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Text Excerpt
שתי פרות היו חורשות בהר המשחה. כל זמן ששתיהן חורשות — כל העם אוכלין. ניטלת אחת מהן — תולין; לא אוכלין ולא שורפין. ניטלו שתיהן — התחילו כל העם שורפין.
Two cows would plow on the Mount of Olives on Passover eve. As long as both of them are plowing, the entire nation continues to eat leavened bread. When one of the cows is taken away, the people know that the time has come to place their leaven in abeyance, meaning that they neither eat nor burn it. When both of them were taken away, the entire nation began burning their leaven.
מתני׳ רבי חנינא סגן הכהנים אומר: מימיהם של כהנים לא נמנעו מלשרוף את הבשר שנטמא בוולד הטומאה עם הבשר שנטמא באב הטומאה, אף על פי שמוסיפין טומאה על טומאתו.
Mishnah: Apropos the removal of leaven on Passover eve, including the consecrated loaves of thanks-offerings and teruma, the Mishnah cites a related halakha. R' Ḥanina the deputy High Priest says: In all the days of the priests, they did not refrain from burning meat that became ritually impure by coming into contact with a secondary source of ritual impurity, i.e., an object that had come into contact with a primary source of impurity, together with meat that became ritually impure by contact with a primary source of impurity. They would do so even though they would thereby add a degree of impurity to the impurity of the first piece of meat, which was previously impure to a lesser degree.
הוסיף רבי עקיבא ואמר: מימיהם של כהנים לא נמנעו מלהדליק את השמן שנפסל בטבול יום בנר שנטמא בטמא מת, אף על פי שמוסיפין טומאה על טומאתו.
R' Akiva added to the statement of R' Ḥanina the deputy High Priest and said: In all the days of the priests, they did not refrain from lighting teruma oil that was ritually disqualified by coming into contact with one who immersed himself during that day and who does not become completely purified until nightfall in a lamp that became ritually impure with 1st-degree impurity through contact with one who became ritually impure with impurity imparted by a corpse. They did so even though they would thereby add impurity to the impurity of the oil. A person who immersed himself during that day assumes the status of 2nd-degree ritual impurity. His contact renders the oil ritually impure with 3rd-degree ritual impurity. The lamp with 1st-degree ritual impurity renders the oil ritually impure with 2nd-degree impurity.