Bartenura on Mishnah Eduyot

Sefaria · Mishnah > Rishonim on Mishnah > Bartenura > Seder Nezikin · 401 sections

5.7.1
בד' דברים – hair of a leprous spot which remains after the inflammation has partly receded (see Tractate Negaim, Chapter 5, Mishnah 3), and greenish blood and the detached hair of a firstling animal, and the handing of the bitter water to the suspected converted wife and a freed slave-woman.
5.7.2
מוטב להניח דברי היחיד – because he also received [his tradition] from a majority, and his words are like the words of the majority, and because of this, it is stated, better to set aside, etc. and if not for this, what is “better” that is stated? Is it not from the Torah as it is written (Exodus 23:2): “you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty,” and it is obligatory to set aside the words of the individual against his will, but the reason that he (i.e., Akavyah ben Mehalalel) said “better” and he did not say, “it is better,” because that even he received [his tradition] from a majority, as has been explained, but the Halakha is not according to Akavyah ben Mehalalel in all four of these things.
6.1.1
רבי יהודה בן בבא העיד. שממאנים את הקטנות – such as the case of two brothers who are married to two orphan sisters, one older and one younger. The husband of the older one died and she is now found in need of a levir, the husband of the younger, and we override her interdependence of a childless widow [the younger] and her late husband’s brother, the levirate relation, and prohibit her upon him for the marriage of the younger woman is seen as valueless. We teach the younger woman that she should refuse him for the her refusal uproots her first marriage, and then he is permitted to marry the older wife of the brother who died without issue, and similarly if there is another, in a similar manner, in Tractate Yevamot, Chapter “The House of Shammai” (Chapter 13, Mishnah 7).
6.1.2
ומשיאין את האשה – whose husband went to abroad and only one witnesses came and said trhat he died, we allow her to [re]marry on his word.
6.1.3
ושנסקל תרנגול שהרג את הנפש – that perorated the brain of a baby and even though it is written (Exodus 22:28): “When an ox gores [a man or a woman...],” both an ox and cattle, beasts and birds are included, for every place where it says, “ox,” we learn (Deuteronomy 5:14): “[but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; you shall not do any work] – you, your son, or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle…” from [the law of] Shabbat. Just as further on, the same law applies to all cattle, beasts and birds, even here the same law applies to all cattle, beasts and birds.
6.1.4
ועל יין בן ארבעים יום – but prior to this, it is invalid, for it is wine from its vat.
6.1.5
שקרב בארבע שעות – that one time during the days of the Grecian kingdom, they did not have lambs to sacrifice the daily whole burnt offering until the Holy One, blessed be He enlightened their eyes and they found two lambs which passed examination in the chamber of the lambs, and they offered the daily whole burnt offering of the morning at the fourth hour of the day.
6.2.1
על אבר מן המת (see also Tractate Ohalot, Chapter 1, Mishnah 7)- which lacks the equivalent of an olive’s bulk, for the equivalent of an olive’s bulk from the dead always defiles, according to the words of everyone, like the dead himself. And they did not dispute other than on a small limb which lacks in it the equivalent of an olive’s bulk.
6.2.2
לא אמרו – limbs lack a fixed measurement, other than on the limb from a living person, but a limb from a dead person – a barley’s amount is necessary to defile.
6.2.3
מרובה טומאת החיים – now it raises an object on a Kal V’Homer/an a fortiori inference and this is how it should be read: it is law that a limb from a living being defiles in any amount even though a limb from a dead individual does not defile in any amount, for we have found that the defilement from the living is greater than the defilement from the dead.
6.2.4
שהחי – that is the person with a flux who is alive (see also Tractate Zavim, Chapter 4, Mishnah 6).
6.2.5
עושה משכב ומושב – all utensils that are under it, and even if they are one hundred, defiles man and defiles clothing, as it is written (Leviticus 15:5): “Anyone who touches his bedding shall wash his wash his clothes,[bate in water, and remain impure until evening].”
6.2.6
ועל גביו מדף – all utensils that are on the person with a flux, even if they are one-hundred, this one on top of that one, are all impure through indirect contact for conferring ritual impurity, that is a a light impurity, which do not defile a person or utensils like surfaces designed for lying and sitting which are below him, but do defile food-stuffs and liquids, and the word מדף/indirect contact – is based upon the expression (Leviticus 26:36): “The sound of a driven leaf [shall put them to flight,” that is a light defilement. Another explanation: the expression its breath smells, that the breath of the defilement of an individual with a flux travels great distances to defile all the utensils upon it, even though it did not come in contact with them.
6.2.7
מה שאין המת מטמא – for the utensils that are under the dead person are not defiled other than first-degree and second-degree and third-degree alone. From the law of contact, for the utensils that came in contact/touched the dead is like the dead, and makes the utensil that it came in contact with a primary [level of defilement], and [something that is is] third level of defilement that came in contact with it is made into first-degree [of defilement] and further than that, does not defile utensils. For utensils do not receive defilement other than from a primary-level of defilement. And similarly, utensils that are upon the dead do not defile other than first-degree, second-degree or third degree alone, from the law of contact, and not from the law of lying and sitting.
6.3.1
כזית בשר הפורש מאבר מן החי – a limb that separates from a living person, it’s law is that it defiles all the while it is a complete limb while in contact and while being carried and in the tent of the dead person himself, as it is written (Numbers 19:16): “[And in the open, anyone who touches a person] who was killed, or who died naturally...,” the limb that had been severed by the sword from the living, it is like the dead. And the flesh that separates from the living does not defile until it becomes a complete limb and when an olive’s bulk of flesh separates from the limb of a living person, Rabbi Eliezer defiles as it explains the reason further on.
6.3.2
עצם כשעורה – from the dead defiles through contact and through carrying but it does not defile in the tent, as it is written (Numbers 19:18): ‘”or on him who touched the bones [or the person who was killed or died naturally or the grave],” and it is a traditional interpretation of a written law that it defiles with a barley seed in bulk, and when it separates from a living limb, Rabbi Nehuniah defiles it, etc.
6.3.3
מצינו אבר מן החי כמת עצמו – that we derive it from the Biblical verse (Numbers 19:16): “who was killed or died naturally.”
6.3.4
אם טמאת כזית בשר הפורש מן המת – that is to say, it is a law that an olive’s bulk of flesh that separates from the dead person will be defiled, just as it has another stringency that the bone is like a barley-seed in bulk that separates from it is also impure.
6.3.5
אבל נטמא כזית בשר הפורש מאבר מן החי – in astonishment, for there isn’t in this that stringency.
6.3.6
שכן טהרת עצם כשעורה הפורש ממנו – for it is taught in the Mishnah above that a bone which is a barley-seed in bulk that separates from a living limb, Rabbi Eliezer and RabbiYehoshua declare if pure, but from its own words, they made an objection/refutation what did we find that he brought and similarly to Rabbi Nehunia..”
6.3.7
שהבשר נוהג בנבילות ובשרצים וכו' – as it is written (Leviticus 11:36): “[However, a spring or cistern in which water is collected shall be pure,] but whoever touches such a carcass in it shall be impure.” Such a carcass, and not the bones, and not the horns and not the cloven hoofs. So we see that the bones do not defile because of a carrion (that dies of itself).
6.3.8
אבר שיש עליו בשר כראוי – a limb does not defile other than if it has flesh and sinews and bones, as it is written (Numbers 19:16)” “or human bone,” just as a person who has flesh and sinews and bones, also all that have flesh and sinews and bones, and if it is missing from the flesh that was upon it and there remains upon it flesh as appropriate that will produce new flesh on a healing wound if it is attached to a living person, it defiles because of the limb, and that is - as we have said that if is missing the flesh, it is impure, but if it is missing a little bit from the bone in the limb, it does not defile because of the limb and that is as we have said, missing the bone, it is pure. That is to say, pure because of the limb, but it is impure because of the flesh and if so, we found that the defilement of the flesh is greater than the defilement from the bone.
6.3.9
והוא כברייתו – flesh and sinews and bones.
6.3.10
כזית בשר מטמא במגע ובמשא ובאהל – they said according to the beginning of the creation of man is as an olive’s bulk. Therefore the measure of his defilement is an olive’s bulk.
6.3.11
ורוב עצמות – the majority of the number of the bones of a human being, since the number of the bones of a human is two-hundred and forty-eight. It is found that the majority is one-hundred and twenty-five.
6.3.12
חסר הבשר – from the measurement of an olive’s bulk
6.3.13
טהור – completely from being defiled not through contact and not through carrying nor in a tent.
6.3.14
חסר רוב עצמות מטמא במגע ובמשא – for a bone like a barley-seed in bulk defiles through contact and through carrying, but does not defile in the tent. So we see that the defilement of bones is greater than defilement by flesh, for if it were the bones that were missing from their measurement, still defilement would remain in them, but flesh that is missing from its measure is completely pure.
6.3.15
רוב בנינו – such as two lower legs and one thigh and all of the skeleton of a person are two lower legs and the thighs and the ribs and the backbone.
6.3.16
אע"פ שאין בהן רובע – for one-quarter kab of ones of a dead person defile in the tent. Even though they don’t have the majority of the bones [of a human being] or the majority of the skeleton, they defile even though they lack the one-quarter [kab]. But flesh which is less than the equivalent of an olive’s bulk, you have nothing in it that will bring to him the defilement.
6.3.17
אם אמרתם במת שיש בו רוב ורובע ורקב – it is the law that the equivalent of an olive’s bulk of flesh and a barley-side’s bulk of a bone that separates from the dead will be impure, for there are stringencies regarding the dead of a majority and one-quarter [kab] and a mass of earth from a grave containing parts of a decayed human body.
6.3.18
תאמרו בחי שאין בו – these stringencies which is not the law that there would be neither the equivalent of an olive’s bulk of flesh nor a barley-seed’s equivalent of a bone that separate from the limb of a living person, they are [not] impure, but rather pure. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehoshua.
6.3.19
ורקב – the body of a dead whose moistness had ceased, and had become like dirt, this is רקב/decay of the body that defiles a spoon-filled of dust/tarvad-full of dust [from parts of a decayed human body] and its measurement is the handful of an intermediate-size individual. But a handful of a decayed human body does not defile other than from a dead person buried naked in an alabaster coffin which is covered with a marble cover until it is definitively known that there is no mixture of a decay of clothing or of wood or other dirt. But if the dead is buried in his clothing or in a wooden coffin or in the dust, there is no decay, and similarly, a dead person that is buried missing a limb, there is no decay.
7.1.1
העיד רבי יהושע. פדיון פטר חמור שמת– a lamb which was set aside/dedicated for the redemption of the first-born of an ass and it died.
7.1.2
כחמש סלעים – [like the five Sela’im] of the redemption of the first-born son [if lost] is liable to make it up.
7.1.3
כפדיון מעשר שני – for if it was lost, he is not liable to make it for that money the All-Merciful obligated to teat in Jerusalem, but surely it was lost to him, and the reason of Rabbi Eliezer for we have surely found that the Biblical verse made a comparison by juxtaposition between the first born of the ass and the first born of a human being, as it states (Exodus 34:20): “But the firstling of an ass you shall redeem with a sheep; [if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck.] And you must redeem every first-born among your sons.”
7.1.4
וחכמים אומרים – The Biblical verse states (Numbers 18:15): “…but you shall have the first-born of man redeemed, and you shall also have the firstling of impure animals redeemed.” To redemption the Torah made a comparison [by juxtaposition] but not to anything else.
7.2.1
לא פסלו את צירן – for they were lenient with the brine of unclean locusts that he doesn’t prohibit their [mixture], because they lack blood and it is only mere moistness, and this was an early version of the Mishnah. But the testimony of Rabbi Tzadok added on to the words of the early version of the Mishnah to state that it is pure, for it was needless to say that he does not forbid this mixture, but rather even this itself is pure.
7.3.1
על הזוחלין שרבו על הנוטפים – they are running waters like rivers that are waters in channels or stored up on the ground, based upon the language of (Deuteronomy 32:24): “with venomous creepers in dust,” and their law is like that of a spring which purifies running water and whatever is in it, and they are valid to sanctify through them the waters of purification and for the immersion of individuals with a flux.
7.3.2
נוטפים – [they drip] like rain water, and their law is like a Mikveh of forty Seah to purify, and in a cavity for the reception of water, and they are invalid for the waters of a sin-offering and for the immersion of those with a flux, but they purify in running waters and with anything in them.
7.3.3
בבירת דלפיא – the name of a place.
7.4.1
עלי אגוז – the outer shell of a nut, which is the green shell when it is moist. If he made it like a spout/tube so that the running water enters through it and causes gushing forth by interposing an object (i.e., dam it in and causing an overflow), it has the law of running waters for the waters that are dammed in and causing an overflow from it, and they are valid for the waters of purification and for the immersion of individuals with a flux, etc. And we don’t say that since they entered into this shell, which has a receptacle and from there, are dammed in causing an overflow from it, they would not have the law of running waters, since that shell is not considered a utensil.
7.4.2
לפני לשכת הגזית – the Great Sanhedrin that would sit in the Chamber of the Hewn Stones.
7.5.1
קלל של חטאת (this part of the Mishnah is also taught in Tractate Parah, Chapter 10, Mishnah 3) - an earthenware vessel that the ashes of the heifer are placed in it. The Aramaic translation of (Genesis 24:15): “…came out with her jar on her shoulder,” her jar on her shoulder.
7.5.2
שנתנו על גבי השרץ – an the utensil that the ashes of the heifer is inside is not defiled. For the earthenware vessel is not defiled from the outside, nevertheless, the ashes are impure, because it is placed in an impure place. And the Torah stated (Numbers 19:9): “[A man who is pure shall gather up the ashes of the cow] and deposit them outside the camp in a pure place, [to be kept for water of lustration for the Israelite community].”
7.5.3
שר' אליעזר מטהר – for he holds that since the utensil and the ashes within it are pure, it is better to call it a pure place. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.
7.5.4
על מי שנזר שתי נזירות (this part of the Mishnah is also taught in Tractate Nazir, Chapter 3, Mishnah 2) –mere/plain [Nazirite-ship]. And all plain Nazirite vows are thirty days.
7.5.5
שאם גלה את הראשונה יום שלשים – for ab initio, it was not needed for him to shave other than the thirty-first [day], in order that that his Nazirite-ship would be thirty complete days. But if he shaved on the thirtieth day, his Nazirite-ship was counted for him, for we say that part of a day is like a full day.
7.5.6
ואם גלה יום ששים חסר אחד יצא – for the thirtieth day of the first Nazirite-ship counts both for here (i.e., the first) and for there (i.e., the second), and since the thirtieth day of the first is also counted from the second Nazirite-ship, it is found that thirty days of the second Nazirite-ship end on the sixtieth-day minus one (i.e., on the fifty-ninth day).
7.6.1
ולד שלמים לא יקרב שלמים – but one puts it into the prison and it dies. It is because a decree, for if we you were to say that the offspring of a peace-offering has a remedy, one can wait for the mother until she gives birth and the flock would grow from the offspring and it would provide wool and labor.
7.6.2
ואכלנו ולדה שלמים בחג – on the holiday of Shavuot, for if he would wait and look forward to the holiday of Sukkot, it is found that he would violate a positive commandment, as it states (Deuteronomy 12:5,6): “There you are to go, and there you are to bring [your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and contributions, your votive and freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks],” that implies on the first Festival that you would go there, bring all your vows that are upon you. However, the negative commandment of “[When you make a vow to the LORD your God] do not put off fulfilling it,” he does not transgress until three festivals have passed by.
7.7.1
ארוכות של נחתומים (this section of the Mishnah is also taught in Tractate Kelim, Chapter 15, Mishnah 2) – flat wooden utensils that bakers arrange there loaves of bread at the time when they make bread. Long-ranging boards like to work the dough.
7.7.2
שהן טמאות – According to the Rabbis, for assuming that from the Torah, flat wooden utensils do not receive defilement,, the Rabbis decreed upon them, as is brought in Tractate Kelim, Chapter 2 (Mishnah 1).
7.7.3
שר' אליעזר מטהר (see Tractate Kelim, Chapter 10, Mishnah 5) – that he held that they are not considered utensils at all, and even if they are not like flat wooden utensils. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.
7.7.4
שחתכו חוליות – they cut up the burned clay of the oven by its width into tiles and placed one tile on top of another, and placed sand in-between each tile, and plastered it with plaster/mud and made of it a paste of plaster surrounding its matting to guard its heat in the manner that people do for ovens.
7.7.5
שרבי אליעזר מטהר – for since there is sand between the cracks, it is similar to as if it’s broken. And the Sages defile it for the plaster makes it all as one, and attaches the slits, even though there is sand between each tile. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer (Note: This dispute is the source text for the famous debate of the Oven of Akhnai found in Tractate Bava Metzia 59a).
7.7.6
שמעברין את השנה בכל אדר – until the twenty-ninth of Adar, there is time for the Jewish court to state that it is a leap year, and that the next month is the Second Adar, but on the thirtieth day of Adar, one cannot intercalate the year, since it is appropriate to establish [the month of] Nisan, in the chapter of Tractate Pesahim 56a – “In the place where the practice existed” (chapter 4).
7.7.7
על תנאי – if the President [of the Sanhedrin} wishes that it would be intercalated and if not, it would not be intercalated.
7.8.1
מוסף היורה של שולקי זיתים – it is the manner of those who seethe olives and dyers who have large boilers and make for them additional plaster on their rims so that they will bring forth water at the time of their boiling. That of those who seethe olives is ritually impure, because that supplement is necessary for the utensil and it is used, and the Torah stated concerning the oven and portable stoves on feet (Leviticus 11:35): “an oven or stove shall be smashed. They are unclean and unclean they shall remain for you.” And they (i.e., the Rabbis) expound upon the word לכם/”for you,” everything that they need, that is a substance from the utensil that one you need it for and use it – that it receives defilement.
7.8.2
ושל צבעים טהור – for dyers do not use the same supplement since they are fearful lest they lose their color.
7.9.1
על החרשת שהשיאה אבות (this section of the Mishnah is also taught in Tractate Gittin, Chapter 4, Mishnah 5; this part of the Mishnah is also taught in Tractate Yevamot, Chapter 14, Mishnah 2) – even though she is a completely married woman, for her father received her betrothal when she was a small girl/minor, even so, she is divorced with a Jewish bill of divorce, and she receives her Jewish bill of divorce when she is a deaf-mute, and even though she lacks knowledge, because a woman can be divorced against her will. Therefore, we do not require her knowledge.
7.9.2
ועל קטנה בת ישראל שנשאת לכהן – and she is an orphan and her marriage was not other than from the Rabbis, and she eats priest’s due from the Rabbis and we don’t make the decree regarding priest’s due of the Rabbis because of the priest’s due of the Torah.
7.9.3
מריש – beam
7.9.4
בירה – large house
7.9.5
מפני תקנת השבים – for if we would require him to take down the entire group of buildings and to return the beam itself, he might be prevented from repenting.
7.9.6
שלא נודעה לרבים – which is stolen
7.9.7
שהיא מכפרת – and there is no need to bring another.
7.9.8
מפני תיקון מזבח – the there would not be sad Kohanim when they ate non-sacred food that was slaughtered in the Temple courtyard. And it is found that the altar is void for they are prevented from performing the Divine Worship.
8.1.1
העיד רבי יהושע על דם נבילות שהוא טהור – from being made impure like a carrion in an olive’s bulk, and it defiles with a quarter [of a log]. For you do not have anything whose blood will become defiled like its skin other than for a reptile alone. And above [at the beginning of Chapter 5 of Tractate Eduyot] where it is taught in the Mishnah: that the blood of carrion – the School of Shammai declares clean and the School of Hillel declares unclean, but not like the carrion which defiles through an olive’s bulk, but through a quarter [of a log].
8.1.2
שנגע טמא במקצתו שטימא את כולו – they made a preference with Holy things and with the ashes of the sin-offering, for even thouh they themselves are divided if we place them within one utensil and comes in contact with something that defiles holy things in part, all were defiled, for the utensil combines them to be considered as if they are one body, and support is brought for it from the Biblical verse, as it is written (Numbers 7:14,20,26,32,38,44,50,56,62,68,74,80): “One gold ladle of 10 shekels, filled with incense,” as the Biblical verse made all of what is in one ladle.
8.1.3
הוסיף ר' עקיבא – for whereas from the testimony of Rabbi Shimon ben Beterah, we did not hear other than on that which is impure, and Rabbi Akiva came and added that even one who immersed himself on that day – but is not completely pure until sunset which does not defile but is invalid alone, if it came comes in contact with part of it, it invalidates all of it. And Maimonides explained, that from the testimony of Rabbi Shimon, we did not hear that it combines other than a utensil that has an inside [receptacle] but a vessel that does not have an inside [receptacle], we did not hear that it combines, but Rabbi Akiva came and added that even sifted fine flour and incense and frankincense and coals that are not within the utensil, but are collected and placed on a board or plank which has no inside [receptacle], they are considered as if placed within the utensil, and are made as if they are one substance.
8.1.4
והגחלים – those that the High Priest on Yom Kippur takes out in a pan, if a person who immersed himself on that day – but is not completely pure until sunset touched part of them, all of them are made in valid, and a preference was made with them, for the coals are not receptacles for defilement.
8.2.1
קטנה בת ישראל – and she is an orphan a has been explained at the end of the chapter above (i.e., Eduyot, Chapter 7, Mishnah 9), and he adds here that when she came to get married even though she had not yet engaged in sexual relations, because from the testimony of above (i.e., Eduyot, chapter 7, Mishnah 9), we did not hear/learn that she eats Terumah/priest’s due [if she married a Kohen] other than after she had engaged in sexual relations.
8.2.2
שהורהנה – that she had been deposited as a pledge with idolaters.
8.2.3
ועדיה – those who testified that she had been deposited as a pledge.
8.2.4
האמינו שלא נסתרה ושלא נטמאה – and specifically to this one that her witnesses testify about her that she had been defiled, It is this that the Rabbis said that they believed her, for not according to the law did the members of her family distance her from them. But if she doesn’t have witnesses, any woman detained through money at the time when the idolaters are in power, she is prohibited for a Kohen to engage in sexual relations with her. There is no difference whether she was deposited as a pledge or whether she had been detained/imprisoned.
8.3.1
אלמנת עיסה – one family that was mixed up with someone who was doubtful for the priesthood on account of his father’s illegitimate connection. All the children of that family are doubtful if he was that doubtfulness that was mixed up with them or not. And a woman who married one of the children of that family, and her husband died, is called the widow of one belonging to a family suspected of containing an alien admixture, that is like the examined and mixed family [suspected of containing an alien admixture], so too this particular woman is mixed from doubts – doubt if her husband was that doubtful one for the priesthood on account of his father’s illegitimate connection, according to the truth. Rabbi Yehoshua validates her for the priesthood, because there is here a compound uncertainty and is judged leniently. But Rabban Gamaliel holds that even though generally, a compound uncertainly which is judged leniently, here is different, for they made a preference for pedigrees.
8.3.2
העיסה כשרה לטמא ולטהר – that is to say, that a family that became mixed through someone doubtful for the priesthood on account of his father’s illegitimate connection, behold, she is presumption of being fit like the rest of the families of legitimate descent, and like that the rest of the families say: “this one is ritually impure” and distance themselves from her, and “this one is pure” and they draw her close, so is this family that had become mixed up beyond recognition as a result of someone doubtful for the priesthood on account of his father’s illegitimate connection, and we cannot say for since that it become so mixed up beyond recognition, we don’t any longer to check when women marry -which one was defiled and which one is pure, in order to distance the impure one and to draw close the pure one.
8.3.3
קבלנו עדותכם – you are believed in our eyes and we believe that such is what you heard.
8.3.4
שלא להושיב ב"ד על כך – to permit the widow of one belonging to a family suspected of containing an alien admixture ab initio.
8.3.5
הכהנים שומעים לכם לרחק – if you would say that she is forbidden.
8.3.6
אבל לא לקרב – if you would say that she is permitted. And the Legal decision is that a woman who married one of that family, and her husband died, is called the widow of one belong to a family suspected of containing an alien mixture, and she is forbidden to marry into the priesthood ab initio, and if she married, she cannot be divorced.
8.4.1
איל קמצא – a form of locust. The Aramaic translation of “like locusts” is “like a species of locusts.”
8.4.2
דכן – it is clean and permitted to eat.
8.4.3
ועל משקה בית מטבחייא – the blood in the slaughterhouse of the Temple courtyard.
8.4.4
דאינון דכיין – there is one who says that they are completely pure, for the defilement of liquids is not from the Torah but rather the Rabbis are those who decreed upon them defilement, and on these they did not decree. And there is another opinion that these are pure from making others impure, but they are impure of themselves and there is, from the Torah, defilement for liquids, to become defiled and the Rabbis were not able to make pure what the Torah had defiled.
8.4.5
ועל דיקרב למיתא מסאב – this is how it should be understood (Talmud Avodah Zarah 37b), that whomever definitely touches a corpse is unclean. But there is a doubt, even a grave defilement of the dead is pure, and all the more so, defilement [via a contact with] a reptile is light. And a doubtful impurity in the public domain comes to permit. And even though a doubtful impurity in the public domain is pure according to the Torah, for prohibition of doubtful defilement we derive from the Sotah/suspected adulterous woman, for the Bible derives it with the language of defilement (Numbers 5:13): “and she keeps secret the fact that she has defiled herself, the Biblical verse informs us that on that which is doubtful, she is prohibited, and just as the case of the Sotah/suspected adulterous woman is in the private domain, and there is no hiding in the public domain, so doubtful defilement is not other than in the private domain, nevertheless before Yosi ben Yoezer came, they would say, it is the Halakha but we don’t teach thus. And he came and testified that we do teach as such ab initio, to make pure all doubtful defilement in the public domain.
8.4.6
וקרי ליה יוסי שריא – because he permitted three things that they (i.e., the Rabbis) would practice a prohibition on them. For any Jewish court that permits three things where their permit is not simple, they would call it, a permitting/absolving Jewish court.
8.5.1
שמשיאין האשה ע"פ עד אחד (this section of the Mishnah is also taught at the conclusion of Tractate Yevamot, Chapter 16, Mishnah 7) – a woman whose husband went abrought and one witness came and said that he died. We marry off his wife through his word.
8.5.2
כדיר העצים – a chamber where they gather all the wood of the altar of the Temple. And it was in the north-east corner of the Women’s compartment [of the Temple court] and they found there the bones of the dead. But the Sages said that they should collect bone by bone and everything is ritually pure. And we should not suspect lest they humans and utensils were defiled by them because in the Women’s compartment has the law of the public domain, and this is doubtful defilement in the public domain, for its doubtfulness makes is pure. And in the Tractate Zevahim in the last chapter (chapter 14) [ page 113a], the Gemara brings that they (i.e., the Sages) wanted to decree defilement on all of Jerusalem because of those bones that were found in the shed for the wood, but that Rabbi Yehoshua said to them: No: It is a shame and disgrace for us that we should decree defilement on the city of our forefathers.
8.6.1
שמעתי שמקריבים אף על פי שאין בית – [since] the holiness that Solomon sanctified the Temple, he sanctified for its time and he sanctified it for the future. And similarly, the holiness of Jerusalem was sanctified forever. But the sanctification of the rest of the Land of Israel, he did not sanctify during the first conquest other than for its time [alone] until those who came up from Babylonia returned and they sanctified it a second time, and that sanctification was sanctified for the future.
8.7.1
הלכה למשה מסיני – For the Holy One, blessed be He showed Moses at Sinai, each generation and its expounders, and showed him that Elijah does not come to make impure or to make pure, to distance or to bring close, to verify [doubtful] families mixed up (i.e., lost to the priesthood as they had been mixed with Israelites beyond traces of genealogical disabilities) beyond recognition; who had been mixed up beyond recognition and who had not been mixed up beyond recognition, but he should leave them and they will be valid in the future to come, for the Halakha is that a family that had mixed up beyond recognition remains mixed up beyond recognition.
8.7.2
אלא לרחק המקורבים בזרוע – for everyone presumes them as invalid, but that they were brought close by force, but a family which had been mixed up beyond recognition on account that it was not known that its defilement was unknown, should be left in its fitness.
8.7.3
בית הצרפה – such is the name of the family.
8.7.4
ורחקה – he announced concerning them that they are invalid.
8.7.5
בן ציון – he was a strong man and a violent person.
8.7.6
ועוד משפחה אחרת היתה שם – that was invalid.
8.7.7
וקרבה בן ציון בזרוע – and he announced concerning them that they are valid to marry with them, and the Tanna/teach of the Mishnah had consideration on the honor of human creations and did not mention the name of the invalid family that Ben Zion drew close forcefully, like he had mentioned the name of the fit/valid family, to teach you how much a person has to be careful not to recount of the denigration of his fellow and to be able to hide degradation. If such is the case with those who are invalid, all the more so regarding those who are valid.
8.7.8
כגון אלו – who validity and invalidity were known but that they were distanced by force and brought closer by force.
8.7.9
לקרב אבל לא לרחק – the valid family that had been distanced by force, he brings close but he does not distance that which had been brought close by force.

Bartenura on Mishnah, trans. by Rabbi Robert Alpert, 2020. Via Sefaria (sefaria.org), Sefaria-Export. Version source: http://sefaria.org/ Licence: CC-BY. Source.