Ohalos 10:5-6

Ohalos 10:5

Let’s say the hatchways in the previous mishna don’t have an opening of a handbreadth. If there’s impurity in the house, what’s opposite the hatches remains clean; if there’s impurity opposite the hatches, the house remains clean. If there’s impurity in the house and an object – either susceptible or insusceptible to impurity – was placed in either the upper or the lower hatch, nothing is rendered unclean except for the lower level. If the impurity is opposite the hatches and an object that’s susceptible to impurity was placed in either the upper or the lower hatch, then everything is rendered unclean. If the object is insusceptible to impurity, then whether it’s placed in the upper or the lower hatch, nothing is rendered unclean except for the lower level.

Ohalos 10:6

Let’s say that there’s a hatchway in a house with a pot placed below it in such a manner that, if it were raised, its rims wouldn’t touch the hatch. If there’s impurity below, inside or above the pot, the impurity extends upwards and downwards. If the pot was a handbreadth off the ground and there was impurity below it or in the house, what is below the pot and in the house is rendered unclean but what’s in the pot and above it remains clean. If the impurity is inside or above the pot, everything is rendered unclean.