A house is divided floor-to-ceiling by earthenware jugs with their openings facing the impure side. Does the partition protect the pure side?
Halacha 1: The direction of the openings matters. When facing the impurity, the jugs provide no protection. When facing the pure side, they protect. If mud is added independently between them, it can help only if it can stand on its own.
Question 2
Impurity is within a built wall between two houses, located exactly halfway through the wall's thickness. What is the status of both houses?
Halacha 4: When impurity is equidistant (exactly in the center) in a wall between two houses, both houses are impure. One cannot make an exact calculation when it is exactly in the center.
Question 3
Vessels are embedded in a carved rock wall (not built with materials). There is impurity on the other side of the wall. Is a garlic-peel thickness of rock between the vessels and the impurity sufficient to protect?
Halacha 6: A rock wall (or mound dug from both sides) is treated differently from a built wall. In a carved rock structure, even a garlic-peel thickness separating the vessel from the impurity is sufficient to protect the vessel.
Question 4
Impurity is between the beams of a roof, with only a sliver of wood below it (less than a garlic peel). Is the house below impure?
Halacha 8: Impurity between roof beams with even a tiny amount of wood beneath it: the house is pure, and the impurity is treated as flush (retzutzah), only piercing directly up and down. However, if there is a cubic handbreadth of space there, the house is impure.
Question 5
Impurity is within a wall, and there is a cubic handbreadth of airspace at its location. How many upper stories built on this wall are impure?
Halacha 3: When there is a cubic handbreadth of airspace in a wall containing impurity, the wall becomes a 'closed grave' all the way to the top. Every story built on that wall functions as an ohel over the grave — all are impure.