Ohalos 9:3-4

Ohalos 9:3

The rules outlined in mishnayos 9:1-2 apply when the hive is a usable utensil and situated loosely in the doorway. If the hive is missing pieces and plugged up with straw, or if it’s tight in the doorway – meaning that there’s no single gap of one handbreadth (about 3”) – then, if an olive-sized piece of a corpse is placed beneath the hive, everything directly below that piece is rendered unclean all the way down to the depths. If the impurity is placed above the hive, then everything directly above it is rendered unclean all the way up to the sky. If the impurity is in the house, only the house is rendered unclean; if the impurity is in the hive, only the interior of the hive is rendered unclean.

Ohalos 9:4

Let’s say that the broken and patched hive or the tightly-fitting hive of the previous mishna is one handbreadth off the ground. If the impurity is below the hive or in the house, then below the hive and the house are rendered unclean but above and inside the hive remain clean. If the impurity is in the hive, only its interior is rendered unclean; if the impurity is above the hive, then whatever is directly above it is rendered unclean all the way up to the sky.