פירוש על אהלות 6:8

אדם וכלים עשויין אהלים לטמא – a tent that is supported by means of a person or through vessels is considered a tent to defile vessels that are underneath it, even if does not correspond to the defilement, as if they are placed in the tent of the corpse.

Both persons and vessels can form ‘tents’ to bring uncleanness, but not to [protect objects so that they] remain clean. If a person or a vessel overshadows a dead body and a pure thing, or they carry an ohel which overshadows a dead body or a pure thing, the pure thing is defiled. However, if vessels which are not susceptible to impurity overshadow a dead body and a pure thing, or a person or vessel carry a vessel which overshadows a dead body and a pure thing, this type of ohel does not protect the things that are above it.

אבל לא לטמא – for they are not considered a tent outside in the presence of the defilement.

How so? There are four people carrying a chest: If there is uncleanness beneath it, vessels upon it become unclean. If there is uncleanness upon it, vessels beneath it become unclean. Rabbi Eliezer declares them clean. The mishnah now illustrates cases where something that overshadows does not offer a barrier to protect against impurity because it is held up by a person or a vessel. The chest described in this section was made of stone and was carried with poles. It was possible to place a dead body or the bones from a dead body either above the chest or below it (carried somehow, but not sure). In the first scenario, four people carry the chest. The chest does not prevent impurity from defiling the things that are above it, if there is something impure below, nor does it prevent the things that are below it from becoming impure if there is something impure above. Rabbi Eliezer disagrees for he holds that if an ohel is carried by a person it does offer a barrier.

נדבך (a course of stones) – a large and wide stone. It is the language of (Ezra 6:4): נדבכין די-אבן גלל/”With a course of timber for each three courses of hewn stones.”

[If the chest] is placed upon four vessels, even if they are vessels made of dung, vessels of stone, or vessels of [unbaked] earth, If there is uncleanness beneath [the chest], vessels upon it become unclean. If there is uncleanness beneath it, vessels upon it become unclean. Since the chest is held up by vessels, the chest does not offer a barrier. This is true even if the vessels are of the type that cannot become impure.

כלים שעל גביו טמאין – that it doesn’t interpose and it is like the one who doesn’t hold this opinion, for a tent is not made to make pure.

[If the chest] is placed on four stones or on any living creature, If there is uncleanness beneath it, vessels upon it remain clean. If there is uncleanness upon it vessels beneath it remain clean. In this case the chest is not held up by a person or by a vessel. Therefore, the chest does act as an ohel and it does serve as a barrier to protect the things above from being defiled by that which is below and the things below from being defiled by that which is above.

כלים שתחתיו טמאים – for tents are made to defile.

ורבי אליעזר מטהר – in both, for he holds that a tent is made to purify and it interposes in the face of defilement. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.

נתון על ארבעה כלים – if the course of stones/נדבך was placed upon the four vessels even a vessel of dung that are not susceptible to receive ritual impurity.

נתון על ארבעה אבנים – which are not vessels, it is considered as a tent to the outside in the face of the defilement.

דבר שיש בו רוח חיים – except for a human.

אחד מהן – one of those who accompany the corpse to buy it and not from those who carry the bier. And the same law applies if another person shut the door, but it (i.e., the Mishnah) took the usual incident.

If corpse-bearers were passing along a portico and one of them shut a door and locked it with a key, If the door can remain in its position on its own,[the contents of the house] remain clean, But if not, they become unclean. The corpse-bearers were walking along a portico (a structure with pillars and a roof) and one of them locked the door to the house before the dead body was brought into the portico. Subsequently, the corpse was brought into the portico. If the door can stand in place on its own, without relying on the lock, then the contents of the house are pure. However, if the door cannot stand in place without the lock, then the contents of the house become unclean. This is similar to the rule we found in yesterday's mishnah. Something that serves as a barrier to impurity, in this case the door, must be able to stand on its own without relying on a person or a vessel (the lock) to hold it up. If it cannot stand on its own, it does not serve as a barrier.

הגיף את הדלת – so that the defilement should not enter the house when they pass through the portico that is in front of the house, for there is a ceiling on top of it.

Similarly [in the case of] a barrel of dried figs or a basket of straw placed in a window, If the dried figs or the straw can remain in their position on their own, [the contents of the room] remain clean, But if not they become unclean. This is the same rule except instead of a door serving as a barrier to impurity we have a barrel or a basket. Inside one room is a dead body. The barrel or basket themselves are susceptible to impurity and therefore they do not serve as a barrier (the barrel would serve as a barrier if its back was towards the room with the dead body). The dried figs or straw are not susceptible to impurity. If they can stand on their own, they serve as a barrier. But if they cannot, the impurity will defile the contents of the other room.

אם יכולה הדלת לעמוד – without the support of the key, he has a key like one who lacks one and the door [itself] interposes in the face of the defilement.

[In the case of] a house partitioned off by wine-jars, which had been plastered with clay, If the clay can remain in its position on its own, [the space partitioned off] remains clean, But if not, it becomes unclean. In this situation the wine-jars themselves do not provide a barrier because their mouths are open to the impure side. If the clay can remain in place without the wine-jars then it will provide a barrier. But if it does not, there is no barrier and the impurity will spread from one side to the other.

ואם לאו טמא – for every thing that is supported by vessels does not interpose in the face of the defilement. For as we stated (see Mishnah 1 of this chapter) a human and vessels are not made tents to purify. And that is the reason of straw, that is the reason of dried figs and that is the reason of plaster, because their standing through [the use of] vessels which are a wine jug, a basket and cylindrical vessels.

שהן נתונים בחלון – that the have a handbreadth by a handbreadth [measurement] that brings the defilement from house to house.

אם יכולים הגרגרות והתבן לעמוד בעצמן – without a jug or a basket.

טהורים – that the vessels are like they are not, and the dried figs and straw protect, and this is what will be with the dried figs that decayed and are not appropriate for eating, and similarly, decayed straw which is not appropriate for the eating b cattle and he nullifies them, and it is not his intention to remove them. And because of this, they interpose, for all where the straw and the dried figs close up everything, as for example here where there is a place for a wine jug or a basket, if he doesn’t nullify them, they do not interpose.

ואם לאו טמאין – as long as the wine jug will be if it made of earthenware that its mouth will correspond to the defilement and therefore it does not protect, for every thing that is susceptible to receive ritual impurity does not interpose in the face of the defilement. But if the back of the wine jug corresponds to the defilement, it interposes in the face of the defilement, for an earthenware vessel is not susceptible to receive defilement from its back.

בית שחצצו בקנקנים – and their mouths are towards the defilement, for now they do not protect.

וטח בטיח – whether from the inside or whether from the outside.

אם יכול הטיח לעמוד בפני עצמו טהור – that the plaster interposes in the face of the defilement.

כותל שהוא לאויר – that its one side is the airspace of the world, and its other side serves the house, as for example, the wall that separates between the house and the courtyard or between the house and its garden.

Introduction Today's mishnah deals with a case where corpse impurity is found inside a wall. The question is does the impurity defile the house which is towards the inside of the wall? Also, does it defile a person standing on top of the wall?

וטומאה בתוכו – that the wall was split/chipped and there is defilement in its cavity within the split/chip.

A wall serving a house is treated as if it was separate halves. The wall that serves a house is treated as if it was two separate halves. The inner half of the wall is part of the house and the outer half of the wall is not part of the house.

מחציו ולפנים – if the defilement is from the half of the wall to the side of the house.

How so? A wall serving an open space, that has uncleanness within it: If it is in the inward half, the house is unclean, But what is above [the wall] remains clean. If the source of uncleanness is in the inside half of the wall, then it defiles the contents of the house. However, someone who is above the wall remains clean as if he were standing on the roof of a house (who is clean if there is uncleanness in the house, because the ceiling is a barrier to the impurity).

הבית טמא – as it was within the house. And this half follows the house that we cast. But the person who stands at the wall from above even standing facing the defilement,

If it is in the outward half, the house remains clean, But what is above [the wall] becomes unclean. If the source of uncleanness is in the outer half of the wall, then we don't consider it to be in the house and the contents of the house are unclean. What is above the wall is unclean for the impurity in the wall goes up without anything to stop it.

he is pure, for it is not considered like pressed ritual impurity/טומאה רצוצה, and it doesn’t break through and ascend, for we consider it as it is lying/placed in the tent.

If it is exactly in the middle, the house becomes unclean, And as for what is above, Rabbi Meir declares it unclean, But the sages declare it clean. If the source of uncleanness is right in the middle of the wall, the mishnah rules stringently with regard to the contents of the house, and says that they are unclean. With regard to what is above the house, Rabbi Meir again rules stringently. However, the sages are consistent with opinion found in section one. If the contents of the house are unclean, then it means that we look at the uncleanness as if it was in the house. In that case, the person standing above the wall is pure.

מחציו ולחוץ – to the side of the airspace, we do not cast it after the house, and therefore, a person who stands from above is impure, because he is not like he is lying/placed in the tent, and this is pressed ritual impurity which breaks through and ascends.

Rabbi Judah says: the whole of the wall belongs to the house. Rabbi Judah disagrees with the opinion in section one. He holds that if the uncleanness is found anywhere in the wall it is considered to be in the house. The contents of the house are unclean but a person standing above the wall is clean because the impurity is in the house.

מחצה למחצה – and the defilement is in the middle.

רבי מאיר מטמא – that we cast it to the wall after the house and after the airspace as a stringency.

וחכמים מטהרין – that we completely cast it after the house. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

כל הכתל לבית – even if the defilement stands half of on the side of the airspace, it is as if it is ling within the house (according to Rabbi Yehuda).

כותל שבין שני בתים- and the wall that forms partition/separates between two houses.

[In the case of] a wall between two houses and there is uncleanness within it, The house nearer to the uncleanness is unclean, And the house nearer to the clean part is clean. If [the uncleanness] is in the middle, both are unclean. In this section the wall serves to divide two houses, and not one house from the outside (as was the case in yesterday's mishnah). The rule is quite simple whatever house is closest to the source of impurity is impure and the other house is clean. If the impurity is right smack in the middle, the rule is strict and both houses are impure.

טומאה באחד מהן – one of the houses.

If there is uncleanness in one of the [houses] and there are vessels in [the thickness of] the wall: Those in the half nearer the uncleanness are unclean, Those in the half nearer the clean [house] are clean, And those in the middle are unclean. In this case, the source of impurity is in one of the houses and there are vessels in the wall. Again, the rule is simple. If the vessels are in the half of the wall nearer to the house with the uncleanness in it, the vessels are impure. If they are in the other side, they are clean. And if they are in the middle, they are clean.

מעזיבה (a concrete of stone chippings/clay covering the ceiling of the lower story and serving as flooring of the upper story) - a ceiling that separates between the house and the upper chamber.

[With regard to the] plaster-work between the house and the upper story, and there is uncleanness in it: If it is in the lower half, the house [below] is unclean and the upper story is clean If it is in the upper half, the upper story is unclean and the house is clean: If it is in the middle, both are unclean. Between the upper story and the bottom floor is a plaster ceiling (placed over wooden beams) and there is a source of corpse impurity in it. If it is in the lower half of the ceiling, then it is considered to be in bottom floor and the contents of the upper story are clean. If it is in the upper half, the upper story is unclean but the house is clean. And again, if it is in the middle, the rule is strict.

רבי יהודה אומר וכו' – But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

If there is uncleanness in either [the house or the upper story] and there are vessels inside the plaster-work, Those in the half nearer the uncleanness are unclean, And those in the half nearer the clean [space] are clean. If they are in the middle, they are unclean. Again, the mishnah reverses the situation and this time the uncleanness is in either the upper story or house and the vessels are in the ceiling. The rule is the same as it has been in the other sections.

Rabbi Judah says: all the plaster-work is considered as part of the upper story. Just as Rabbi Judah said that the wall is considered to belong to the house (in yesterday's mishnah), here he says that the plaster-work is considered part of the upper story. Even if the uncleanness is in the lower half of the plaster-work, it defiles the upper story and not the house.

טומאה בין הקורות – between the beams of the ceiling that there are boards on them and the concrete of stone chippings/clay covering the ceiling of the lower story and serving as flooring of the upper story/מעזיבה of their back. And our Mishnah is according to Rabbi Yehuda who stated: All of the concrete of stone chippings/clay are with the upper chamber (see previous Mishnah). And now it states that if there was defilement in the beams that are underneath of the concrete of stone chippings/clay, and a partition that is thin like the peel of garlic, it interposes between the defilement to the house so that the defilement is not seen in the house. אם יש במקום הטומאה פותח טפח – that is the that there is a cavity of one-handbreadth in the place of the defilement.

[In the case of] uncleanness among the roof-beams, [with a covering] beneath it thin as thin as garlic-skin, In this case the source of impurity is within the roof-beams, and not within the plastering or the walls. Therefore, the impurity is not part of the building. Separating the impurity from the house is a thin partition, even as thin as the skin of a piece of garlic.

הכל טמא – the house and the upper chamber.

If there is a space within of a cubic handbreadth, everything becomes unclean. If the source of impurity is found in a space that has the dimensions of a cubic handbreadth, then it spreads to the rest of the house and to the upper story as well. As we shall see, this is a general principle when it comes to the space in which a piece of impurity is found. If the corpse impurity is in a space that has an opening the size of a cubic handbreadth, then it spreads up and down (and all around). But if it is sealed up, the impurity does not spread, at least not as easily.

רואים את הטומאה כאילו היא אוטם (we regard the Levitical uncleanness – between the rafters – as if it was locked up/an obstruction) – and the defilement does not descend to the house but rather bursts through and ascends/rises.

If there is not a space of a cubic handbreadth, the uncleanness is considered plugged up. As stated, if the impurity is found in a space that is smaller than a cubic handbreadth, then it does not spread to both the house and the upper story. Rather, in this case it would be considered part of the upper story, and only the contents of the upper story will be impure.

היתה נראית לתוך החבית – that there isn’t under it like the peel of garlic.

If the uncleanness was visible within the house, in either case the house becomes unclean. If the garlic thin separation is not sufficient to hide the source of impurity from being seen in the house, then it doesn't matter whether the space in which the impurity is found. The contents of the house are defiled in both cases, as if the impurity was in the house itself.

בין כך ובין כך – whether there is an opening of a handbreadth wide or whether there isn’t an opening of a handbreadth wide.

בית המשמש את הכותל – the caves that are under the street when they dig a sepulchral chamber for a corpse from this side and a sepulchral chamber for a corpse from the other side, it is found that the wall is made of its own, and because of this, we call it a house which serves the wall that through the digging, the wall was made, but building that is upon the ground, the wall causes the house that it will be a house, and because of this, we call it [see above, Mishnah 3], “a wall that serves the house”

A house serving a wall is subject to the principle of garlic-skin. Today's mishnah deals with a case where some sort of natural wall, such as a wall of rocks in the ground, existed before the building of the house adjacent to it. This is different from a case in which a wall was built in order to serve a house, a case discussed in mishnah three.

טומאה בבתים – in the sepulchral chambers and in the cavities/caves.

How so? [In the case of] a wall between two tomb-niches or two caverns, The wall described here exists between two structures hewn in the ground, either two tomb-niches, places in which people used to bury the dead, or two caverns.

ועליהן כקליפת השום טהורין – because they form a partition to the defilement and their law is not like the law of a wall that is between two houses (see Mishnah 4).

If there is uncleanness in them and vessels in the walls, and there is a covering thin as garlic-skin over them, they remain clean. If there is a source of uncleanness in one of these places, and there are vessels in the wall, even a covering as thin as the skin of garlic will protect them from becoming unclean. Note that if this was a wall built to be part of a house, the vessels would be impure. Since this wall was not built to be part of the house, as long as it is separate, the contents found inside the wall are not actually part of the house.

טומאה בוקעת ועולה בוקעת ויורדת – and all that is juxtaposed to the defilement above and/or below is impure according to the law of all covered defilement, but from the sides it is pure, and the same law applies to the pillar that is in the house.

If the uncleanness is in the wall and the vessels are in them, and there is a covering thin as garlic-skin over the uncleanness, they remain clean. The same is true in the opposite case, when the source of impurity is found in the wall and the vessels are in the tomb-niches or in the caverns.

If there is uncleanness beneath a pillar, the uncleanness cleaves upwards and downwards. If there is a source of uncleanness beneath a pillar it spreads up and down so that anything inside the pillar or on top of it or buried further beneath it is impure. However, it does not defile things found on the side because the pillar is not like a wall serving to close in another structure.

פרח - a thing that protrudes and is wide that comes out at the top of a column/pillar or in its middle.

Vessels beneath the flowerlike top [of a pillar] remain clean. Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri declares them unclean. The first half of today's mishnah continues to deal with the pillar. On top of a pillar there was typically an ornament that looked like a flower and it would extend to the sides of the pillar. If there are vessels in this space, which is not directly above the source of impurity found below the pillar, they remain pure. In other words, the purity goes directly up and misses the vessels found on the side of the pillar. Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri considers them to be unclean because the ornament is part of the pillar, even if it is not directly over the source of impurity.

כלים שתחת הפרח טהורים – here we are speaking of a column that stands in the public domain or in a garden and the defilement is underneath it, and the “capital” protrudes from the column outward a handbreadth and overshadows over the vessels that are under it.

[In the case of] the uncleanness and the vessels being [together] beneath the flowerlike top [of a pillar]: If there is a space of one cubic handbreadth there, [the vessels] become unclean; If not, they remain clean. There is a source of uncleanness in this ornament itself and there are vessels on the ground beneath this part of the pillar. If the uncleanness is found in an empty space that is one cubic handbreadth within the ornament, then the impurity will go up and down and defile the vessels below. However, if there is not such a space, the impurity remains trapped inside the ornament.

טהורים – for the defilement bursts forth and ascends, but all that is on the sides is pure.

[In the case of] two wall-cupboards, one beside the other, or one above the other, if one of them was opened, both it and the house become unclean, but its companion remains clean. The mishnah now discusses some rules concerning cupboards that are built into the walls of a house. If one cupboard has a source of impurity in it and it is opened, anything in the house or in that cupboard is unclean. However, anything in the closed cupboard is pure because it has a space the size of cubit handbreadth, making it into an ohel, and an ohel prevents impurity from entering.

רבי יוחנן בן נורי מטמא – for the “capital” is like the column/pillar, and when the defilement bursts forth, it returns on all the vessels that the “capital” overshadows upon them. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri.

The wall-cupboard is considered as if it is plugged up, and it is subject to the principle of halves for conveying uncleanness into the house. The wall-cupboard is seen to be a plugged up part of the wall that serves the house. If the source of impurity is in the half of the wall that is closer to the house, the wall-cupboard is reckoned as part of the wall when considering the width of the wall. For instance, if the thickness of the wall is two handbreadths and it contains a wall-cupboard that is one handbreadth thick, we don't consider the wall to be only one handbreadth thick. That would mean that the impurity would have to be half a handbreadth from the inside of the wall for it to defile the contents of the house. Rather, as long as the impurity is within a handbreadth, it is considered to be to the side of the house.

הטומאה והכלים שתחת הפרח – as for example, that the “capital” overshadows on the defilement and on the vessels.

פותח טפח – that the “capital” protrudes outside pf the column a handbreadth.

פרדסקים (closet, chests in the wall) – empty pillars that are placed I the wall of the house and in them are many windows/apertures and they have doors, and the defilement is under those pillars.

נפתח אחד מהן הבית טמא – that the defilement bursts through within and goes out to the house, And even the defilement from the half of the wall and outward is not judged to be like the house. Nevertheless, the house is impure.

ורואין את הפרדסקין כאילו הן אוטם – that is to say, if the door is locked and it is not opened, we view it as if there is no cavity there at all, but if the defilement is underneath them, the wall is judged half by half, like all of these that are taught about in the Mishnah above (i.e., in the previous Mishnayot of this chapter), from its middle and inwards, the house is impure; from its middle and outward, the house is pure.