Implied question: There is an opinion in Sukah (8a) that the width of a person is an Amah! (The burial cavities must be wider, for they must contain also the width of the walls of the coffin!)

Answer: This is when he is dressed. A Mes is not dressed so much. Even with [the walls of] the coffin, [the width] is only an Amah.

Proof: Surely, without clothing a person is not an Amah (wide), for a Mikveh is only an Amah by an Amah and three Amos tall. If a naked person is an Amah wide, how can an Amah fit in an Amah?!

Note: It seems that this is a better proof than from Sukah itself (which surely does not discuss naked people), for there we can discuss large Amos, but we learn Mikveh from the Yam Shel Shlomo, in which the Amos were minimal (Maharsha). If we assume that [some] people are an Amah wide and an Amah thick (from front to back, e.g. at the stomach, and circular there), we cannot answer that more than an Amah fits on the diagonal.

Inference: Here it connotes that the Chatzer is higher than the cave, for the Gemara wants to say that one to the right of the opening and one to the left, enter into the Chatzer, for it says in the Gemara "if they face outside, people walk over them!"

Question: In Sotah (44a), it connotes that the Chatzer is not level with the ground, rather, it is deeper, and one must ascend when he leaves, for it distinguishes between when the opening is above, and the opening it to the side. Also Rashi explained like this there!

Answer: Even though the Chatzer is deep (below the ground), the cave is deeper than it.

Implied question: Likewise, we could have asked "they touch each other"!

Answer (R. Tam): [We did not ask this,] because we could have answered that he makes them deeper, like we answer below. He asked a better question [to which we cannot give this answer].

Question: According to R. Shimon, how can he go [there without becoming Tamei]? There are four caves in the four directions!

Suggestion: He goes in the Amah between one burial cavity and another.

Rejection: In Sotah (44a), it says that a Mes is Tofes (Metamei) four Amos around it when there are not walls around it. Only in the Chatzer, which has walls around it, is not Tofes! (Between the burial cavities, which is outside the Chatzer, it is Tofes!)

Answer (Rashbam): He went there in a chest, box or tower.

Question #1: Still, why is one who stands there Tahor? A Mes is Tofes four Amos, for there are not clear walls, for he is buried in the Chatzer itself!

Answer #1: The wall of the cave is an Amah. (The Mes is in a cavity in the wall of the cave. The wall divides between it and under the Chatzer.)

Difficulty: The Gemara below connotes unlike this. It counts 22 Amos for R. Shimon, and 18 according to Rabanan. This implies that there is no distance between the hollow of the cave and the Chatzer (the latter is directly over the former).

Suggestion: He makes a Mechitzah around the Mes.

Rejection: If so, the Chatzer is not six by six. It is much less, for there are eight Mesim at the four openings of the Chatzer that open to four caves.

Question #2 (Ri): How is it possible that the opening of the cave is only two Amos? How do they enter with the Mes? (The coffin is an Amah wide. There is not room for one person on each side, for no one holds that a person is only half an Amah wide!)

You are forced to say that there is no more [room] than this, for a burial cavity like a bolt (i.e. vertical) is an Amah by an Amah wide, and if so, one must distance every burial cavity from the corner an Amah. If not, it is impossible that the eight cavities in the Chatzer will not touch each other.

For the two cavities [on any side, they occupy] two Amos, and one must leave an Amah in each corner. Only two Amos remain for the opening!

Answer #1 (Rashba): The opening can be three Amos, e.g. he always distances the c6 to the right of the opening one Amah, and [the cavity] on the left he makes in the corner. This is three Amos for two cavities and the space [needed to avoid overlap with cavities in other directions]. Three Amos remain for the opening.

Implied question: The cavity on the left is distanced from the cavity lying on the length of the cave (i.e. the four-Amah cavity closest to the opening) only half an Amah!

Answer: We are not concerned for this, since it is like a bolt, and its width is only an Amah by an Amah;

Implied question: We are adamant about the one lying on the width of the cave, to distance it from the corner half an Amah, even though the one lying on the length of the cave is similarly distanced from the corner half an Amah...

[And the one lying on the length] goes straight southward, and the one lying on the width goes straight eastward, and they are close to each other only at their heads (where they come out of the hollow of the cave. At the opening of the cave, why does it suffice that one of the cavities is half an Amah from the corner, and we allow the other in the corner itself?)

Answer #1: (Indeed, we should not need so much space between the one lying on the width of the cave and the one lying on the length, just) Chachamim did not distinguish [the distance] between [coffins that] lie horizontally.

Answer #2: Even if we would not distance the one lying on the width of the cave half an Amah from the corner, we would not benefit at all, for we cannot reduce an Amah from the width of the cave, so it would be only five;

This cannot be according to R. Shimon, due to the cavities to the right and left of the opening. (If the cave were only five wide, the opening would be only two Amos.)

Also according to Rabanan, who hold that there are no burial cavities to the side of the opening, they could not decrease the width from four, for if they did, how could they enter the coffin, which is four Amos [long] into a cavity on the length of the cave? (Just before entering it, it must span the width of the cave!)

Question: Even now that the width of the cave was four, it is difficult, for how can something an Amah wide fit in a gap of an Amah (here, how can four Amos fit in four Amos)?

Answer: It was not precisely four wide, rather, a little more than four Amos.

Answer #2 (to Question #2): The opening was at least two and a half Amos. The cavity on the right was an Amah from the corner, and the cavity on the left was half an Amah [from the corner]. The Ri held like this.

Question: How did they descend from the Chatzer to the cave? If the Chatzer was sloped and descended to the place where they enter the four caves in the four directions, if so it would not be proper for use for the bier and those burying the Mes! (They cannot stand in the cave under where the Chatzer descends to the level of the cave!)

Answer: Rather, surely the Chatzer was six by six, and they used to descend from the Chatzer to the cave via a ladder, or there were steps from the Chatzer to the cave.

Implied question: A Mishnah (Nazir 64b) teaches "one who finds a Mes lying normally", and the Gemara says that this excludes one who was sitting (the latter cannot join to make us concerned for a burial site. R. Yosi b'Ribi Chanina holds that some are buried even standing!)

Answer: According to R. Yosi b'Ribi Chanina here, it excludes only sitting, but not one who stands.

Question: Since he makes it deeper, why must it be in the corner? He could make it in the width of the cave or the length of the cave between one cavity and another, in the Amah between them, and lower down!

Answer: This would ruin the wall of the cave, and the ground would fall and the burial cavities would be ruined, because this deeper cavity is on the same side that the other caves go;

However, in the corner it is not so.

Citation (Nazir 65a): It says "one who finds" excludes Matzuy (already known).

Explanation #1 (Rashi): It excludes one that was known, i.e. if one of them was known, and two were not known.

Question: According to his Perush, that it excludes Matzuy, this connotes that it is worse one that was known and two were found only now, than if two were known, and one was found only now, since we exclude this case;

This is wrong! These are equal. Whether two were known and one was found only now, or one that was known and two were found only now, they are not a burial site unless all three were known, or all three were found only now, like it says in Nazir.

Explanation #2 (Ri): This excludes a known Mes. Only when a Mes was found, we require that it is lying normally, to exclude sitting, or its head rests between its thighs, for then we should say that it is a Nochri, for Yisraelim do not bury this way.