Parah Chapter 5

(1) One who brings an earthenware vessel for the chatat [to fill with water to be sanctified by the ashes of the red heifer], he immerses himself [first, for purification], and sleeps at the furnace [in order to make sure no impure person touches it once it is completed]. Rabbi Yehuda says: He can even bring it from the house [of the potter] and it is valid, since [the testimony of] everyone believed regarding the chatat [due to the stringency of the matter]. And regarding trumah [a portion separated from grains and fruit grown in Israel and given to a priest, and which must be kept pure], one should open the furnace and take it [to ensure that the vessel stays pure]. Rabbi Shimon says: from the second row [and not from the first row, since someone impure may have already opened the furnace and touched it]. Rabbi Yose says: from the third row.

(2) One who immerses a vessel for the chatat in water which is not suitable for sanctifying [for the chatat ritual, by mixing it with the ashes], it needs to be dried; in water which is suitable for sanctifying, it does not need to be dried. If [he intends] to add into it water which has already been sanctified, either way, it requires drying.

(3) A [dried and hollowed] gourd that was immersed in water that is unsuitable for sanctification, we sanctify [water for the ritual] in it as long as it has not yet become impure. Once it becomes impure, we do not sanctify in it [because we are concerned that it will emit invalid water into the sanctified water]. Rabbi Yehoshua says: If you allow it to be used for sanctification from the start [before it became impure], so too at the end [after it became impure] may you sanctify in it. If you do not allow sanctifying in it at the end, so too not at the beginning. Either way, one should not add into it [already] sanctified water.

(4) A tube which was cut for the chatat [as a vessel in which to sanctify the water with the ashes], Rabbi Eliezer says: it should be immersed immediately; Rabbi Yehoshua says: it should be made impure [first] and then immersed. Everyone is valid to sanctify [the water for the ritual, by mixing it with the ashes] except for a deaf-mute, a shoteh, and a minor. Rabbi Yehuda validates with a minor and invalidates with a woman or an androginos [person (or animal) with both male and female sexual organs. It is halachically uncertain whether such is is male, female or, perhaps, has a uniquely defined halachic gender].

(5) We may sanctify with all vessels, even with vessels made from feces, stone vessels and earthen vessels. And we may sanctify in a boat. We do not sanctify with the sides of [broken] vessels, nor in the crevices of a machatz [a large jug used for drawing water, which had hollow crevices], nor with a barrel lid [which had hollow indentations for handles], nor with cupped hands; for we only fill, sanctify, and sprinkle chatat water in a vessel. [Similarly,] a tight seal only saves [from impurity the contents of] vessels [but it does not save the contents of things not considered vessels]; and only vessels can save from [the impurity of] earthenware vessels [in which they are contained]. [Earthenware vessels have the property that they can only become impure from their inside however if something impure is placed in such a vessel, anything else inside the vessel and the vessel itself become impure. However, if a vessel which cannot become impure or an earthenware vessel are tightly fitted with a cover, or 'tight seal,' the inside is considered protected from the outside and thus things inside cannot become impure. Similarly, if a sealed vessel is inside an earthenware vessel, despite the fact that a ritually impure object placed in the earthenware vessel makes everything inside it impure, the contents of a tightly sealed vessel which is incapable of becoming impure nonetheless remain pure. Our mishnah states that in order for these applications of 'tight-seal' to apply, the container must qualify as a vessel.]

(6) The craftsman's egg [a type of plaster mold with a cavity for creating vessels] is valid [for sanctifying the chatat waters]. Rabbi Yosse invalidates it. A chicken's egg[shell], Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda validate it; and the Sages invalidate it.

(7) A trough in a rock [in which water gathers from nearby spring], we do not fill [water for sanctification] from it, and we do not sanctify [water with ashes] in it, and we do not sprinkle from it, and it does not require a 'tight-seal' [to protect its contents from impurity, rather a mere covering suffices], and it does not invalidate a mikvah [if water gathered in the rock trough and then flowed into a mikvah, that water is still considered undrawn, and thus valid for a mikvah, which must be filled with water which has never been drawn in order to be valid for ritual immersion and purification]. If a vessel was attached [to the ground] with plaster, we may fill [water for sanctification] with it, and we may sanctify [water] in it, and we may sprinkle from it, and it requires a 'tight-seal' [to protect its contents from impurity], and it invalidates a mikvah [if water flowed from it into a mikvah, it is considered to be drawn water and invalid]. If one punctured [the vessel attached to the ground] from below and stopped it with a cloth, the water inside is invalid [for sanctification for the ritual] since they are not encircling vessels [i.e. the water is not surrounded by vessel]. If [it was punctured] from the side and stopped with a cloth, the water inside is valid, since they are encircled by vessel [note: this only works if the puncture is sufficiently elevated from the bottom]. [If] they made for it [around its rim] a crown of plaster [for the vessel attached to the ground] and the water [level] reached to there, it [the water] is invalid [for the ritual, since the crown is not considered a vessel]. If [the connection] is sufficiently strong such that lifting it [the crown] would cause the vessel to come with it, it is valid [since it is part of the vessel].

(8) Two troughs in one stone [vessel], if one sanctified [water in] one of them, the water in the second is not sanctified. If they were punctured [connecting] one to the other, like the tube of a waterskin, or if the water overflows over them even [the thickness of] a garlic skin, if one sanctified [water in] one of them, the water in the second is sanctified.

(9) Two stones made to surround one another, forming a trough [between them], and similarly two willows, and similarly a trough which was divided [into two], the water in between them is not sanctified [when the water in the troughs is]. If they were formed with plaster or gypsum and they can be lifted as one [vessel], the water between them is sanctified [along with the water in the troughs].