It is the same whether one touches the tent [covering a corpse], or erects [the tent], or moves [the tent]: All of them are counted [as having been defiled through contact] with a corpse. Only a person can defile by carrying a corpse. Food and drink and vessels do not defile by being carried by (i.e., supported by the body of) a corpse. Said Rabbi Yosei, in the same way, you could say, "Anything that is defiled for seven days by a corpse is [only] defiled until the evening by a zav, [and] anything that is defiled until the evening by corpse is completely pure by a zav." How so? [If] one person [touches] another person, there are two [degrees of impurity] by a corpse*, and one [degree of impurity] by a zav. A vessel [that touches] another vessel: Three by a corpse and two by a zav. A vessel [that touches] a person [who touches] another vessel: Four by a corpse and three by a zav. When do these words apply? In regards to terumah and consecrated foods, but a nazirite only shaves [when he is defiled] by a corpse. And they are only liable for [causing] impurity to the Temple and its consecrated items on account of a corpse. Said Rabbi Akiva, I have a fifth [degree of impurity]: The tent-peg affixed to the tent (Mishnah Oholot 1:3). They said to him, the tent and the tent-peg are one and the same.

An idolater, and an animal, and an eight year-old, and an earthenware vessel, and food*, and liquids, [any of] which touch a corpse: Vessels that touch them are pure. And just as a limb of a corpse, or a limb [severed] from a living person that lacks the minimum quantity of bone is pure in regards to a human, so too with carrion and with sheratzim, [such a limb] is pure. A limb that does not have the appropriate amount of flesh on it (Mishnah Oholot 1:8): In regards to a human, it is impure; in regards to carrion and sheratzim, it is impure. The brain, whether of a human, a domesticated animal, a wild animal, fowl, carrion, tereifot, detestable things (i.e., insects), or creeping things: It is impure, and they are liable on account of it for piggul [and] notar, and it is impure and defiles with an olive's-bulk in regards to carrying, and with a lentil's-bulk in regards to touching. The general rule of the matter: The brain, behold, is like flesh in every respect.

[There are] nine [limbs] in the head, and the jaw is among them. Five in the knee, two on above and two below, and the protuberance in the middle. Anything that has tendons and bones, behold, that is a limb, and anything that does not have tendons and bones is not a limb. And one with extra [limbs] causes the count to rise. One missing [limbs], who only has two hundred, and one with extra [limbs], who has two hundred eighty: All of them join together for [the purpose of reaching the threshold of] one hundred twenty-five (see Mishnah Oholot 2:1).* One who is [still] alive: Neither [the principle of] "the majority of the [skeletal] structure" nor that of "the majority of the bones" apply.