כיצד בוצרים בית הפרס (how do they cut grapes in an area in which uncertainty exists concerning the location of a grave or a corpse or crushed bones carried over it from a ploughed grave)- so that the grapes that grew in it would be ritually pure.

מזין על האדם ועל הכלים – on the third day [they would sprinkle].

ושונין – on the seventh day [they repeat it].

ומוציאין חוץ לבית הפרס – and even though that one cuts grapes for the vat for wine-pressing are fit for receiving Levitical uncleanness and this is one of eighteen matters that they decreed on the day [that Rabban Gamaliel was deposed as head of the Sanhedrin (see Tractate Berakhot 28a)], these words [refer to] defilement according to the Torah, but concerning the defilement of the a field where uncertainty exists concerning the location of a grave or corpse or crushed bones carried over it from a ploughed grave is Rabbinic, and we don’t consider it a fitness to become unclean. And because of this, it (i.e., the Mishnah) took [the term] and taught: “they sprinkle on the man and on the vessels [and repeat the process],” in order that they would be pure from defilement according the Torah (see Numbers 19:19, and even though they go back and become defiled in the field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave at the time of the harvesting of grapes, further, the grapes are not defiled through their contract because of the defilement of the field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave all the while that they did not have a complete fitness to become unclean.

ואחרים – who did not enter into the field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave.

מקבלין – from those who cut/harvest the grapes.

ומוליכין לגת – in other vessels. But those who cut/harvest the grapes do not bring them to the vat for wine-pressing, because the vat is filled with liquids and they are pronounced fit [for Levitical uncleanness] for a complete fitness.

ואם נגעו אלו באלו – those who cut/harvest the grapes came in contact with/touched the others who receive [the grapes]. טמאים – those who receive [the grapes] and they all of the grapes. For a person that is defiled in a field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave become a primary source of ritual defilement/ אב הטומאהand it defiles people and vessels [according to the School of Hillel]

. בית שמאי אומרים אוחז את המגל – that they (i.e., the School of Shammai) holds that the person who harvests [grapes] in the vat becomes fit for Levitical uncleanness even for the defilement of a field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave, and because of this, he must hold on to a sickle wrapped in a fibrous substance/bast of a palm tree when he harvests that does not receive defilement.

או בוצר בצור (or he harvests with a flint) – and it is a sharp stone that is not a vessel.

ונותן לתוך הכפישה (places it into an inverted vessel/a vessel divided into two compartments by the bottom between) – a large vessel that one harvests olives in, that it doesn’t receive ritual defilement.

ומוליך לגת – even he himself. For since he is careful and he has recognition that he places it in an inverted vessel and hasn’t touched it.

במה דברים אמורים כברם הנעשה בית הפרס – that the vines and trees were planted in it prior to it becoming a field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave. But a person who touches it ab initio in the field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave [should sell them in the market]. ימכר לשוק – that we fine him, because he should not have planted in a field declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed grave. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.

שלשה בית הפרס הן – that he considers them and leaves. A field in which a grave is ploughed up, and a field that lost a grave, and a field of mourners/tomb niches.

ניטעת כל נטע (planted with any kind of tree) – he plants in it all the trees that he wishes. But our Mishnah is not according to Rabbi Yossi who forbid this above (see Mishnah 1). But one can say that even Rabbi Yossi did not forbid other than to plant in it a vineyard alone, because the person who harvests grapes to the vat makes it susceptible [to receive ritual defilement], but not to the rest of the trees.

חוץ מזרע הנקצר – but seed that is uprooted with its roots, we are concerned/worried lest he bring a bone like the size of a barleycorn with the irt that comes up with the roots that are uprooted.

ואם עקרו – that seed that is sown.

צובר את גורנו לתוכו (heaps up the threshing floor in it) – into the midst of the field itself. And he threshes it there. And he does not brig it to the house until after threshing, so as to not increase the defilement.

וכוברו בשתי כברות (and he sifts it twice in two sieves) - one after another, lest a bone the size of a barleycorn become combined with it.

והקטנית בשלש – because the pulse has more dirt than does the grain, because of this they are more worried. But they are ritually pure, for they have not become fit for Levitical uncleanness. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

ושורף את הקש ואת העצה (and he burns the stubble and the pea-stalks) -within the field. Lest they have a bone the size of a barleycorn.

קשׁ – the straw of grain.

עצה – the straw of legumes.

ומטמאה במגע ובמשא – the sedeh beit ha‑pras we mentioned becomes defiling through touch and carrying.

ואינה מטמאה באוהל – for all of its defilement is because of a bone the size of barleycorn, but the bone the size of a barleycorn does not defile in a tent.

נזרעת כל זרע – this is our reading in most of the books. But in the Tosefta (Tractate Ohalot, Chapter 17, Halakha 10), it teaches: אינה נזרעת כל זרע/no seed is sown there (i.e., this is the reverse of what is explicitly taught in our Mishnah). And such it is in my eyes.

ואין ניטעת כל נטע (and is not planted with any kind of tree) – and needless to say, we don’t plant ab initio. But even that which is planted will not endure/be preserved, so that people will not be accustomed to this, because the defilement in a tent is more stringent in it.

חוץ מאילן סרק – that it is permitted to plant in it. And what is aאילן סרק ? A tree which bears no fruit).

שדה בוכים – a place far from the cemetery that they place there the pier of the corpse and [people] gather there and weep.

לא ניטעת ולא נזרעת – in the first chapter of [Tractate] Moed Katan [5b] in the Gemara, it explains that because of the despair of the owners that came in contact with it, for since this is the situation, the owners despair from it and it is like he is in distress because many took possession/hold of it and it is forbidden to be upset over it. And specifically, when the owners became despaired that many took possession of it according to law. But if they did not despair, for now, it is not according to the law that they took possession of it, it is permissible to be upset over it.

ועפרה טהור – for we don’t presume defilement to it at all.

ועושים ממנו תנורים לקודש – which is not the case in the first two fields of crushed bones carried over from a ploughed area.

שבודקים לעושה פסח – it refers to a field that a grave was ploughed up. For if a person goes there, he needs to slaughter his Passover sacrifice, they examine it as it is explained in the concluding clause [of this Mishnah], but if there is not found there a bone the size of a barleycorn, he goes and makes his Passover sacrifice.

ואין בודקין לתרומה – that specifically for Passover that he relies upon this examination, because the defilement of a Bet HaPras/an area containing crushed bones carried over from a ploughed field which is Rabbinic. But the Sages did not stand by their words with regard to extirpation, for whomever does not offer the Passover sacrifice at the appropriate time is liable to extirpation. But regarding the heave-offering, that its consumption is not anything but a positive commandment, the Rabbis stood by their words in the place of a positive commandment and an examination is not effective to permit it for heave-offering.

ולנזיר – [and to a Nazirite] that went there.

בית שמאין אומרים בודקין – and if a bone the size of a barleycorn was not found there, he does not shave his head.

ובית הלל אומרים אין בודקין – that whether it (i.e., a bone the size of a barleycorn) is found or not found, he shaves his head and brings a sacrifice.

העפר שהוא יכול להסיטו – as for example, crushed, loose earth.

וממחה (and crumbles it) – make it very fine in his hand so that he can see if has a bone-fragment the size of a barley corn.

כיצד מטהרין בית הפרס – it (i.e., the Mishnah) refers to the first area of a square Pras declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over it from a ploughed grave, which is a field in which a grave was ploughed.

נוטלין ממנו שלשה טפחים – like the measure of the depth of the plough that rolls/turns over the bones.

ר' שמעון אומר כו' – but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.

הרוצף(if one paves) - the language of a floor of stones.

טהור – since he is not able to move them, for if he would walk on top of them and, and they would be moved, there is a concern regarding movement (even without actually coming into contact with it) of a human bone that is underneath them.

אף העוזק (even someone who beaks clods suspected of containing human bones – and levels it) – he who digs and casts away the stones, if he did this in all of the Bet HaPras/a square Pras declared unclean on account of crushed bones carried over it from a ploughed grave, it is pure. [The word] עוזק – is the language of (Isaiah 5:2): “He broke the ground, cleared it of stones.” But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.

המהלך בבית הפרס – in a field where a grave was ploughed up in it.

על אבנים שיכול להסיטן – as for example on top of stones that are not lodged/placed and affixed in the ground and they can be moved on account of passing over them, and a human bone the size of a barleycorn is shaken from its position of strength, or rides upon a person or an animal [which cannot endure pressure and walks/treads upon them, the rider is impure, for since the strength at the bottom is bad/poor, on account of the load above, it was moved and it is as if he shakes the bone. But if if the strength of the one being driven has a strong legal right, the rider is not considered as if he shaking the bone. But how is that to be understood – that a person has a weak legal right? All that ride it and his knees and the surrounding parts knock against each other. But an animal whose strength is weak, all that ride it cause it to empty its bowels.

בהרים ובסלעים – even though they don’t bury a corpse there.

טמא – because of the dust of the Lands of the Nations that is rolled there.

בים ובשונית טהור (on the sea and on the beach/rocky cliffs – from the defilement of the soil/ground. That they (i.e., the Rabbis) decreed on the soil of the Land of the Nations to burn the heave-offering and Holy Things that touched its dust, for we don’t burn heave-offering or Holy Things that came to the sea or to the beach/rocky cliffs, for we don’t bury a corpse there, but they have the defilement of the Land of the Nations, for they (i.e., the Rabbis) decreed upon its airspace to suspend, that heave-offering and Holy Things that entered into the airspace of the Land of the Nations and didn’t touch its soil, we don’t eat it nor do we burn it.

בזעפו – where the sea rages.

הקונה שדה בסוריא – Aram Naharayim and Aram Tzoba that David conquered. But its dust is impure like what is outside of the Land of Israel, but one is liable for tithes and Seventh Year produce like the Land of Israel (see also Tractate Demai, Chapter 6, Mishnah 11 and Second Samuel, Chapter 10 and Second Chronicles, Chapter 19 and Tractate Gittin folio 8a).

אם יכול להכנס לה בטהרה – for the Land of the Nations does not form a partition between that field that he bought to the Land of Israel.

בטהרה – that field. And even on its own clod of earth they did not decree, because it belongs to an Israelite, and because of this, it is taught [in the Mishnah]: "הקונה שדה"/a person who purchases a field. But if it had the width of a handbreadth from the Land of the Nations or from the cemetery, it interrupts between the Land of Israel and a field that he purchased in Syria, for now, he is not able to enter in ritual purity, the soil of that field is impure like outside of the Land of Israel.

מדורות הגוים (Gentile dwelling places) – that are in the Land of Israel.

טמאים – they bury their aborted fetuses in their homes.

ארבעים יום – like the measure of the creation of the embryo.

אע"פ שאין עמו אשה – lawless/unrestrained men in the towns and they bring women to their homes at night.

עבד – [slave] of an Israelite (i.e., a Canaanite slave that is in the hand of an Israelite – according to the commentary of Tiferet Yisrael).

או אשה – an Israelite [woman].

משמרין – the Gentile dwelling places, that they (i.e., Israelites) will not be buried there.

הביבין העמוקים (the deep drains) – water pipes/ducts that they cause a gushing forth [of water] that spills out to the public domain. And there are books where it is written in them הכוכים/sepulchral chambers, the language of a כוך/a cave that is underneath the ground.

ועפר התיחוח – for one can be concerned that on account of the abortion/non-viable birth that they buried there, the ground became crushed, loose earth.

חזיר וברדלס (pig and spotted beast/leopard, hyena) – it is their manner to dig and search underneath the ground. But if they would find an abortion/non-viable birth buried underneath the ground, they would remove it from there. ברדלס – is a beast that they call ALTZEBAH in Arabic.

אצטבא (portico/colonnade, balcony) -made for beauty in front of the houses. But they don’t bury there non-viable births.

עיר נכרים שחרבה – cities of the land of Israel where heathens liveג and they were destroyed/laid waste from the heathens.

אין בהן משום מדור עובדי כוכבים – that wild animals are found there and they remove all the aborted births that were buried there. But the Halakha is not according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel.

קברות – it is known that they are graveyards.

היה ספק – [there was doubt] if they are from the Land of the Nations, [or] if they are from the Land of Israel.

וטיהרוהו – They (i.e., the Sages) considered it like the Land of Israel. Alternatively, there was doubt there were graveyard there or not, and they (i.e., the Sages) made them pure/clean, since they testified that there were no graveyards there.

קיני – the name of a place. And they would have the practice there of defilement from doubt, until Rabbi [Judah the Prince] and his Bet Din decided/resolved upon it and made it pure.

אוהלי ערביים – they are not established/set up in one place, and because they are not set up, they don’t bury in it. Alternatively, because they travel and camp from place to place, they did not want to abet the defilement.

והסוכות – of those who guard/protect the fruit.

והצריפים – dwellings that do not have a roof. Rather the walls touch at their tops with each other. And they are dwellings of pain/disregard and not fixed.

בורגנין (keepers or residents of a station house) – huts made in the field to bring into the fruit because of the rains.

אלקטיות (sheds for stacks of grain in the field)- a roof that stands on four pillars to cool off in the summer when he wind lows in it from all of its sides. And the language אלקטיות, summer houses. It is the Aramaic translation of קיץ/summer. קייטא/summer. Fruit.

מקום החצים – a place where the people of the city place in it arrows to keep for the time of war.

מקום לגיונות – where the soldiers/legions of the king camp out.