市集疑有尸而祭司须绕道;老者忆起 本·撒该 曾在此种举祭羽扇豆,可见本是洁的。拉比西缅 遂逐处验地。
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祭司为要绕开那里,甚是为难,因为他们不可因沾了死尸而不洁。
and the priests are troubled by being forced to circumvent it, as it is prohibited for them to become ritually impure from contact with a corpse.
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人疑那里埋过死尸,却不能确知。
There was suspicion, but no certainty, that a corpse was buried there.
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所以他们断不定那地方的身分。
Therefore, they were unable to definitively determine its status.
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拉比西缅 说:有谁知道这里从前是算洁净的么?
Rabbi Shimon said: Is there a person who knows that there was a presumption of ritual purity here?
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有谁记得这地方曾有一时不算不洁,或至少有一部分是算洁净的么?
Is there anyone who remembers a time when this place was not considered ritually impure, or that at least part of it was considered to be ritually pure?
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有一个老者对他说:这里是 本·撒该 种过、又割过 举祭 羽扇豆的地方。
An Elder said to him: Here ben Zakkai planted and cut the teruma of lupines.
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在这市集上,拉比约哈难·本·撒该——他自己就是祭司——曾把人给他作 举祭 的羽扇豆种在这里。
In this marketplace Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Zakkai, who himself was a priest, once planted lupines that were given to him as teruma.
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凭这一层可以断定:那地方从前断然是洁净的。
On that basis, the conclusion can be drawn that it was definitely ritually pure.
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拉比西缅 也照雅各那样行,动手整治那城,把地一处处验过(依 托萨福 之解)。
Rabbi Shimon, like Jacob, also did so and took steps to improve the city and examined the ground (Tosafot).
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凡地硬的地方,他就断为洁净,因为那里断没有埋过死尸;凡地松的地方,他就作个记号,因为那里或者埋过死尸。
Everywhere that the ground was hard, he pronounced it ritually pure as there was certainly no corpse there, and every place that the ground was soft, he marked it indicating that perhaps a corpse was buried there.
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他这样把那市集洁净了,连祭司也可以从中走过。
In that way, he purified the marketplace so that even priests could walk through it.