Both persons and vessels can form ‘tents’ to bring uncleanness, but not to [protect objects so that they] remain clean. How so? There are four people carrying a chest: If there is uncleanness beneath it, vessels upon it become unclean. If there is uncleanness upon it, vessels beneath it become unclean. Rabbi Eliezer declares them clean. [If the chest] is placed upon four vessels, even if they are vessels made of dung, vessels of stone, or vessels of [unbaked] earth, If there is uncleanness beneath [the chest], vessels upon it become unclean. If there is uncleanness beneath it, vessels upon it become unclean. [If the chest] is placed on four stones or on any living creature, If there is uncleanness beneath it, vessels upon it remain clean. If there is uncleanness upon it vessels beneath it remain clean.

A wall serving a house is treated as if it was separate halves. How so? A wall serving an open space, that has uncleanness within it: If it is in the inward half, the house is unclean, But what is above [the wall] remains clean. If it is in the outward half, the house remains clean, But what is above [the wall] becomes unclean. If it is exactly in the middle, the house becomes unclean, And as for what is above, Rabbi Meir declares it unclean, But the sages declare it clean. Rabbi Judah says: the whole of the wall belongs to the house.

[In the case of] a wall between two houses and there is uncleanness within it, The house nearer to the uncleanness is unclean, And the house nearer to the clean part is clean. If [the uncleanness] is in the middle, both are unclean. If there is uncleanness in one of the [houses] and there are vessels in [the thickness of] the wall: Those in the half nearer the uncleanness are unclean, Those in the half nearer the clean [house] are clean, And those in the middle are unclean. [With regard to the] plaster-work between the house and the upper story, and there is uncleanness in it: If it is in the lower half, the house [below] is unclean and the upper story is clean If it is in the upper half, the upper story is unclean and the house is clean: If it is in the middle, both are unclean. If there is uncleanness in either [the house or the upper story] and there are vessels inside the plaster-work, Those in the half nearer the uncleanness are unclean, And those in the half nearer the clean [space] are clean. If they are in the middle, they are unclean. Rabbi Judah says: all the plaster-work is considered as part of the upper story.

[In the case of] uncleanness among the roof-beams, [with a covering] beneath it thin as thin as garlic-skin, If there is a space within of a cubic handbreadth, everything becomes unclean. If there is not a space of a cubic handbreadth, the uncleanness is considered plugged up. If the uncleanness was visible within the house, in either case the house becomes unclean.

A house serving a wall is subject to the principle of garlic-skin. How so? [In the case of] a wall between two tomb-niches or two caverns, If there is uncleanness in them and vessels in the walls, and there is a covering thin as garlic-skin over them, they remain clean. If the uncleanness is in the wall and the vessels are in them, and there is a covering thin as garlic-skin over the uncleanness, they remain clean. If there is uncleanness beneath a pillar, the uncleanness cleaves upwards and downwards.

Vessels beneath the flowerlike top [of a pillar] remain clean. Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri declares them unclean. [In the case of] the uncleanness and the vessels being [together] beneath the flowerlike top [of a pillar]: If there is a space of one cubic handbreadth there, [the vessels] become unclean; If not, they remain clean. [In the case of] two wall-cupboards, one beside the other, or one above the other, if one of them was opened, both it and the house become unclean, but its companion remains clean. The wall-cupboard is considered as if it is plugged up, and it is subject to the principle of halves for conveying uncleanness into the house.