Comentário sobre Ohalot 9:3

בזמן שהוא כלי – that it was not hollowed out and was not nullified from the category of being a vessel. -

When do these rules apply? When the hive is a vessel and it is loosely placed in the door. The rules in the above two mishnayot apply only if the hive is a complete and unbroken vessel and it is loosely placed into the doorway.

מחולחלת (hollowed out – not packed entirely) – that the walls are perforated with an opening of a handbreadth. They normally make incisions in the walls of the hive in order the bees can enter and depart, and sometimes that the incisions/holes are stopped up with straw but that the stopper is not fastened tightly.

If it is defective, although [it may be] stopped up with straw or it is stuck to the side of the door What is "stuck? Anything which has no opening of one handbreadth : If the hive is defective, meaning a piece is missing, or it is stuck tightly into the door, then the rules are different. The rest of the mishnah outlines how the impurity spreads if these conditions hold.

היתה פחותה (if it was damaged) – that it was broken through/hollowed out and voided from the category of a vessel.

Then, if an olive-sized [portion] of a corpse is placed below it, [everything] directly [below the portion] to the depths becomes unclean; If there is impurity below, the impurity will defile all the way down to the depths, but it will not defile above. Since the hive is not a vessel, it acts as a barrier against the impurity.

ופקוקה בקש – in the place of the hollowing out. But its walls are complete that they are not hollowed out.

[If placed] above [the hive everything] directly above to the sky becomes unclean. The same is true if the impurity is above the hive. It will defile anything above it, but the hive acts as a barrier and things that are below are pure.

או אפוצה (or made narrower by squeezing the parts together – i.e., pressing the lid down) – or even if its walls were not complete but rather that it was made narrowed, meaning to say, that it was closed in the place where it is hollowed out/not packed entirely, and there isn’t a handbreadth of hollowed out area.

[If the uncleanness is] in the house, nothing becomes unclean except the house. This is the same rule as in mishnah one.

כנגדו עד התהום טמא – but all of the rest is pure. For since it is not considered a vessel like a tent to protect what is inside it and what is on top of it.

[If the uncleanness is] within [the hive] nothing becomes unclean except that which is within [the hive]. Since the hive offers a barrier, anything above or below is pure. Only that which is found in the hive is impure.

על גבה – if an olive’s bulk from a corpse is placed on top of it.

כנגדו עד הרקיע טמא – but all of the rest of pure, for it protects what is inside of it and what is below it. Since it is not a vessel.

בבית – if an olive’s bulk from the corpse is in the house.

אין טמא אלא הבית – and all of the rest is pure, for its opening/mouth is outside.

בתוכה – if the olive’s bulk from the corpse is within it (i.e., inside).

אין טמא אלא תוכה – and all the rest is pure, for the defilement does not enter into the house because it is not hollowed out and its mouth is towards the outside, and it protects also over what is underneath it and what is on top of it, since It is not a vessel.