Commentaire sur Oholot 5:6
כֵּיצַד. הַבּוֹר וְהַדּוּת שֶׁבַּבַּיִת, וּכְפִישָׁה נְתוּנָה עָלָיו, טָהוֹר. אִם הָיְתָה בְאֵר חֲלָקָה, אוֹ כַוֶּרֶת פְּחוּתָה, וּכְפִישָׁה נְתוּנָה עָלֶיהָ, טָמֵא. אִם הָיָה נֶסֶר חָלָק, אוֹ סְרִידָה שֶׁאֵין לָהּ גַּפַּיִם, טָהוֹר, שֶׁאֵין הַכֵּלִים מַצִּילִים עִם דָּפְנוֹת אֹהָלִים עַד שֶׁיְּהֵא לָהֶן דְּפָנוֹת. וְכַמָּה תְהֵא הַדֹּפֶן, טֶפַח. הָיָה לָהּ חֲצִי טֶפַח מִכָּאן וַחֲצִי טֶפַח מִכָּאן, אֵינָהּ דֹּפֶן, עַד שֶׁיְּהֵא לָהּ טֶפַח מִמָּקוֹם אֶחָד:
Comment? S'il y avait une citerne ou une cave dans une maison et qu'un grand panier était placé dessus, [le contenu de la citerne ou de la cave] reste pur. Mais si c'était un puits au niveau [avec le sol] ou un panier amoindri et qu'un grand panier était placé dessus, [le contenu] est impur. S'il s'agissait d'une planche lisse ou d'un filet sans jantes, [le contenu] est pur. Car les navires ne se protègent pas avec les murs des tentes à moins qu'ils n'aient eux-mêmes des murs. Combien doit être le mur? Une largeur de main. S'il y avait une demi-largeur de main d'un côté et une demi-largeur de main de l'autre, ce n'est pas [considéré] un mur, jusqu'à ce qu'il y ait une largeur de main entière d'un objet.
Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
הבור והדות שבבית (a cistern and a subterranean masoned cellar that are in the house) – and the corpse is in the house and vessels are in the cistern and cellar, and there is someone who seizes the partitions that are around them. Both a בור/cistern and a דות/cellar are in the ground, but the cistern [is made] through digging and the cellar [is made] through building/masonry.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Oholot
Introduction
At the end of yesterday's mishnah we learned that pure vessels protect against impurity together with the walls of an ohel. Today's mishnah illustrates how this rule works.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
וכפישה (an inverted vessel divided into two compartments by the bottom between – put on it as a tight lid) – a large basket that they press/squeeze the olives to produce shrinking and maturing of fruits by underground storage/לכומרן and it holds forty Se’ah or more, and is not susceptible to receive ritual impurity and is placed on the cistern or on the cellar.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Oholot
How so? If there was a cistern or a cellar in a house and a large basket was placed over it, [the contents of the cistern or cellar] remain clean. The basket described here is not susceptible to impurity. If there is a source of corpse impurity in the house, the basket protects the contents of the cistern or cellar from becoming impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
טהור – everything that is in them is [pure] since there are partitions there.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Oholot
But if it was a well [with its upper edge] level [with the ground] or a deficient beehive upon which the basket was placed, [the contents] become unclean. As we shall learn in section four, for the basket to stop the impurity it must have walls and join with the walls of the house/ohel. If the well is even with the ground then it has no walls and therefore the basket does not offer a barrier to the impurity. In this case there are no "walls of an ohel" with which the walls of the basket can join. The second case is that of a basket placed over a beehive. The beehive may look like an ohel, because it is not stopped up (this is one explanation of the word "deficient"). However, the beehive is not actually treated like an "ohel" but rather like a vessel. Therefore, there are no "walls of an ohel" with which the basket can join in order to prevent the impurity from entering.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
באר חלקה – that the mouth of the well is level to the ground of the house and there is no partition around it, for here there are no walls.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Oholot
If it was a smooth board or netting without rims, [the contents] remain clean. A smooth board or a piece of netting that has no rims/solid sides is not considered to be a vessel. They are not susceptible to impurity. If one of these items is placed on top of a well or a cellar it protects the contents of the well or cellar from being defiled by the impurity in the house.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
או כוורת פחותה (a broken beehive) – as for example large beehive that holds forty Se’ah, that is not susceptible to receive ritual impurity. But it is broken, and is not stuffed up with straw.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Oholot
For vessels cannot protect along with walls of an ohel unless they themselves have walls. As we learned in section two above, the ohel must have walls for the vessel to protect from impurity.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
וכפישה נתונה עליו – on the mouth of the cistern or on the mouth of the beehive.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Oholot
How much must the wall be? A handbreadth. If there was half a handbreadth on one side and half a handbreadth on the other, it is not [considered] a wall, as there must be a whole handbreadth on one object. The walls must be at least a handbreadth high. It does not count if one side is half a handbreadth and the other side is also half a handbreadth. There must be at least one handbreadth in one place for it to count as the wall of an ohel.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
טמא – for it does not protect other than with the walls of tents, but a cistern lacks walls, and the walls of a beehive are not the walls of tents.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
היה נסר חלק (if it was a smooth board) – that tis is not a vessel.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
או סרידה שאין לה גפיים (or stuffed matting used for stoppers of stoves which lacks handles) -which have no partitions and it is not considered a vessel.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
טהור – if they are placed on a smooth well or on a broken beehive, they protect and are ritually pure. For specifically, the inverted vessel divided into two compartments by the bottom between is a vessel but does not protect other than with the walls of tents, but a board and stuffed matting which lack handles, that are not vessels, protect without the walls of tents. A stuffed matting used for stoppers of stoves, is like a small wooden trough that the baker uses. גפניים/handles are anchors and handles.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Oholot
חצי טפח מכאן וחצי טפח מכאן – for a vessel does not protect in a smooth well, that is in a vessel which lack walls one handbreadth [high], but if the vessel has walls that are a handbreadth, it protects over the cistern even though its walls do not protrude at all, and now it is stated that half of handbreadth of a vessel and half of a handbreadth of the walls of a cistern do not combine. And the כפישה/(basket) inverted vessel divided into two parts by the bottom between where they squeeze the fruits that we mentioned above, that if it is placed on a smooth well, it does not protect, we are speaking that it doesn’t have walls [at the height of] a handbreadth.
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