פירוש על אהלות 13:10

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.

חלון העשוי לאויר – o bring in the air of the world, that is the window that is made for its light. And because it was necessary to teach that he built a house outside of it, he went back and repeated the teaching.

[With regard to] a window made for letting in air, its minimum size is that of a hole made by the drill. If a window was made for letting in air, then it must have been made on the outside of a building. It will also let in light. Therefore, it allows impurity in and out according to the smaller measure, that of a hole made by a drill (see yesterday's mishnah). If the hole was between two rooms, it would need to be at least a handbreadth in order to allow impurity through.

בנה בית חוצה לה – opposite the window, and the airspace of the window was voided.

If a house was built outside it, its minimum size becomes one handbreadth square. When the window was in the outermost wall of the house, it needed to be only the size of the drill-hole. But now that someone builds a house next to it, it needs to be larger, a full square handbreadth, to allow impurity to travel through.

שיעורה בפותח טפח – like the window that is made for usage.

If a roof was placed at the height of the middle of the window, the minimum size of the lower part is one handbreadth square and of the upper part that of a hole made by the drill. In this case, a roof was built right next to the window, assumedly because the city is on a hill. Now the top of the window faces outside and the bottom of the window opens into the adjacent building. The mishnah looks at this as two different windows. The top part needs to be only as large as the drill but the bottom part must be a handbreadth.

נתן את התקרה באמצע החלון – that the window is found half it of it above the ceiling and half of it below.

החלון התחתון בפותח טפח – like the law of the window made for usage, for here there is no air.

והעליון מלוא מקדח – that above from the ceiling is for the air.

החור שבדלת – in the middle of the door, that it is not made for the air.

Introduction Today's mishnah deals with how large an opening in a door must be to allow in and out impurity.

שייר בו החרש – the artisan who prepared/fixed the door.

[With regard to] a hole in the door: Its minimum size is that of a fist, the words of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Tarfon says: one handbreadth square. Rabbi Akiva holds that since these holes in the door were not made intentionally, they should be compared with the naturally forming holes referred to in mishnah one. For impurity to travel through such a hole, it must be the size of a fist. Rabbi Tarfon says that it needs only be a handbreadth square (slightly smaller than a fist) for these holes are meant for human use (see mishnah one).

מלמטן – as for example that he left [a hole] near the threshold.

If the carpenter had left a space at the bottom or the top [of the door] or if one had shut [the door] but not closed it tightly, or if the wind blew it open, the minimum size is that of a fist. There are three spaces in a door referred to here: 1) the carpenter didn't make the door as large as it was supposed to be; 2) the door wasn't tightly closed; 3) the wind blew the door slightly open. All of these are openings that were probably not intentionally formed, nor are they holes that are used by human. Therefore, the measure to allow through impurity is that of a fist, which is larger than a handbreadth.

או מלמעלן – near the lintel.

הגיפה (he filled the hole out but not entirely)– he closed it.

ולא מירקה – but didn’t complete it.

או שפתחונו הרוח – meaning to say, or that he competed the closure but the wind came and opened it.

שיעורו מלוא אגרוף – for since it opened on its own, it is like the running water or reptiles. But in this concluding clause [of the Mishnah], Rabbi Tarfon does not disagree because the hole that is in the middle the carpenter made with intention, but not because he needs the hole but rather the boards were short and a door was made from them and he had the intention to place a hole/incision in the middle more than to place it below or above. And it is similar to someone who makes with intention, but when he placed it from below or from above, this is not like doing it with one’s hands, but rather because the boards are short, and the hole wasn’t filled.

העושה מקום – that he made a puncture going all the way through in the wall to place there a reed of the weavers.

One who makes a place for a rod, for tongs, or a lamp, the minimum size is whatever is needful, according to the word of Bet Shammai. Bet Hillel says: one handbreadth square. According to Bet Shammai, if one makes a hole in the wall to store a specific item, that hole needs to be large enough to actually store the item for it to allow impurity from one side to the other. Bet Hillel imposes a standard size one handbreadth square. This is the measure we saw above in mishnah one.

ולאספתי (and for the executioner’s sword/weaver’s stave) – a sword in the Greek language they call ASPATI. And weavers have a vessel like the shape of a sword.

[If it was made] for a peep-hole, for speaking through to his fellow, or for [human] use, the minimum size is one handbreadth square. If one makes a hole to look through (what we might call a peep-hole, ignoring the connotations of this word) or a hole to talk through or for any human use, the hole must be the size of a handbreadth.

שעורו בכל שהוא – to bring in the defilement to the other side.

לזון את עיניו – to look out from there to the public domain or to the courtyard.

ולתשמיש – to hide there his belongings.

אלו ממעטים את הטפח – a window that its measure is when it is open a handbreadth, and one of all of these that is considered here is placed in it and it reduces the airspace from a handbreadth, it interposes, that the defilement doesn’t pass to the other side.

The following [objects serve to] reduce [the area of a square] handbreadth:
[A portion] of less than an olive-size of flesh [of a corpse] reduces [the opening for uncleanness that is] caused by a quarter of a kav of bones [from a corpse];
[A portion] of less than a barley-corn size of bone reduces [the opening for uncleanness that is] caused by an olive-sized portion of flesh;
Less than an olive-sized portion of a corpse,
Less than an olive-sized portion of carrion,
Less than a lentil-sized portion of sheretz;
Less than an egg-sized portion of food;
Produce growing next to the window,
A cobweb having substance;
The carcass of a clean bird that he did not intend to eat,
And the carcass of an unclean bird that had been intended [for food] that had not been rendered susceptible [to uncleanness], or which had been rendered susceptible [to uncleanness] but had not been intended [for food].
Our mishnah deals with a window between two rooms that is a square handbreadth and therefore will allow impurity to travel between one room and the other. However, if there is placed in the window something that is not susceptible to impurity, it reduces the size of the window and blocks the impurity from traveling through. The mishnah lists some of the things that cause the window to be reduced in size. Tomorrow's mishnah will list things that do not block the impurity.
Section one: In one room there is a quarter kav of bones, an amount which causes impurity in an ohel. There is a window that is a handbreadth square that would allow the impurity to travel to the adjacent room. However, in the window there is a piece of flesh of corpse that is less than the size of an olive. In this case, the window size is considered reduced and the impurity is confined to the room in which the bones are found. However, if the impurity came from an olive sized portion of flesh and there was less than an olive sized portion of flesh in the window, the flesh in the window would be reckoned together with the flesh in the room, and the impurity would travel to the next room. In other words, like substances (flesh) join together whereas unlike substances (flesh and bone) do not.
Section two: This is the opposite scenario. In the room there is an olive-sized portion of flesh, sufficient to cause impurity in an ohel. In the window there is a barley-corn size piece of bone, which is not sufficient to cause impurity. Again, the piece of bone in the window reduces its size and the impurity doesn't go to the other room. However, in this case if there was a quarter kav of bones in the room and a small piece of bone in the window, the size of the window would not be reduced.
Section three: The less than olive-sized portion of flesh is mentioned here again because it is the opposite of the olive-sized portion of flesh which does not reduce the window, as we will learn in mishnah six.
Sections four-six: These substances do not transmit impurity. Furthermore, since they are of a different substance than bones or flesh, they reduce the size of the window no matter what is in the house: bones or flesh.
Section seven: The produce reduces the size of the window if it began to grow near the window and then spread into the window.
Section eight: For the cobweb to reduce the window it must have substance.
Section nine: The carcass of a clean bird that one did not intend to eat (even had it been slaughtered properly) does not cause impurity. Therefore, it reduces the size of the window.
Section ten: The opposite is true for the carcass of an unclean bird. It causes impurity only if one intended to eat the bird and it was rendered susceptible to impurity by coming into contact with water after it died. If he intended to eat it, or it wasn't rendered susceptible to impurity, it is not susceptible to impurity and it does reduce the size of the window.

על ידי רובע עצמות – if there is in the house a quarter [KAB] of bones that defile in a tent, and less than an olive’s bulk from the flesh of a corpse that is placed in the window, it lessens it. And specifically, less than an olive’s bulk, for if it were an olive’s bulk, it itself defiles in a tent. And specifically, through a quarter [Kab] of bones. But if there is in the house an olive’s bulk of flesh from a corpse, nothing less than this olive’s bulk can lessen it, for on the contrary, flesh combines with flesh. And that is the reason also that specifically flesh reduces through bones, but not bones through bones, for bones with bones combine.

פחות מעצם כשעורה -but a bone like [the size of] a barleycorn does not reduce/lessen the size, because it defiles through contact and through carrying.

פחות מכזית מן המת – now [the Tanna/teacher of the Mishnah] has repeated his teaching, even though he taught it in the first clause [of the Mishnah] to inform us/teach us that he lessens/reduces [the size] through all that defile in a tent, such as a quarter [LOG] of blood and a spoonful of mass of earth from a grave containing parts of a decayed human body if of a certain quantity and all of those that are taught in Chapter Two [of Tractate Ohalot].

פחות מכזית מן הנבלה וכו' – all of these that are considered from here and onward, that they reduce whether through bones or whether through flesh.

ופחות מכביצה אוכלים – that foods less than an egg’s bulk do not defile others and are not susceptible to receive ritual defilement from the Torah, therefore it reduces and interposes in the face of the defilement.

והתבואה – that took root far from the wall and its foliage straightened and closed the window, for it is attached to the ground.

וככי שיש הן ממש (the web-like marrow of reeds/substantial spiderweb in which there is substance) – spider’s web that are called the web-like marrow of reeds. But I heard that they are a species of spider’s web that is found within the reed. And sometimes it is very thin and it is web-like marrow of reeds and there is no substance to them, and sometimes it is similar to the weaving of cloth and it is like a web-like marrow of reeds that has substance to it.

ונבלת עוף טהור שלא חישב עליה – that the carcass of fowl/birds is ritually pure and doesn’t defile until one considers it/given it thought for eating, and then it defiles with the ritual impurity of foods like an egg’s bulk and does not require certification [to be susceptible to ritual uncleanness].

נבלת עוף טמא שחשב עליה ולא הכשירה – for the carrion of an impure bird/fowl requires intention/though and requires certification [to be susceptible to ritual uncleanness, that is to say, that when water comes upon it or one of the seven liquids (i.e., dew, water, wine, olive oil, blood, milk and honey – see Tractate Makhshirin, Chapter 6, Mishnah 4), but if it is lacking thought/intention or certification of [to be susceptible to ritual uncleanness], it is pure and it reduces/lessens [the handbreadth] and interposes in the face of defilement.

ולא תבואה שבחלון – that actually took root in the window. Because it was his intention to remove it when it ruins the wall, and every thing that is his intention to remove, does not reduce in the window. But above (i.e., the previous Mishnah), it speaks about something that took root far from the wall, that now it is not his intention to remove it.

The following do not reduce [the area of the window]: Bone does not reduce [the area] for [other] bones; Nor [corpse] flesh for [other] flesh;
Nor an olive-sized [portion] of a corpse;
Nor an olive-sized portion of carrion;
Nor a lentil-sized portion of reptile;
Nor an egg-sized portion of food;
Nor produce growing in the windows;
Nor a cobweb having no substance;
Nor the carcass of a clean bird which had been intended [for food];
Nor the carcass of an unclean bird which had been intended [for food] and had been rendered susceptible to uncleanness;
Nor warp and woof threads that have negaim;
Nor a brick from a bet haperas, the words of Rabbi Meir. But the sages say: the brick can reduce, because the dust [of the bet haperas] is clean.
This is the general rule: what is clean reduces [the area], and what is unclean does not reduce it.
Today's mishnah refers mostly to cases that are opposite of those found in yesterday's mishnah. It lists things that do not reduce the area of the window.
Section one: Since the substance found in the window is the same as is found in the house, they don't reduce the area of the window.
Sections two-five: All of these are simply the opposite cases of those taught in mishnah five. There is a sufficient amount that it is susceptible to impurity.
Section six: In this case the produce grows directly out of the window and not just adjacent to the window, as it did in yesterday's mishnah. Since one does not want to keep such produce, it doesn't reduce the size of the window.
Sections seven-nine: The opposite of those cases found in yesterday's mishnah.
Section ten: Negaim are what we might call "plagues" or some type of disease that infects cloth. There will be an entire tractate devoted to this subject. If the cloth has negaim, then it is impure and anything impure does not reduce the area of the window.
Section eleven: A bet haperas is a field that used to be used as a cemetery but was plowed over. The brick was made from the ground of such a field. According to Rabbi Meir, such a brick is impure and therefore it does not reduce the window. The other sages disagree because they hold that dust that comes from a bet haperas is clean.
Section twelve: This is the general rule that explains all of mishnayoth 5-6.

השתי והערב המנוגעים (but not – the warp and woof threads that have contracted leprosy) – that the warp and woof [threads] become defiled through plagues/leprosy, and something that is impure does not reduce/lessen.

ולא לבינה מבית הפרס – the brick is made from the dust of the an area in which uncertainty exists concerning the location of a grave or a corpse [surrounded by one-hundred cubits]. Rabbi Meir holds that it is impure just as the dust of an area in which uncertainty exists concerning the location of a grave or a corpse, therefore, it does not lessen in the window. But the Rabbis hold that they only defiled a clod/lump-like creature that comes from an area where in which uncertainty exists concerning the location of a grave or a corpse, and not the dust even after it was kneaded. And the Halakha is according to the Sages. And the measure of a clod/lump is like a large lump of sacks which is like the sealing clay as required for a seal on bags.