forty Se’ah in moist with are two Kors in dry. And when it is in requisite size it is not susceptible to receive defilement and it interposes before the defilement. But less than this measure, it is like the rest of the vessels that are susceptible to receive defilement and it does not interpose before the defilement. And every turret/cupboard that is taught in this chapter [of Mishnah], is a cupboard that comes in requisite size.