Commentaire sur Shekalim 8:2

דרך ירידה לבית הטבילה – there were two paths to the ritual path – on one, they go down and on the other they go up – so that the ritually impure do not come in contact with the ritually pure, and that of the path going down is certainly impure, because they fell from the hand of those bringing them for ritual immersion.

Introduction Yesterday’s mishnah dealt with the purity of spit found in Jerusalem; today’s mishnah deals with the purity of vessels found in Jerusalem.

שלא כירידתן עלייתן – for one their descent, they were definitely ritually impure; therefore, they would bring them down to the place of ritual immersion and upon their ascent they were ritually pure after they had been immersed.

All vessels found in Jerusalem on the way going down to the place of immersion are unclean, [but those found] on the way going up [from the place of immersion] are clean; for the way down is not the same as the way up, the words of Rabbi Meir. The place of immersion was a place below the Temple Mount where people could go to immerse themselves and their vessels (you can visit there today and still see many mikvaot). According to Rabbi Meir, there was one path to go down and a different path to go up. Furthermore, they would also carry the vessels down in a different way than they would carry them up. Hence, it was possible to distinguish between a vessel making its way down and one making its way up. Obviously, one making its way down is assumed to be unclean and one making its way back up to the Temple Mount was assumed to be clean.

רבי יוסי אומר כולן טהורין – they did not make the decree on doubtful utensils in Jerusalem and the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yosi.

Rabbi Yose says: they are all clean, except the basket and the shovel or pick which are specially connected with [work in] cemeteries. Rabbi Yose says that in Jerusalem people are extra careful to make sure that they don’t leave unclean vessels lying in the streets. Therefore all vessels are unclean except for vessels which were most likely to have been used in cemeteries. The basket referred to here was one in which bones were put into and moved to an ossuary. The shovel was used to collect them and the pick was used to dig graves. Since these almost certainly came into contact with a corpse or with bones, they have to be assumed to be unclean.

מריצה – a tool that crushes and breaks in it the bones of the dead when they want to bring them in a basket to take them from place to place.