If the hatchway does not have an opening of a square handbreadth: If there is uncleanness in the house, what is directly [below] the hatchway remains clean. If the uncleanness is directly [below] the hatchway, the house remains clean. When the uncleanness is in the house, if he placed his leg above [the hatchway], he remains clean. [When] the uncleanness is directly [below] the hatchway, if he placed his leg above it, Rabbi Meir declares [him] unclean, But the sages say: if the uncleanness was [in position] before his leg, he becomes unclean, but if his leg was [in position] before the uncleanness, he remains clean. Rabbi Shimon says: [in the case where] two [men's] legs, one above the other, were [in position] before the uncleanness, if the first person withdrew his leg and the other person's leg was still there, [the second] remains clean, because the first person's leg was [in position] before the uncleanness.

If part of the uncleanness is in the house and part directly [below] the hatchway, the house becomes unclean, and what is directly [above] the uncleanness becomes unclean, the words of Meir. Rabbi Judah says: the house becomes unclean but what is directly [above] the uncleanness remains clean. Rabbi Yose says: if there is sufficient of the uncleanness for it to be divided so that [one part] defiles the house and [the other part] defiles what is directly [above] the uncleanness, [both spaces] become unclean; if not, the house becomes unclean but what is directly [above] the uncleanness remains clean.

If there are multiple hatchways, one above the other, and they each have an opening of one handbreadth [square], if there is uncleanness in the house, what is directly [below] the hatchways remains clean. If the uncleanness is directly [below] the hatchways, the house remains clean. [In the case] where the uncleanness is either in the house or directly [below] the hatchways, if something susceptible to uncleanness was placed either in the upper or the lower [hatchway], everything becomes unclean. If the article is insusceptible to uncleanness, what is below becomes unclean, but what is above remains clean.

In a case where the hatchways do not have an opening of a square handbreadth:If there is uncleanness in the house, what is directly [below] the hatchways remains clean. If there is uncleanness directly [below] the hatchways, the house remains clean. [In the case] where the uncleanness is in the house, if an article whether susceptible to uncleanness or insusceptible to uncleanness was placed either in the upper or the lower [hatchway], nothing becomes unclean except the lower story. [In the case] where the uncleanness is directly [below] the hatchways, if an article susceptible to uncleanness was placed either in the upper or lower [hatchway], everything becomes unclean. If the article is insusceptible to uncleanness, whether [it is placed] in the upper or lower [hatchway], nothing becomes unclean except the lower story.

In the case of a hatchway in a house with a pot placed below it that, if it was raised, its rims would not touch the [edges of the] hatchway: If there is uncleanness below, within or above [the pot], the uncleanness cleaves upwards and downwards. In the case where [the pot] was one handbreadth high off the ground, if there is uncleanness below it or in the house, what is below it and in the house becomes unclean, but what is within [the pot] or above it, remains clean. [If the uncleanness is] within or above [the pot], everything becomes unclean.

[In the case where the pot was] placed on the side of the threshold [of the house] such that if it was raised it would touch the lintel over a [space of a square] handbreadth: If there is uncleanness below, within or above [the pot], the uncleanness cleaves upwards and downwards. [In the case] where it was one handbreadth high off the ground: If there is uncleanness below it or in the house, what is below it and in the house becomes unclean. If the uncleanness is within or above [the pot], everything becomes unclean. [In the case where the pot] if raised would not touch the lintel over a [space of a square] handbreadth, or is joined to the lintel, if there is uncleanness below it, nothing is unclean except what is below [the pot].