A thick woolen jacket or a thick wooden block does not bring uncleanness until they are one handbreadth high off the ground. If [garments] are folded one above the other they do not bring uncleanness until the uppermost is one handbreadth high off the ground. Tablets of wood [placed] one above the other do not bring uncleanness unless the uppermost is one handbreadth high off the ground; But if they were of marble, the uncleanness cleaves upwards and downwards.

[With regard to] jars standing on their bottoms or lying on their sides in the open air and touching one another to the extent of a handbreadth: If there is uncleanness beneath one of them, the uncleanness cleaves upwards and downwards. When does this rule apply? When the [jars] are clean. But in the case where they were unclean or one handbreadth high off the ground, if there is uncleanness beneath one of them, what is beneath all becomes unclean.

[With regard to] a house, sectioned off by boards or curtains from the sides or from the roof beams: If there is uncleanness in the house, vessels beyond the partition remain clean. If there is uncleanness beyond the partition, vessels in the house become unclean. [With regard to] the vessels beyond the partition: If there is a space of a [cubic] handbreadth there, they become unclean, But if not, they are clean.

[In the case where] it was partitioned off from the floor: If there is uncleanness beneath the partition, vessels in the house become unclean. [In the case where] the uncleanness is in the house, vessels beneath the partition, If there is a space there of one cubic hand breadth, remain clean; But if not, they become unclean, since the floor of the house is reckoned as the house even to the nethermost deep.

[With regard to] a house filled with straw, without a space of a handbreadth [being left] between [the straw] and the roof beams: If there is uncleanness within [the straw], vessels at the exit become unclean. [In the case where] the uncleanness was outside [the area of the straw], with regard to the vessels within: If they are in a space of a cubic handbreadth, they remain clean, But if not they become unclean. If there is a space of a handbreadth between the straw and the roof beams, in either case the vessels become unclean.

[With regard to] a house filled with earth or pebbles which he [decided] to leave there, or similarly a heap of produce or a mound of pebbles even such as Akhan's mound, and even if the uncleanness is by the side of the vessels, the uncleanness cleaves upwards and downwards.

[With regard to] the courtyard of a tomb: A person standing in it remains clean as long as there is a space of four cubits square, according to the words of Bet Shammai. Bet Hillel says: four handbreadths. [With regard to] a roof beam which had been used as a covering stone for a tomb, whether it is standing upright or lying on its side, nothing becomes unclean except what [touches] opposite the opening of the grave. If the end [of the beam] were made the covering stone of a grave, only [that part] up to four handbreadths [from the grave] becomes unclean. [This applies] when [the beam] is going to be cut. Rabbi Judah says: all the beam is connected.

A jar full of clean liquid and sealed with a tightly fitting lid, which had been made the covering stone of a tomb, a person touching it contracts seven-day uncleanness but the jar and the liquid remain clean. An animal that had been used as a covering stone, a person touching it contracts seven-day uncleanness. Rabbi Meir says: anything possessing the breath of life does convey uncleanness on account of [its being used as] a covering stone.

One who touches a corpse and touches vessels, one who overshadows a corpse and touches vessels, they [the vessels] are unclean. One who overshadows a corpse and overshadows vessels, one who touches a corpse and overshadows vessels, they [the vessels] are clean. If his hands are a handbreadth wide, they are unclean. Two houses, and in each there is a half an olive's worth of corpse and he puts one hand into each house: If his hands are a handbreadth wide, he brings uncleanness; But if not, he does not bring uncleanness.