המקדש -the waters of lustration (i.e., sin-offering. A person who comes to place from the ashes of the heifer/cow into the water. This is the קידוש/mixing that is stated through our Tractate.

או על הצד – on the side of the vessel.

ואחר כך נפל לשוקת – on the water that is within the trough, those waters are invalid for sprinkling, as it is written (Numbers 19:17): "ולקחו [לטמא מעפר שרת החטאת] ונתן [עליו מים חיים]/”[Some of the ashes from the fire of purification] shall be taken [for the impure person, and fresh water] shall be added to them [in a vessel].” Until the ashes would be would bring within the water from the power (i.e., direct actions) of the person.

נטל מן השפופרת וכיסה – he took the ashes from the tube/reed and covered the tube/reed prior to his mixing it, that is prior to his putting the ashes in the water.

או שהגיף את הדלת (or shut the door) – prior to his mixing [the ashes in the water].

הקידוש כשר – that is the ashes that are in his hands, because the work does not invalidate the ashes, as we have stated (see also the end of Chapter 4).

והמים פסולים – that work was done with the water, and above [at the end] of the Chapter פרת חטאת/the cow of purification (chapter 4) we taught that the work [done by those involved in the ritual] renders the water unfit until they put the ashes into it/"והמלאכה פוסלת במים עד יטילו את האפר".

זקפה בארץ – after he took the ashes from the tube/reed, he placed the read in the ground prior to placing the ashes in the water.

פסול – the filling/drawing, that is the water, because he performed the task with the water. But if he placed the tube/reed in his hand and covered his hand upon it in order that the ashes don’t scatter that are within it and afterwards placed the ashes on the water, the filling/drawing, that is, the water, is not considered labor/work.

לפי שאי אפשר – to preserve the ashes that are within the reed/tube if he will not cover his hand on its mouth, for he is not able to restore the stop-gap/stopper on its mouth until he mixes [the ashes in the water]. Another explanation"זקפה בארץ"/he placed the ashes in the ground, the ashes are invalid, 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,” [but in the ground, it is not kept/preserved]. But if he placed the ashes into his hand, it is fit/appropriate, for it is possible to protect it, and it is well that we call it [in the Torah] "למשמרת" – and for that reason, we have the reading, "לפי שאפשר"/because it is possible [to do so without distractions].

היה קדוש צף על פני המים – that he placed upon the water many ashes. And the ash itself is called קידוש/putting ashes in the water of lustration.

נוטל – he takes from that ash.

ומקדש – [and mixes it] in other waters, and even with that (i.e., the ashes) that touched the water, he mixes and returns and mixes several times, but he dries them off.

זלף את המים (if he used all the water for sprinkling) – he sprinkled from the water that were mixed upon a person and upon vessels until all the water was completed, and the ashes remain in the rim at the bottom o fthe vessel.

וחכמים אומרים וכו' – And the Halakha is according to the Sages in both of these things (i.e., whatever ash has touched the water, they do not mix [another preparation] with it and whatever has touched he water, they do not mix with it.).

טפי (vessel with a narrow neck/dripper) – a small flask/jar (with a narrow neck) whose mouth is narrow and the water that descends from it goes down drop by drop.

אע"פ שפיו צר – less than the tube (i.e., mouthpiece) of the leather bottle.

המים שבתוכו מקודשים – and are appropriate/fit to sprinkle even though nothing came in there from the ashes of the cow/heifer at all, for they were as if they were attached to the water in the trough.

היה ספוג – if at the time of the filling the sponge was in the trough, the water that was absorbed in the sponge are invalid, for we require “fresh water shall be added to them in a vessel” (Numbers 19:17), but the sponge is not a vessel.

יזלף עד שהוא מגיע לספוג – when he comes to take the water and to put them into a bottle with a wide belly and a narrow neck/flash, he pours all the water until it reaches the sponge, but he should not pour from the water that is in the sponge at all, in order that the waters that are in the sponge don’t mix which are invalid with the waters that are in the trough that are fit/appropriate and all of them will become invalid.

נגע בספוג – the waters of the sponge were wrung out into the trough and the invalid ones were mixed up with the fit/appropriate ones, and all of them were invalidated.

נתן ידו או רגלו [under running water] – behold that the spouting forth/continuous flow descends rapidly from the curve, but it doesn’t descend into the jar when he wants to fill it for mixing [with the ashes], but if he placed his hands above at the tope of the mountain to make it like a kind of spout/duct in order that the waters would pass through his hand to the jar of mixing of waters and ashes. And similarly, the vegetable greens which are appropriate for eating and are susceptible to receiving ritual defilement.

פסולים – the waters [are invalid]. As we derived in the second chapter of [Tractate] Zevakhim (folio 25b) from what 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],” they will be through purity (i.e., in their original status), and even though that this Scriptural verse is written concerning a Mikveh/ritual bath, we derive from it all the possibilities. And this is the implication of the Scriptural verse, that will be with all the waters that purify, that through purity it will be, whether one brings them to become a Mikveh or the filling of water that will be through something that is not susceptible to receive ritual defilement.

המפנה את המעין לתוך הגת (he diverts/empties the spring into the wine vat) – that he made a trench from the spring until the wine vat in order that the he could divert there the waters of the spring, and afterwards stop them.

גת – a cistern that they make in front of the wine vat to receive the wine which is called a גת/marked off space for serving as a wine vat.

גבים (cavity for collecting water, cistern) – it is the language of “This wadi shall be full of pools,” that is stated in the [Second] Book of Kings [Chapter 3, Verse 16]. And it is a pool/diluvium of water.

פסולים- for those with gonorrhea for ritual immersion, for they are not fresh water.

ולמצורעים – that we require fresh water to sprinkle upon him with the blood of the bird.

ולקדש מי חטאת – that we require fresh water, and these since they have been stopped up are not fresh water. And that which is taught in the Mishnah because they were not filled up by means of a utensil, in order to invalidate them for mixing in every matter even if he came to mix within the vat or within the pools of water themselves.