Rambam - 3 Chapters a Day

When a person was digging in a field and he found many corpses in one pit, one on top of the other or one next to the other, or he found the bodies of people who were slain, or he found a corpse sitting or with its head between its knees, he need not be concerned that perhaps this was a cemetery. Instead he should take the corpses and all the soft earth beneath it and then dig down three fingerbreadths. He should then take all of this away. The remainder of the field is considered as pure just as it was before the corpse was discovered. This earth and the three fingerbreadths of virgin soil is called the tevusah of the corpse.

When the bodies of slain corpses are found in a field, one should collect all the bones from the field and then, it is pure. Similarly, when one disinters a corpse from a grave in his field, he should gather all the bones one by one and then it is pure. Similarly, a pit into which miscarried fetuses or slain corpses are cast, one should gather all the bones one by one and then it is pure.

If one was digging and he discovered a corpse buried in an ordinary manner, he should remove it and the earth of their tevusah. Similarly, if he discovered two corpses buried in an ordinary manner, he should remove both of them and the earth of their tevusah, and the entire field is pure. More stringent laws apply when one finds three corpses, each one lying in the manner in which corpses are usually buried. If there are between four and eight cubits between one grave and the other - i.e., the space for a bier and the buriers - it is necessary to check an additional twenty cubits - i.e., the space for two burial crypts and the open space between them from the last grave. If he does not find another corpse in this space, those twenty cubits that he checked are pure, even though they are in an area close to graves.

If he finds another corpse at the end of the 20 cubit area, it is necessary to check another twenty cubits from it, for there is a basis for the assumption that other graves will be found.

If one of the corpses that was found originally or ultimately had been slain, was sitting, or lying in an unordinary manner, e.g., its head was between its knees, it is not necessary to check another twenty cubits. Instead, one must merely remove the remains of the corpse and its tevusah, The rationale is that we operate on the presumption that the corpses are of gentiles.

The laws governing the impurity of graves do not apply to those of gentiles since the impurity of ohel does not apply with regard to them. One who touches their graves is pure unless he touches the corpse itself or carries it.

When a corpse is lacking a limb or an organ that, were it to be removed from a living person, he would die, there is no requirement to remove the tevusah, nor is there an obligation to check the area around the grave. When corpses are found lying openly on the surface of a field, there is no requirement to remove the tevusah, nor is there an obligation to check the area around the grave. Instead, one should merely gather bone after bone, and the area is pure.

When a corpse is buried without permission of the owner of the field, there is a requirement to remove the tevusah, but there is no obligation to check the area around the grave.

When one finds three corpses buried in an ordinary manner at the outset, three hollows in the wall of a cave, or a hollow, a grave, and a crypt, it is considered as a burial area.

If one finds two and the existence of one had been known previously, there is a requirement to remove the tevusah, but there is no obligation to check the area around the grave. The rationale is that a grave whose existence is known does not cause a place to be considered as a burial area. It was said only that when one finds three graves at the outset, then an inspection is required.

How should the inspection of the twenty cubits mentioned be carried out? One should dig until he reaches a rock or virgin earth, i.e., earth that appears that it has never been tilled. If one dug even 100 cubits deep and discovered earth that was plowed, the original requirement remains and one must dig deeper until he reaches virgin earth. If one reaches water, it is as if he reached virgin earth.

When making this inspection, a person does not have to dig a trench extending from the beginning of the twenty cubits until their end. Instead, it is sufficient for him to dig a trench one cubit by one cubit, leave a cubit as is, and dig another cubit by cubit trench, continuing this pattern until the end. The rationale is that there is never less than a cubit between one grave and another.

If while one was checking, within the twenty cubits, he reached a river, an irrigation channel, or a public thoroughfare, he should cease. There is no need to search further, because the burial area has been interrupted.

The person who removes the earth which is searched is considered as pure unless impurity is discovered in the place which was dug up. Before it is discovered, he may partake of terumah.

One who is digging up a landslide may not partake of terumah, for it is certain that there are corpses under the landslide. It is only that he is not aware of their location.

The following laws apply when an impure landslide becomes intermingled with two pure landslides. If one inspected one of them and found it to be pure, it is considered pure and the others impure. If he inspected two of them and found them to be pure, they are considered pure and the other impure. If he inspected all three and found them to be pure, they are all presumed to be impure until he inspects the three of them to the extent that he reaches a stone or virgin earth and discovers all three to be pure.

When there is a pit into which miscarried fetuses are cast, one who stands over it is impure according to Scriptural Law. Although moles and hyenas are found there, a mere possibility does not change the definitive ruling based on prior conditions. If, however, a woman cast a miscarried fetus there and it was not determined whether she miscarried something which imparts impurity or not, since there are moles and hyenas there, the multiple doubts cause the place to be deemed pure.

It is well known that all these and other similar instances which are ruled impure although there is a doubt involved are Rabbinic safeguards. According to Scriptural Law, only one who has definitely contracted impurity is deemed impure. All stringencies stemming from doubt, whether with regard to ritual impurity, forbidden foods, forbidden intimate relations, or the observance of the Sabbath, are only Rabbinic in origin. Nevertheless, when there is a situation where one would be liable for karet for an intentional violation, it is forbidden by Scriptural Law to act in a manner that allows for the possibility that one committed such a violation, as evidenced by the fact that one who performs such an act is obligated to bring a provisional guilt-offering, as stated in Hilchot Issurei Biah and in other places.

What is meant by a beit hapras? A place where a grave was plowed over. Since, in such a situation, the bones of the corpse are crushed and dispersed throughout the field, our Sages decreed that any field where a grave was plowed over is impure. This applies even if one plowed over a coffin and even when the corpse was placed under stone tablets or rocks. Even if there are two stories high of earth above a coffin, since one plowed over the grave, the field is considered as a beit hapras.

How large an area is considered as a beit hapras? 100 cubits by 100 cubits from the place of the grave.

All of this square, which is an area in which four se'ah of grain can be sown is a beit hapras. Its earth imparts impurity when it is touched or carried, as we explained. It does not impart impurity because of ohel. Similarly, one who stands over a beit hapras is pure.

If one began to plow and plowed over a grave, and while continuing to plow, before he completed the 100 cubits, shook out the plow or knocked it against a rock or a fence, he makes the field a beit hapras only to that point. The remainder of the 100 cubits are pure, because he did not reach it while continuing to plow.

If he plowed 50 cubits or more and then continued plowing until he completed the 100 cubits, the entire area is considered a beit hapras. If he continued plowing beyond the 100 cubits, the area beyond 100 cubits is pure, because the bones in the grave will not be carried more than 100 cubits.

We operate under the assumption that bones that were buried are human unless it is known that they came from an animal. Conversely, we operate under the assumption that any bones that are openly revealed are from an animal unless it is known that they are human.

When there was a trench filled with human bones or there were human bones piled on earth, and one plowed these bones together with a field or one plowed a field in which a grave was lost or one in which a grave was discovered, a beit hapras is not created. For our Sages deemed impure only a field in which a grave whose identity was definitely known was plowed. Similarly, when one plows the body of a corpse together with a field, it is not deemed a beit hapras. The rationale is that all these are uncommon situations and our Sages instituted their decree only with regard to a field that was plowed, for this is a common situation.

When a person plows a grave in a field that does not belong to him, he does not create a beit hapras, because a person cannot cause an article that does not belong to him to become forbidden. Even a partner, a sharecropper, or a guardian does not create a beit hapras.

When a person plowed over a grave in a field which belongs to him and to a colleague as one, he creates a beit hapras in his portion, but not in the portion belonging to his colleague.

When a gentile plows a grave in his field, he does not create a beit hapras, because the concept of a beit hapras does not apply with regard to gentiles.

When there is a field which is a beit hapras above and a field that is pure below and rain washes the earth from the beit hapras to the pure field, it remains pure. These laws apply even if the earth of the lower field was red and it became white or it was white and it became red. The rationale is that a beit hapras does not make a second beit hapras and impurity was decreed only on the earth in its original state.

It is permitted to plant any tree or bush in a beit hapras, because their roots extend below three handbreadths and the area below three handbreadths in a beit hapras is pure, for the bones from the grave are spread out over the surface of the field. We do not, by contrast, sow in it any seeds from which grow crops that are not reaped.

If one sowed crops in such a field and harvested them by uprooting them, one must collect the grainheap in that field and sift the grain with two sifters - and if one grew beans, with three sifters - lest one find a bone the size of a barley corn. One must burn the chaff of the grain and beans there. This is a decree lest there be a bone the size of a barley corn among it. If one were allowed to benefit from the chaff, he would take it out of the field and sell it and thus spread the impurity.

When there is a field that is presumed to be a beit hapras, we continue to operate under this assumption even if it is large enough to grow four kor of grain, even if it is to the side of a place of soft mud which is not plowed, and thus does not become a beit hapras, and even if a pure field surrounds it on all four sides.

When a person discovers a field that has been designated and does not know what the nature of the problem is, he should follow these guidelines. If it has trees in it, he should assume that a grave was plowed over in it. If it does not have trees, he should assume that a grave was lost in it, as has been explained. The above applies provided there is an elder or a Torah scholar in this place, because not every person is knowledgeable concerning such matters and is not aware that it is permitted to plant in this type of field and forbidden to plant in another.

When a person walks through a beit hapras on stones that do not wobble under a person's feet when he is walking on them or he enters it when he is riding on a person or an animal of formidable strength, he is pure. If, however, he walks on stones that usually shake while he treads upon them, even if he was careful and walked so that they would not shake, he is impure, as if he walked upon the ground itself. Similarly, if he was riding on a person who was not strong to the extent that his knees would knock against each other and his thighs would shake when he carried him or on an animal which was not strong to the extent that it would defecate when it carried him, he is impure as if he had walked on the field with his feet.

When a person purifies a beit hapras, he must purify it in the presence of two Torah scholars.

How does he purify it? He gathers together all the earth that he can move from the surface of the entire field and places it in a sieve with small holes. He breaks the earth into small pieces and removes any bone that is the size of a barley-corn. Alternatively, it is pure if he places three handbreadths of earth from another place upon it or removed three handbreadths of earth from its entire surface.

If he removed three handbreadths of earth from half the field and placed three handbreadths of earth over the other half, it is pure. If he removed a handbreadth and a half from its surface and placed another handbreadth and a half of earth from another place upon it, his actions are of no consequence. Similarly, if he leveled it and checked it from above and below while removing the rocks, his actions are of no consequence. If he paved it with stones that will not shake when a man walks upon it, it is pure.

With regard to the earth of the Diaspora: our Sages instituted a decree regarding a clod of earth - that it be considered like a beit hapras. They would only deem impure one who walked on it or touched or carried its earth. Afterwards, they decreed that even its space imparts impurity, even if one did not touch or carry its earth. Instead, even when one merely inserted his head and the majority of his body into the space of the Diaspora, he becomes impure. Similarly, if the open space of an earthenware implement was taken into the Diaspora or the larger portion of other types of implements were taken into the open space of the Diaspora, they contract impurity.

The impurity of the open space of the Diaspora is not as severe as the impurity of its earth, but instead, is more lenient. Because of the impurity of its earth, terumot and sacrificial foods are burnt and one who carries such earth contracts the impurity that lasts seven days and the ashes of the Red Heifer must be sprinkled on him on the third and seventh days. When, by contrast, one contracts impurity through entering its open space, it is not required that the ashes of the Red Heifer be sprinkled on him on the third and seventh days, merely that he immerse himself in a mikveh and wait until sunset. Similarly, the ruling concerning terumot and sacrificial foods that contracted impurity through entering its open space is held in abeyance; they are not eaten, nor are they burnt.

The earth of the Diaspora and the earth of a beit hapras impart impurity when touched or carried, as explained.

What is the measure that imparts impurity? The amount of earth necessary for a seal for sacks. This is the size of the large ball of a sack-maker's needle.

The following rules apply when the earth of the Diaspora or the earth of a beit hapras comes attached to a vegetable. If there is an amount the size of the seal of a sack in one place, it imparts impurity. If not, the various pieces of earth are not combined. The rationale is that our Sages instituted a decree only on a clod of earth in its natural state. An incident occurred when letters from the Diaspora were coming to the sons of the High Priests and there were about a se'ah or two of seals. They nevertheless did not show any concern regarding their impurity, because not one of the seals was as large as the seal of a sack.

The following rules apply when a person brings ovens, cups, and other earthenware utensils from the Diaspora. Until they were fired in a kiln, they are considered impure because of the earth of the Diaspora. Once they were fired, they are considered impure like an earthenware utensil that became impure in the lands of the Diaspora. Such a utensil does not impart impurity to people or utensils, as we explained.

When a person is walking on mountains and boulders in the Diaspora, he contracts the impurity that lasts seven days. If he proceeds in the sea or in a place where the waves of the sea wash up, he is pure despite the decree against touching the earth of the Diaspora, but is impure because of the decree against entering its open space.

One who enters the Diaspora in a cabinet, chest, or closet which are carried in the air is impure, because a tent that is movable, is not considered as a tent.

The earth of Syria is impure like the earth of the Diaspora. Its open space is pure, because a decree was not imposed concerning it.

Therefore if there was a portion of Syria next to Eretz Yisrael, one edge to the other edge without the earth of the Diaspora, a cemetery, or a beit hapras interposing between them, one could enter there in a state of purity in a cabinet, chest, or closet, provided he did not touch its earth. Similarly, if there is a portion of the earth of the Diaspora next to Eretz Yisrael and there is no place of impurity between them, it may be checked and is considered as pure.

A place where gentiles dwelled in Eretz Yisrael is considered impure like the earth of the Diaspora until it is inspected, lest a miscarried fetus have been buried there.

The ruling concerning terumah and sacrificial food that became impure because they were brought into a dwelling of the gentiles should be held in abeyance; they are not eaten, nor are they burnt.

How long must gentiles stay in a dwelling for it to require an inspection? 40 days, sufficient time for a woman to become pregnant and miscarry a fetus that conveys impurity. Even if a gentile man without a wife stays in a dwelling for 40 days, it is impure until it is inspected. This is a decree, instituted because of a dwelling where there is a woman. Even a servant, a eunuch, a woman, or a minor of nine years of age causes a dwelling to be considered as "the dwelling of a gentile."

If there was a Jewish servant, woman, or minor who was nine years old in a dwelling of the gentiles, guarding so that a fetus would not be buried there, an inspection is not required.

What do they inspect? The deep septic drains and the cisterns of squalid water. Wherever a pig or a mole could drag out the fetus, an inspection is not necessary, because it can be assumed that they will drag it out.

When a dwelling of the gentiles is destroyed, it is still considered impure, until it is inspected.

A covered walkway is not included in the decree concerning the dwellings of the gentiles because it is open and there is no place to hide a miscarried fetus.

There are ten places where the decree concerning the dwellings of the gentiles does not apply. Since these are not permanent dwellings, a decree considering them impure was not instituted with regard to them. These are the ten places: a) Arab tents, b) sukkot, c) rubber tents, d) storage areas, e) roofed areas above pillars without walls; people would dwell there in the summer, f) guard houses, g) the open space of a courtyard, h) a bathhouse, i) a workshop where arrows and other weapons are fashioned, and j) soldiers' barracks.

The decree applying to the dwellings of gentiles does not pertain to a store unless a gentile dwells there. When a courtyard is impure as a result of the decree applying to the dwelling of gentiles, its gatehouse and the open space above it are impure like it. The decree applying to the dwellings of gentiles and the concept of a beit hapras do not apply in the Diaspora.

The decree concerning the impurity of the earth of the Diaspora does not apply to gentile cities enclosed within the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael, e.g., Sisis and its suburbs, Ashkelon and its suburbs, despite the fact that they are exempt from the tithes and from the obligations of the Sabbatical year,

Although the roadways taken by festive pilgrims from Babylon are surrounded by the earth of the Diaspora, they are presumed to be pure.