Wie passen sie fest in die Abdeckung? Mit Kalk oder Gips, Pech oder Wachs, Schlamm oder Exkrementen, rohem Ton oder Töpferton oder jeder Substanz, die zum Verputzen verwendet wird. Man kann eine eng anliegende Abdeckung nicht mit Zinn oder Blei herstellen, da es sich zwar um eine Abdeckung handelt, diese jedoch nicht fest anliegt. Mit geschwollenen Feigenkuchen oder mit Fruchtsaft geknetetem Teig darf man keine eng anliegende Decke machen, da dies dazu führen kann, dass er nicht mehr fit ist. Wenn er eine eng anliegende Abdeckung [aus solchem Material] gemacht hat, schützt sie.
Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
במה מקיפים – with what do they stop up the mouth of a vessel or seal up the covering upon the mouth of the vessel that it be considered an airtight lid?
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
Introduction
Our mishnah discusses what materials can be used to seal the cover of an earthenware vessel such that it will protect it from becoming impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
גפסים (gypsum) – is a kind of plaster/lime, but it is more white than plaster and is burned in an oven like the plaster.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
How may it be tightly covered? With lime or gypsum, pitch or wax, mud or excrement, crude clay or potter's clay, or any substance that is used for plastering. All of the materials listed here will form a tight seal around the lid's edges. Thus all of these materials cause the vessel to be protected from impurity if the vessel is found in a building with a corpse in it.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
חרסית (potter’s clay/clay-ground) – the crushing/pounding of potter’s clay and they knead it in water.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
One may not make a tightly fitting cover with tin or with lead because though it is a covering, it is not tightly fitting. Soft metals such as tin or lead do not offer as tight of a seal and therefore they do not protect the vessel. They are a "covering" but they are not "tightly fitting."
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
בעץ (tin) – it is making a separation/partition, that which separates. We translate it in Aramaic as that which is tin. And the Aramaic translation in the Jerusalem Talmud is בעצא – tin.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
One may not make a tightly fitting cover with swollen fig-cakes or with dough that was kneaded with fruit juice, since it might cause it to become unfit. If he did make a tightly fitting cover [from such material] it protects. These soft, pliable food products will, at least temporarily, offer a tightly fitting seal. Therefore, if one makes a seal out of them, they do protect the vessel from impurity. However, since they will dry up and no longer be a tight seal, the mishnah says that one should not use them.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
שהוא פתיל ואינו צמיד (because it is a covering [i.e., the neck of the vessel] but it is not airtight [i.e., the lid]) – meaning to say that it is a covering, but it is not attached and glued well to the mouth of the vessel.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
לא בדבילה שמינה ולא בבצק שנלוש במי פירות – even though they protect/save for they were not susceptible to receive defilement, nevertheless they don’t stop them up with them, as a decree lest they become susceptible that liquids fall upon them that make them susceptible , for nothing that is impure can protect/save.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
ואם הקיף – and water does not come upon them or one of the liquids that make them susceptible [for Levitical uncleanness], they save/protect.
