תנור שהוא עומד בתוך הבית – the incision that is made in the oven that the smoke leaves from it is placed outside of the house.

והאהילו עליו נושאי המת – when they would carry the corpse to bury it, the corpse overshadowed over the “eye” (i.e., fire-place] [which is outside the house.

בית שמאי אומרים הכל טמא – for they (i.e., the House of Shammai) hold that the defilement enters into the oven through its “eye (i.e., fire place) and departs through its mouth into the house.

התנור טמא והבית טהור – the oven which overshadowed the corpse on part of it is impure, but the house is ritually pure, for the defilement does not go out through its mouth [according to the School of Hillel].

ר' עקיבא אומר אף התנור טהור – for since it (i.e., the corpse) did not overshadow over the oven but only on the “eye” (i.e., fire-place) that comes out from it, the oven is not impure. But the Halakha is according to the School of Hillel.

ארובה (the opening/aperture in the roof looking to the ground floor) – like a kind of window that is on the roof of the house which is the bottom of the upper chamber.

בכונס משקה – when they place the vessel on the liquids that enter, the liquids enter into it through that incision.

הכל טמא – if there is defilement in the house, the pot and everything that is on the upper chamber is ritually impure. For the pot does not protect, and the defilement ascends through the aperture which has an opening of a handbreadth.

ובית הלל אומרים הקדירה טמאה – it is a mere stringency that the School of Hillel is strict to invalidate to make the pot impure, for Rabbi Akiba holds that the pot protects over the defilement, as for example that the back of the pot faces downward near the defilement, for an earthenware vessel is not susceptible to receive ritual defilement rom its back. But the Halakha is according to the School of Hillel.

מצלת על הכל – [if affords protection] on everything that is in the upper chamber, for it interposes in front of the defilement.

אינה מצלת אלא על האוכלים ועל המשקים ועל כלי חרס – he (i.e., the School of Shammai) is speaking about the pot of those who are illiterate. And the reason of the School of Shammai is that the vessels of the illiterate/עם הארץ are impure in regard to a person who a חבר/member of the order for the observance of Levitical laws in daily intercourse, and every impure vessel does not interpose in front of the defilement. And because the illiterate holds his vessels as pure, we state to him that he protects over food and drink and earthenware vessels that are in the upper chamber, that for himself alone that we declare them pure, for those who are members of the order for the observance of Levitical laws in daily intercourse are separate/keep aloof from them and from their contact, for without this, all of their food would be impure. But the other vessels that have purification in a ritual bath/Mikveh, if they will purify them, he (the person who is illiterate) can lend them to a חבר and he would use them with immersion [in a Mikveh] alone, without sprinkling [of ashes] on the third and seventh days.

לגין (a vessel smaller than a pitcher but larger than a cup/flask) – of wood or of metal that is placed in this upper chamber that the pot is placed on the mouth of its aperture in the roof looking to the ground floor.

הלגין טמא טומאת שבעה – that the pot does not protect over a wooden vessel or a metal vessel as we have stated.

והמשקים טהורים – that the pot protects over foods and liquids.

ואם פינה (if she emptied it) – these liquids to another vessel that is the same upper chamber, the other vessel defiles them, for all of the vessels that are in the upper chamber are impure except for earthenware vessels. But the first vessel that the liquids were in are not defiled even though it (i.e., the vessel) is impure with ritual impurity for seven days. For if you said so, if so, the pot that is in the aperture in the roof looking to the ground does not protect over liquids at all, and we state that it protects over food and liquids.

האשה והערבה טמאים (the woman and the trough are impure) – for the earthenware pot protects them.

והבצק טהור – for the pot protects over the foods. And especially all the while that she did not separate from it, but if she lifted up [her] two hands from it and returned and kneaded it, this defiles the dough.

כלי גללים – of excrement of cattle.

כלי אבנים וכלי אדמה – al of these are vessels, even in the hand of illiterate people they are pure, and if they are placed upon the aperture in the roof looking to the ground fall, it protects over everything even on the vessels which require only rinsing to be restored to Levitical cleanness.

היה כלי טהור לקודש ולחטאת – for the Rabbis appointed them to the illiterate people on the Holy Things, in order that each person would not go and build an altar for himself, therefore, the vessel that is pure for Holy Things protects on everything, even according to the School of Shammai, and similarly, they are deemed faithful on the sin-offering of the ashes of the Red Heifer, as it is written (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,” everyone is believed on its preservation.

מפני שהכלים טהורים – as for example, vessels of excrement and vessels of stones and vessels of earth which are pure from being susceptible to receive impurity. And similarly, earthenware vessels are pure when they are for Holy Things and for purification [water]. Even though they belong to an illiterate person, he is believed, for an illiterate person is believed for Holy Things and for purification [water] as we have stated.

כל אלו מצילין עם דפנות אוהלים – that is to say, they interpose in the face of defilement when they are placed in a place where there are walls of tents, and this aperture in the roof looking to the ground floor that is between the house and the upper chamber is considered like the walls of tents. But in a place where there are no walls, it does not protect, as will be explained further on (see the next Mishnah).

הבור והדות שבבית (a cistern and a subterranean masoned cellar that are in the house) – and the corpse is in the house and vessels are in the cistern and cellar, and there is someone who seizes the partitions that are around them. Both a בור/cistern and a דות/cellar are in the ground, but the cistern [is made] through digging and the cellar [is made] through building/masonry.

וכפישה (an inverted vessel divided into two compartments by the bottom between – put on it as a tight lid) – a large basket that they press/squeeze the olives to produce shrinking and maturing of fruits by underground storage/לכומרן and it holds forty Se’ah or more, and is not susceptible to receive ritual impurity and is placed on the cistern or on the cellar.

טהור – everything that is in them is [pure] since there are partitions there.

באר חלקה – that the mouth of the well is level to the ground of the house and there is no partition around it, for here there are no walls.

או כוורת פחותה (a broken beehive) – as for example large beehive that holds forty Se’ah, that is not susceptible to receive ritual impurity. But it is broken, and is not stuffed up with straw.

וכפישה נתונה עליו – on the mouth of the cistern or on the mouth of the beehive.

טמא – for it does not protect other than with the walls of tents, but a cistern lacks walls, and the walls of a beehive are not the walls of tents.

היה נסר חלק (if it was a smooth board) – that tis is not a vessel.

או סרידה שאין לה גפיים (or stuffed matting used for stoppers of stoves which lacks handles) -which have no partitions and it is not considered a vessel.

טהור – if they are placed on a smooth well or on a broken beehive, they protect and are ritually pure. For specifically, the inverted vessel divided into two compartments by the bottom between is a vessel but does not protect other than with the walls of tents, but a board and stuffed matting which lack handles, that are not vessels, protect without the walls of tents. A stuffed matting used for stoppers of stoves, is like a small wooden trough that the baker uses. גפניים/handles are anchors and handles.

חצי טפח מכאן וחצי טפח מכאן – for a vessel does not protect in a smooth well, that is in a vessel which lack walls one handbreadth [high], but if the vessel has walls that are a handbreadth, it protects over the cistern even though its walls do not protrude at all, and now it is stated that half of handbreadth of a vessel and half of a handbreadth of the walls of a cistern do not combine. And the כפישה/(basket) inverted vessel divided into two parts by the bottom between where they squeeze the fruits that we mentioned above, that if it is placed on a smooth well, it does not protect, we are speaking that it doesn’t have walls [at the height of] a handbreadth.

כשם שמצילים מבפנים – with the walls of tents, so they protect from the outside with walls of tents as I explain further on [in this Mishnah].

על יתדות מבחוץ – near the wall that will not be continuous from the wall [for a handbreadth] and then it is considered a tent to interrupt between the defilement that is underneath it to the vessels that are over it. And specifically with regard to the wall of the house that this wall was made into a tent, the basket/inverted vessel is considered a tent to interrupt, but the wall of a courtyard and/or a garden is not made into a tent, the basket is not considered a tent to interrupt [the flow of defilement].

וקדירה תלויה בה – it is proven in the Tosefta {Tractate Ohalot, Chapter 6, Halakha 5 and 6) that if the rims of the pot are pulled from the rims of the beam and outward with an opening of a handbreadth, no one disagrees that it does not protect, and vessels that are in the pot are ritually impure, but the lip of the pot is attached to the beam, no one disagrees that it protects and is ritually pure. Where they disagree is where it is drawn from the beam and there isn’t an opening of a handbreadth. Rabbi Akiba says that it protects and they are pure, whereas the Sages state that it doesn’t protect and they are impure. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.