Ohalos, Chapter 16, Mishnah 5. Two topics carry over into our Mishnah. One is the person who came upon a meis and must now examine the surrounding ground: he digs an amah, leaves the next amah, digs again, and so on outward for twenty amos, lest additional meisim lie buried close by. The second is tefusah: as a rule, a meis being transferred from where he lies must be taken together with some of the soil under him, and the Mishnah now presents the situations in which that requirement falls away.
"Higia Lenachal": Where the Digging Ends
"Hoyo bodek" - the man is engaged in this examination, advancing outward according to the prescribed pattern: dig one amah, pass over the next, dig once more, pass over again, so that every second amah is turned up. Then his progress is blocked. "Higia lenachal" - a river bed lies in front of him. "Oy leshlulis" - or a water channel. Irrigation in those times ran through a whole network: a large canal, off which narrower ditches were cut to bring water into each man's field. "Oy lederech harabim" - or what stands before him is a public road, laid down for the use of the many. In each of these cases the obstacle appears within the twenty amos he was meant to cover.
The ruling is "mafsik": his obligation ends right there. He may put down his spade and be on his way. Why is he released before the twenty amos are finished? Because graves are not dug beneath flowing water, nor under a thoroughfare traveled by the public. The stream or the highway is itself proof that no burial will be located there.
A more limited reading exists as well: what he is excused from is further digging in that particular direction, the one in which the water or the road blocked him, while in the opposite direction he may still be required to complete the entire twenty amos.
Collecting Bones with No Soil Attached
The Mishnah now takes up the principle that soil accompanies a meis whenever he is relocated, and lists a series of cases in which it does not.
"Sodeh shenehargu bah harugim" - a field where killings took place, leaving bones strewn about it. A man comes to collect them. The halachah is "melaket etzem etzem": bone by bone he lifts them, and he takes nothing of the ground beneath. "Vehakol tohor." What is meant by that? That his task is the bones and nothing beyond them; once they have been cleared away he owes nothing further, and the site is clean.
"Hamefaneh kivroi mitoch sedeyoi" - a man emptying a grave out of his field. The halachah here is identical: "melaket etzem etzem, vehakol tohor," he lifts one bone after another with no soil under them, and nothing more is asked of him.
What exactly the circumstance is the Mishnah leaves unstated. See the Mishnah Acharonah, who proposes, with plenty of company among the commentators, that a grave in this field caved in by itself. Its structure gave way, and evidently bones were scattered out across the field. He now wishes to remove them, and he takes no soil along, since that soil had never been designated lesheim kevurah, as earth for burial.
An alternative reading of the case: for some reason he is emptying this grave, and from the moment of burial the intention had been that this meis would eventually be transferred elsewhere. Given that original intent, the soil under him stays where it is.
A Pit That Never Became a Kever
"Bor sheheitilu letocho" - a pit into which were placed "nefalim oy harugim," infants born before their time, or the bodies of people who had been killed. Such a pit carries no status of a kever. Bodies were indeed put inside, but no covering was ever laid over them. The Mishnah is hardly endorsing this as correct behavior; it is describing what in fact occurred, and now a man arrives to set things right and take these meisim out so that they may receive a proper burial.
The halachah repeats itself: "melaket etzem etzem," one bone at a time, leaving the soil where it lies, "vehakol tohor," nothing beyond that is demanded of him, and once he is finished the spot counts as tohor.
Rebbi Shimon: When the Pit Was Made to Be a Grave
"Reb Shimon omer: im hiskinoh lekever matchilah, yesh lo tfusoh." Rebbi Shimon holds that where the pit was prepared from the outset to serve as a grave, and only afterward was the nefel or the slain person laid inside, tefusah applies even though no covering was ever placed above him. Since the pit had been hollowed out to be a kever, removing the meis now means taking the soil beneath him along.
Rebbi Shimon's intent is somewhat debated. In the view of the Tanna Kamma, the man who arrives protests: what a disgrace, slain people and an infant simply discarded into a pit! He acts properly in taking them out for kevurah, and he leaves the earth behind.
One approach has Rebbi Shimon fully endorsing that sentiment. Certainly, removing them is the right course; only be aware that where the pit was hollowed out as a kever, and the bodies lie uncovered, and there is cause to relocate them, the ground beneath must travel along with them.
A second approach has Rebbi Shimon objecting outright. He is saying: no! If the pit was fashioned as a kever, on what grounds would you disturb them? Cover it over! Cover it properly, with derech eretz. Where a kever existed from the beginning, relocating them is not permitted. This is their mekom menuchah, the place where they rest.
Here a lovely thought belongs. The Medrash relates that a neshamah, before it enters this world, is shown all that awaits it: this will be your home, this your family, and onward ad zivula basra, down to the final spadeful of earth cast upon the grave. Lying in that precise spot was decreed for him. There the guf remains until techiyas hameisim, while the neshamah departs for Gan Eden. A single item is withheld: whether he will turn out a tzaddik or a rasha is left to him alone.
So although the place where a guf comes to rest is itself an expression of hashgachah, in terms of halachah there are those who read Rebbi Shimon this way: a pit fashioned as a kever from the start means leaving them undisturbed. Cover it over, see that everything is arranged with kavod and be mesudar about it, but let them remain where they are.