If a live animal is tied down and used as a grave covering (golel), what is the ruling?
Halacha 4: When an animal is bound and used as a golel, whoever touches it contracts seven-day impurity as long as it serves as a golel. Once released, it is pure like any other animal.
Question 2
A beam is used as a golel over a grave. The beam extends 3 meters beyond the grave on each side. Is touching the far end of the beam impure?
Halacha 5: Only the portion of the beam directly above the grave opening is considered golel and imparts impurity. Touching the end outside the grave is pure.
Question 3
Two large stones (each 4×4 handbreadths) serve as golel. One is removed. Is standing over the remaining stone still impure?
Halacha 6: Once one of the two golel stones is removed, the other is pure. The reason: the impurity now has an exit path, so the remaining stone no longer contains it.
Question 4
A burial vault is hewn in rock, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, with a corpse inside. Is touching the side of the vault impure everywhere?
Halacha 8: When a vault is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, touching anywhere on it is impure — the narrow bottom means the sides press against the corpse from all sides.
Question 5
In a covered courtyard before a cave with a corpse, when is a person who enters still pure?
Halacha 9: In a covered courtyard, if there is an open space of 4 by 4 handbreadths or more on the side near the cave, one who enters is pure. Less than that space, one is impure even without touching the entrance.