Se uma testemunha diz: "Ele se tornou impuro", mas ele diz: "Eu não me tornei impuro", ele é puro. Se duas [testemunhas] dizem: "Você se tornou impuro", e ele diz: "Eu não me tornei impuro", o rabino Meir o declara impuro; mas os Sábios dizem: ele acredita em si mesmo. Uma testemunha diz: "Ele se tornou impuro" e duas [testemunhas] dizem: "Ele não se tornou impuro", seja em um domínio privado ou em um domínio público, ele é puro. Duas [testemunhas] dizem: "Ele se tornou impuro" e uma testemunha diz: "Ele não se tornou impuro", seja em um domínio privado ou em um domínio público, ele é impuro. Uma testemunha diz: "Ele se tornou impuro", e outra testemunha diz: "Ele não se tornou impuro", ou se uma mulher diz: "Ele se tornou impuro", e outra mulher diz: "Ele não se tornou impuro". em um domínio privado, ele é impuro, mas em um domínio público, ele é puro.
Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
ר' מאיר מטמא – that if two [witnesses] brought him to a grave death [as punishment], they would not bring him to [bring] the lenient sacrifice (see also the reasoning of Rabbi Meir in Tractate Kritot, Chapter 3, Mishnah 1).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
Introduction
The final mishnah of chapter five deals with cases where witness testify as to whether a person had been defiled.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
וחכמים אומרים אדם נאמן על פי עצמו – that we provide the answer through his word. What is “I was not defiled” that he stated? I didn’t stand in my defilement but rather I ritually immerse, and since this is the case, a person is believed concerning himself.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
If one witness says, "You have become unclean," but he says, "I have not become unclean," he is regarded as clean. His own testimony outweighs that of the witness, and therefore he is considered clean.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Tahorot
ברה"י טמא ברה"ר טהור – that he is considered like the rest of merely doubtful matters of defilement.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
If two witnesses say, "You have become unclean," and he says, "I have not become unclean," Rabbi Meir says: he is unclean. But the sages say: he may be believed on his own evidence. Rabbi Meir says that the two witnesses outweigh the person's own statement that he is pure. Two witnesses are always believed. Therefore, he must accept that he is impure. The other sages say that since he claims to know with certainty that he is pure, he may continue to act upon his own words.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
If one witness says, "You have become unclean," and two witnesses say, "He has not become unclean," whether in a private domain or in a public domain, he is regarded as clean. Since two witnesses say he is clean, he is not considered unclean no matter where the defilement purportedly occurred.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
If two witnesses say, "He has become unclean’, and one witness says, ‘"He has not become unclean," whether in a private domain or in a public domain, he is regarded as unclean. The opposite case: since two witnesses say he is unclean, he is considered unclean no matter where it occurred.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Tahorot
If one witness says, "He has become unclean," and another says, "He has not become unclean," or if one woman says, "He has become unclean’, and another woman says, "He has not become unclean," he is regarded as unclean if in the private domain, but if in a public domain he is regarded as clean. In this case there is contradictory testimony between two men or two women, one saying he is unclean and one saying he is clean. If this occurred in the public domain, he is clean because cases of doubtful impurity are clean in the public domain. However, if the defilement supposedly occurred in the private domain, he must be considered unclean. Women are generally not allowed to testify in rabbinic law. However, this mishnah teaches that one woman's testimony with regard to matters of impurity is sufficient to create suspicion that he might be impure. Were the opposing witness a man, the mishnah would have said that the man's testimony outweighs her testimony. But since the opposing witness was also a woman, the person in question must be considered impure, if it occurred in the private domain.
