Per sei incertezze [riguardo allo stato di purezza] viene bruciata la teruma : per l'incertezza di un cimitero arato, e per l'incertezza dello sporco proveniente dalle terre delle nazioni [cioè al di fuori di Israele], per l'incertezza degli abiti di una persona disoccupata e per l'incertezza dei vasi trovati, per l'incertezza dello sputo trovato, per l'incertezza dell'urina umana che è stata trovata di fronte all'urina di un animale [permettendogli così di essere chiaramente identificata come urina umana]. Nei [casi in cui esiste] la certezza che qualcuno di questi abbia toccato [ terumah ], che è [quindi la causa di] un'incertezza relativa al loro stato di impurità, il terumah viene bruciato. Rabbi Yose dice: in un dominio privato, [il terumah è bruciato] anche in [casi in cui vi è] un'incertezza che hanno toccato. Ma i saggi dicono: in un dominio privato, [quando c'è un'incertezza che hanno toccato] sospendiamo [cioè non bruciamo né mangiamo il terumah ], ma in un dominio pubblico è puro.
Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
על ספק בית הפרס - heave offering/priest’s due that entered into an area in which uncertainty exists concerning the location of a grave or a corpse, that this is a field in which a grave was plowed up and it is doubtful if there within a bone a barley-corn’s bulk from the corpse.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
Introduction
Our mishnah deals with six cases where a person touched something of doubtful impurity and then touched terumah. In these six cases the terumah must be burned, as if we were certain that the terumah had been defiled. Note that this is the mishnah's way of saying that something is to be treated as if it was certainly defiled, for one would not burn terumah unless he had no other choice. It is prohibited to burn terumah unless one is certain that it is impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
ועל ספק עפר הבא מארץ העמים – that dust that comes from the lands of the nations, we have doubts regarding the mass of earth from a grave containing parts of a decayed human body. And it is taught concerning the land of the nations/ארץ העמים and the area in which uncertainty exists concerning the location of a grave or a corpse/בית הפרס, they (i.e., the Rabbis) decreed that they would defile through contact and through lifting.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
Section one: 1. A bet ha-peras is a place where there used to be a grave but was plowed over. The ground defiles because it might have bones in it. 2. The rabbis say that land from outside the land of Israel is impure (see Ohalot 2:3). The origin of the dirt referred to here is unclear. 3. The garments of an am haaretz, one who is not observant of the strictures of the purity laws, defile. These clothes may have come from such a person. 4. Vessels that were simply found might be impure. Therefore, they have to be treated as such. 5. Spit that is simply found (yuck) might have come from a zav or from a niddah, and the spit of both such people defiles (we will learn more about this in the future). 6. Human urine defiles if it comes from an impure person. Albeck explains that in mishnaic times they would use urine as a cleaning agent. They would usually gather human urine and animal urine separately. The person in this section therefore knows that the urine he touched is human urine. What he does not know is if this human urine was impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
ועל ספיקן של בגדי עם הארץ – for regarding all of them we are in doubt if his menstruating wife sat upon them.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
On account of a certainty of having touched these which causes the doubtful uncleanness, terumah is burned. In all of these cases the person knows that he had contact with one of these things, he just doesn't know whether they were unclean. If he didn't know whether he had even touched them, then he is pure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
ועל ספק כלים הנמצאים – for we don’t know if they are ritually impure.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
Rabbi Yose says: also on account of their doubtful contact in a private domain; But the sages say: in a private domain the terumah is only held in suspense and in a public domain it is deemed clean. Section one referred to things found in the public domain. Doubtful impurity is more likely to be deemed impure in the private domain. Rabbi Yose says if this occurred in the private domain then even if he is not sure if he had contact with the item he is impure. The sages are more lenient. In the private domain if he is not sure if he had contact with it, the terumah is "held in suspense." This means that it is not treated as pure, but neither is it burned. However, in the public domain the person is impure only if he is certain that he had contact with the item.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
ועל ספק רוקין – for perhaps they are of a person with gonorrhea or a woman with flux, or that of a menstruating woman or someone who just gave birth.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
מי רגלי אדם שהן כנגד מי רגלי בהמה – it teaches us a noteworthy point, and we don’t say that since these (i.e. urine) are from beasts, those also are from beasts, and even though there are two doubts (i.e., a compound uncertainty) for a leniency, the doubt regarding beasts [and] the doubt regarding a human being, and even if you can assume that [both] are from a human being, perhaps, the person is pure. And Maimonides explains through reference to the Tosefta (see Tractate Makhshirin, Chapter 3, Halakha 13 and Tractate Taharot, Chapter 5, Halakha 2), as for example, that the urine of a ritually impure man was mixed with the urine of a beast in equal measure, and this is nearby the urine of cattle, and we have a doubt if the appearance of the human urine was nullified and that all of them are ritually pure, or that they weren’t nullified and all of them are ritually impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
על ודאי מגען שהוא ספק טומאתן (because of certainly touching them which is a manner of doubt in respect to their [imparting] uncleanness)- he knows with certainty that priest’s due/heave offering came in contact with them, but he doesn’t know if they are ritually impure or not, as we have explained the doubt in all of them.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
וחכמים אומרים ברשות היחיד תולין – on the doubt of their contact, and we don’t burn them because it is a compound uncertainty which is ruled as a leniency, there is a doubt whether it touched and there is a doubt whether it did not touch, and even if you can assume that it came in contact, there is doubt of whether they are ritually impure or ritually pure. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi who stated that on doubt of their contact we burn them [in the private domain].
