אלו מטמאין באוהל, המת וכזית מן המת -and if this is difficult, an olive’s bulk of a corpse defiles, from that which is defiled from contact with the dead, all the more so, this matter is resolved in the Gemara in [Tractate] Nazir [50a, it is needed only for [the case of] a premature/non-viable birth whose limbs were not connected with sinews as it lacks an olive’s bulk of flesh.

נצל (decayed matter – liquid and coagulated portions of a corpse) – the flesh of a corpse that swelled up like a kind of ill-smelling secretion.

מלוא תרוד (A tarvad/spoon-full of dust) – a spoon, and its measurement is two handfuls.

רקב – the body of a corpse when its moisture has departed and it becomes like a kind of dust. But a handful of a a mass of earth from a grave containing parts of a decaying human body doesn’t defile other than from a corpse that was buried naked in a coffin/bier of marble and covered with a covering of marble, until it is known with certainty that there is combination of decayed matter of cloth or wood or other dirt. But a corpse that was buried in its covering or in a wooden ark or in dust, has no decayed matter. And similarly, a corpse that was buried missing a limb has no decayed matter.

אבר מן המת ואבר מן החי – as it is written (Numbers 19:16): “[And in the open, anyone who touches a person who was killed or who died naturally,” a limb that the sword separated from the living is like the corpse.

ורובע עצמות – one quarter of a Kab (i.e., 24 egg-bulks) of bones.

מרוב המנין או מרוב הבנין – My Rabbis/Teachers explained, that they are small/minute from having in them the majority of the number [of bones] and/or the majority of the frame, for even though that they don’t have the majority of the number [of bones] nor the majority of the frame, they defile.

ורוב בנינו ורוב מנינו (the greater portion of a corpse as to the size of limbs and the greater number of joints/limbs)– the majority of the frame of the body, or the majority of the number of the bones even though it is not the majority of the frame of the body, they defile, and even though there isn’t a quarter [of a Kab] in them. And the majority of the frame, such as the legs and the thighs/haunches, and the ribs [and the spine]. And the greater number of joints/limbs, such as the tops of the fingers of the hands and the feet, and similar kinds of things to them, and provided that there will be one-hundred and twenty-five limbs, they defile.

רביעית דם (a quarter-LOG of blood) – that all of it left [the body] after death.

ורביעית דם תבוסה (a quarter LOG of blood that flows from a person at the time of his death or afterwards – which has the status of a corpse) – that part of a quarter [of a LOG] of blood while living and after death. And further ahead in Chapter 3 [Mishnah 5], it explains this.

תבוסה – it is the language of (Ezekiel 16:6): “[When I passed by you and saw you] wallowing in your blood, [I said to you: [Live in spite of your blood’].” And the quarter [of a LOG] of blood all of which exited [the body] after death, is from the Rabbis, as it is written (Numbers 19:13): “[Whoever touches] a corpse, the body of person who has died.

But [the concept] of דם תבוסה/that part of a quarter [of a LOG] that flows from a person at the time of his death or afterwards. For the Rabbis hold that there is "יש אם למסורת" /the consonantal text of the Torah is authoritative [when looking at Leviticus 21:11): "ועל כל נפשות מת לא יבא"/He shall not go in where there is any dead body,” [the word] נפשת/dead, is written defectively (i.e., without the letter “Vav” In it).

רבי עקיבא אומר משני מתים – one-half of a quarter [of a LOG of blood] from this dead person and one-half of a quarter [of a LOG of blood] from another dead person, defiles in the tent, for he (i.e., Rabbi Akiba) holds, "יש אם למקרא"/the vocalized text of the Torah is authoritative, [as the Biblical verse from Leviticus 21:11) is pronounced: "נפשות מת"/any dead body, implying two souls and one measurement, for since it does not state [in Scripture] "נפשות מתים"/dead bodies. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Akiba.

ר' עקיבא אומר כל שהוא – just bones defile with the majority of the number of bones and the majority of the frame, even though one-quarter of a Kab which is the designated measurement for bones, so also, it is defiled if the blood of minor – all of which exited the body, even though it doesn’t have the quarter [of a LOG] which the designated measure for blood.

וחכמים אומרים רביעית – if you were to say that with the bones that it is known that all of them are in front of you, shall you say regarding the blood that I state that there remains a drop of any amount and that not all of it has come out? But the Halakha is according to the Sages.

כזית רמה –[a olive’s bulk of a worm] that was born in the flesh of the corpse.

מטמא כבשרו – that a room that comes out from the corpse even while living, is considered to be like the flesh of a corpse, because, a person while alive is called a worm, as it is written (Job 25:6): “How much less man, a worm, [the Son of man, a maggot].”

וחכמים מטהרים – And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

אפר שרופים – a person that was burned and became ash, and the ash of wood was not combined in it.

שעורו ברובע – [a quarter] of a Kab of ash, defiles.

וחכמים מטהרי – And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

עפר קברות – dirt that the blood and moistness of the corpse is mixed in. And a spoonful of dust and a bit more is impure, because it is impossible to fill a spoon and a bit more so that there would not be in it a spoonful (i.e., two handfuls) of the body of a corpse when its moisture has departed, that it stated above (i.e., in Mishnah 1 of this chapter) that this is impure, But here, it also speaks of a corpse that is buried naked in a marble coffin/bier which has other dirt mixed into it.

ר' שמעון מטהר – But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.

אימנו חיבור לטומהא – for if it had overshadowed over part of it, it is not as if it overshadowed over all of it. And similarly, regarding the matter of contact/touching.

עצם שעורה – defiles through contact and through carrying, as it is written (Numbers 19:18): “[A person who is clean shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle on the tent and on all the vessels and people who were there,] or on him who touched/ועל הנגע [the bones or the person who was killed or died naturally or the grave,” but there it does not state, "בעצם אדם"/human bone (as we find in Numbers 19:16). [This comes] to teach about the bone the size of a barleycorn that defiles through contact even though it is not recognized that it of a human being. But in the tent, it is written (Numbers 19:14): “When a person dies in a tent,” and with regard to a bone for the matter of defilement through overshadowing in a tent, we require that it is recognized that it (i.e., the bone) is of a human being, for in another place (Numbers 19:16) it (i.e., the Torah) states, “or human bone”/או-בעצם אדם.

וארץ העמים – Everything that is outside of the Land [of Israel] is called ארץ העמים/the land of the nations [which is ritually impure]. And here we are speaking of a clod/lump of dust that comes from outside the Land which defiles through contact and through carrying but does not defile though overshadowing in a tent. But a person who enters the land of the nations, even if he did not touch nor carry anything, as for example, that he was riding upon a horse, is impure, but on the airspace of the land of the nations they (i.e., the Rabbis) also decreed.

בית הפרס (area in which uncertainty exists concerning the location of a grave or a corpse) – a field in which a grave was plowed and the bones of the corpse were broken and threshed in the dirt of that field. [And the word] פרס from the language of פרוסה/a broken piece (Isaiah 58:7): “It is to share your bread with the hungry.”

כמה חסרון בשדרה (how much is a sufficient lack in the backbone) -that it will not be defiled [through overshadowing] in the tent, but rather through contact and through carrying.

כמלא מקדח (as large as the hole made with the large carpenters’ borer/drill) – as wide as the incision that they make with an awl.

כדי שינטל מן החי וימות – and the Sages estimated the loss as equivalent to a Sela.

בקטן של רופאים – with a small awl that the doctors open up the wounds.

בגדול של לשכה (concerning the large one of the chamber) – that the Sages estimated as an incision like the size of a Pundiyon.

הגולל (the stone placed on top of a burial cave/top-stone) – a large and wide stone that they seal/stop up the mouth of the grave from above. [This is] from the language of (Genesis 29:3): “[When the flocks were gathered there,] the stone would be rolled [from the mouth of the well and the sheep watered.]”

דופק (the frame supporting the movable stone of a tomb -against which the turning body knocks) -two large stones, one from this side and the another from the other side, so that the stone placed on top of a burial cave rests upon them.

מטמאין במגע ובאהל – 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,” just as the corpse defiles through contact and through overshadowing in a tent, even the grave defiles through contact and through overshadowing in a tent.

ואינן מטמאין במשא that we expound (Numbers 19:16): “And in the open, anyone who touches a person,” to include the stone placed on top of the burial cave and the frame supporting the movable stone of a tomb (i.e., גולל ודופק), and it is written: (Numbers 19:16): “anyone who touches,” because of contact he defiles, but he does not defile because of carrying

אם יש תחתיהן עפר קברות – which defiles through movement, because of the dirt that is moved with them when it defiles through carrying, because of the holding of the corpse. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehoshua.

דופק דופקין (but the frame supporting the frame stones) – near the frame supporting the movable stone of a tomb, they sometimes place another stone to support it and the stone placed on top of the burial cave is not leaning upon it, and this called דופק דופקין/the buttress/frame stone of buttressing stones.

ואלו אם חסרו טהורים – for they lack the according to the measurement.

כזית מן המת – for such is the beginning of the creation of a human with an olive’s bulk.

ורביעית דם – since but at the beginning of the creation of a minor, he has less than a quarter [of a LOG] of blood.

ואבר מן החי שחסר עצמו (the limb of a living person that is missing his bone) – even a marrow-bone/thigh-bone that is missing from him any part of it does not defile because a limb from a living being, but if is missing from his flesh, it always defiles until he is lacking enough to produce new flesh [on a healing wound]. But a limb from a corpse, is an olive-bulk’s worth of flesh that separates from him, is impure, and a wone like that of a barley-corn that separates from him is also impure.

השדרה והגולגולת משני מתים – half of the vertebrae of the spine from this corpse and half of the vertebrae of the spine from another corpse, the skull.

ואבר מן החי משני אנשים – half of a limb that is torn off from this living person and half of a limb that is torn off rom another living person, and they appear as one limb.

וחכמים מטהרין -from defilement by overshadowing in a tent. But they defile through contact and carrying because of a bone the size of a barleycorn. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

שנדקדקו (that were crushed/powdered) – that were ground. It is the language of (Exodus 30:36): “Beat some of it into powder, [and put some before the Pact in the Tent of Meeting].”

ר' שמעון מטהא – from all defilement. And they do not defile neither through contact nor through carrying nor through overshadowing in a tent.

וחכמים מטמאין – with all of them [they defile], as there is a quarter [of a LOG].

אבר מן החי שנחלק לשנים טהור – and even if he went back and reconnected them, but the connections of a man are not a connection/attachment.

שניטל חצאים (if it was taken away by halves) – that it was taken from the living person by halves, but not taken from him a complete limb as one, for there was never a measurement for it. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.