[If] one of [the feet] was removed, [the remaining feet] contract tumah via contact but do not contract tumah via airspace, [these are] the words of R’ Meir; R’ Shimon rules [them] tahor. [If] he made two [feet], one opposite the other, they contract tumah via contact and via airspace, [these are] the words of R’ Meir; R’ Shimon rules [them] tahor. [If] they were higher than three fingerbreadths [then] from three [fingerbreadths] and downward they contract tumah via contact and via airspace [and] from three [fingerbreadths] and upward they contract tumah via contact but do not contract tumah via airspace, [these are] the words of R’ Meir; R’ Shimon rules [them] tahor. [If the feet] extended beyond the edge, [then everything] within three fingerbreadths contracts tumah via contact and via airspace [while everything] outside of three fingerbreadths contracts tumah via contact but does not contract tumah via airspace, [these are] the words of R’ Meir; R’ Shimon rules [it] tahor.

How are these [three fingerbreadths] measured? Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: The ruler is placed between [the feet] — [everything] from the ruler and outward is tahor [while everything] from the ruler and inward — including the place of the ruler — is tamei.

[Regarding] an oven that one partitioned with boards or with curtains, if the sheretz is found in one compartment, everything is tamei. [Regarding] a damaged basket plugged up with straw and hanging into the airspace of the oven, [if] a sheretz is in [the basket], the oven is tamei. [If] the sheretz is in the oven, [any] food that is inside [the basket] is tamei. But R’ Eliezer rules [it] tahor. R’ Eliezer said: If [the container] affords protection in the more severe [case of a] corpse, should it not afford protection in the more lenient [case of an] earthenware utensil? They said to him: If it affords protection in the more severe case of a corpse, that is because we can divide tents; should it then afford protection in the more le- nient [case of an] earthenware utensil, given that we cannot divide an earthenware utensil?

If it was whole, and so too a box, and so too a flask, [if] a sheretz is in [the container], the oven is tahor. [And if] the sheretz is in the oven, food within [the container] is tahor. [If] they developed a hole, that which was intended for foods, its measure is with olives. That which was intended for liquids, its measure is with liquids. [With] that which was intended for both, we apply to it the more stringent [measure], [that is,] enough to take in liquid.