Study Nazir folio 65B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אמר רבא: בדק ופנה, בדק ופנה, בדק ואשכח — לא האי מפני ליה גבי הנך תרי, ולא הני תרי לגבי האי חד.
Rava said: With regard to one who examined, found a corpse, and removed it from its place, and again examined nearby, found another corpse, and removed it from its place as well, if he examined yet again and discovered a third corpse, he does not move this third one alongside these two he has already moved, as he now knows that this was a graveyard and the corpses were buried there intentionally. And he does not return these two alongside this one either, as he is not obligated to restore the corpses to their prior locations after they have been reburied.
איכא דאמרי, אמר רבא: כיון שנתנה רשות לפנות, מפנה להון. ולישוינהו שכונת קברות! אמר ריש לקיש: עילא, מצאו וטיהרו ארץ ישראל.
There are those who say that Rava said: Since permission was granted to move the first and second corpses, one may therefore move them all, including the third one. The Talmud asks: And let us deem them part of a graveyard. Since 3 corpses were found buried together, there might be others in the vicinity. Reish Lakish said: They found a pretext and deemed Eretz Yisrael ritually pure. Since at that point there was just one corpse, the rabbis were lenient and were not concerned about any further impurity. The rabbis wished to avoid uncertain impurity because people were careful to observe the halakhot of ritual purity in Eretz Yisrael, and additional cases of uncertain impurity would be complicated to observe.
בדק מעשרים אמה ולא מצא, מאי? אמר רב מנשיא בר ירמיה אמר רב: שכונת קברות. מאי טעמא? אמר ריש לקיש: עילא מצאו וטיהרו את ארץ ישראל.
The Talmud asks another question: If one examined 20 cubits from the location of those corpses and did not find anything, what is the halakha? Rav Menashya bar Yirmeya says that Rav says: This is a graveyard. Those 3 corpses compose the graveyard and there is no concern for others. The Talmud asks: What is the reason for this ruling? Why is there no concern that there might be many more corpses in the surrounding area? Once again Reish Lakish said: They found a pretext and deemed Eretz Yisrael ritually pure. Eretz Yisrael is deemed pure in a case of uncertainty.