Commentary for Kelim 10:10

אלו כלים. כלי גללים – of the dung of cattle.

Introduction Finally, a mishnah whose focus is not ovens! The tenth chapter of Kelim deals with the types of vessels who remain clean if they have a tightly fitting lid. This halakhah is rooted in Numbers 19:14-15 which reads: "14 This is the ritual: When a person dies in a tent, whoever enters the tent and whoever is in the tent shall be unclean seven days; 15 and every open vessel, with no lid fastened down, shall be unclean."

כלי אבנים וכלי אדמה – for all of these they lack defilement whether from the words of the Torah or from the words of the Scribes/סופרים, and therefore they protect/save [from defilement in the airspace of a tent with a corpse] with an airtight lid. But even though that every open vessel (see Numbers 19:15), Scripture is speaking of an earthenware vessel, in a vessel that the defilement precedes its opening that is an earthenware vessel that becomes defiled from its airspace, nevertheless, we include the rest of the utensils that protect/save, as it is written (Numbers 19:15): "וכל כלי פתוח"/”And every open vessel, [with no lid fastened down, shall be impure].”

The following vessels protect their contents when they have a tightly fitting cover: those made of cattle dung, of stone, of clay, of earthenware, of sodium carbonate, of the bones of a fish or of its skin, or of the bones of any animal of the sea or of its skin, and wooden vessels that are always clean. Vessels made of the materials listed in this section protect their contents from becoming unclean if the vessel is found in a tent (any building) with a dead body in it. We should note that vessels made of cattle dung, stone and clay (that has not been fired in a kiln) are never susceptible to impurity. Similarly most vessels made of the skins of fish or animals of the sea are not susceptible to impurity. There are wooden vessels that are susceptible to impurity and there are some that are not. Basically, there are two kinds of vessels listed here that can become impure earthenware and sodium carbonate. These two types of vessels have rules that differ from metal, glass and wooden vessels. As we have learned, the former can become impure from their air-space, but are not made impure by contact with their outside. Thus any vessel that cannot be defiled by contact with its outside, protects against impurity if it has a tightly fitting lid.

ועצמות הדג – if he made a vessel/utensil from the bones of creatures that are in the sea, they save/protect. Since they are not susceptible to receive defilement, as it is taught in the Mishnah of [Tractate Kelim] Chapter 17 [Mishnah 13]: “Everything that is in the sea is pure”/כל שבים טהור. And vessels [made] from the bones of fowl are pure, as it is written (Numbers 31:20): “[You shall also purify every cloth, every article of skin,] everything made of goats’ hair/וכל מעשה עזים, [and every object of wood],” excluding fowl.

They protect whether the covers close their mouths or their sides, whether they stand on their bottoms or lean on their sides. It doesn't matter where the lid is or how the vessel is standing. In all cases it protects its contents.

כלי עץ הטהורים – as for example large vessels that come in a measure that contains forty Seah in liquid measure which is equal to two KOR in dry measure (see Tractate Kelim, Chapter 15, Mishnah 1), that are not susceptible to receive defilement, for we require something similar to a sackcloth that can be carried full and/or empty, and since they are so large, they are not carried full, and they protect/save with an airtight lid.

If they were turned over with their mouths downwards they afford protection to all that is beneath them to the nethermost deep. Rabbi Eliezer declares this unclean. If the vessel is turned over and it was connected to the ground by some plaster, then it protects anything below it from becoming unclean. In other words, the ground is the lid. Rabbi Eliezer disagrees and holds that the ground cannot be considered a lid.

מפיהן – that the airtight lid is in their mouth/at their opening.

These protect everything, except that an earthen vessel protects only foods, liquids and earthen vessels. Most of these vessels protect anything that is found in them, including metal vessels. However, earthenware vessels only protect other things that cannot be made pure in a mikveh (bath) food, liquid and other earthenware vessels. If there are metal vessels inside the earthenware vessels, they become unclean in the tent with a corpse.

מצדיהן – if they were perforated at their sides and were surrounded with an airtight lid.

ר' אליעזר מטמא – for he holds that something that is turned upside down does not save/protect, and even it was smoothed into an even pile below the ground, as it states (Numbers 19:15): “[with no] lid fastened down,” and with no airtight lid on top of it. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.

על הכל מצילין – all of these utensils that are taught in our Mishnah, they save/protect on everything that is within them, whether there were in them vessels only requiring rinsing in order to be restored to Levitical cleanness or whether earthenware vessels or whether clothes or whether foods or liquids.

חוץ מכלי חרס – that they don’t protect/save other than on foods and liquids and earthenware vessels that are within them, things that have no purification in a Mikveh/ritual bath, and not on metal utensils and clothing, which have purification in a Mikveh. And the reason I explained in the chapter above (see Tractate Kelim, Chapter 9, Mishnah 2). But this Mishnah is after the School of Hillel retracted to teach according to the words of the School of Shammai.

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?

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.

גפסים (gypsum) – is a kind of plaster/lime, but it is more white than plaster and is burned in an oven like the plaster.

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.

חרסית (potter’s clay/clay-ground) – the crushing/pounding of potter’s clay and they knead it in water.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

ואם הקיף – and water does not come upon them or one of the liquids that make them susceptible [for Levitical uncleanness], they save/protect.

המחלחלת (the stopper of a jar/keg which can be moved round, without, however, falling out of itself) – that moves about in different directions and shakes, the language of (Esther 4:4): “the queen was greatly agitated.”

A stopper of a jar that is loose but does not fall out: Rabbi Judah says: it protects. But the sages say: it does not protect. According to Rabbi Judah, although the stopper is loose in its place, it still protects the jar from becoming impure. The sages disagree.

רבי יהודה אומר מצלת – that he considers it an airtight lid, since it does not go out.

If its finger-hold was sunk within the jar and a sheretz was in it, the jar becomes unclean. If the sheretz was in the jar, any food in it, become unclean. The finger-hold is the depression within the stopper used to get a grip on the stopper and pull it out. If there was a sheretz in this finger-hold and it was sunk within the jar, then the jar is unclean. The finger-hold does not count as sealing the jar, even though the stopper does. Similarly, if the sheretz was in the jar and the finger-hold was sunk into the jar and there was food in the finger-hold, the food is impure. Put simply, the finger-hold does not protect from impurity.

וחכמים אומרים אינה מצלת – for since it moves in different directions/shakes , it is not an airtight lid. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

היה בית אצבע (if its finger hold/stall) – of the stopper was sunk and entered into the jug, it is considered that the unclean insect that is within it is as if it is within the jug. And the finger-hold is the place from the stopper that a person places his finger into it.

אוכלים שבתוכה – that are within the finger-hold/stall that sunk and entered into the jar.

טמאים – for the stopper of the jar is like the jar itself.

הכדור – in the foreign tongue PALUTA.

If a ball or coil of reed grass was placed over the mouth of a jar, and only its sides were plastered, it does not protect unless it was also plastered above or below. The reed grass does not offer an especially good sealant. Therefore, for it to protect he must also plaster either over or under the ball or coil. The jar is not considered tightly sealed if all he does is plaster its sides.

הפקעת של גמי (coil of rope made of reed grass) – moist [and] long that they wrap it one with the other and make it round like coils of weaving (in the longitudinal direction/warp). GLUMURSH in the foreign language.

The same is true with regard to a patch of cloth. The same is true with a small patch of cloth (too small to be itself susceptible to impurity).

עד שימרח (until he plasters) – from below the ball or of the coil and above, in order that it would cover anything, because it is hollow.

If it was of paper or leather and bound with a cord, if he plastered it from the sides, it protects. The paper or leather, bound to the jar with a cord, does not have holes (as does the reed grass and the cloth). Therefore, as long as he plasters from the side, the paper or leather protect the jar. [It would seem that their paper was probably far thicker and more durable than our paper].

וכן מטלית של בגד (and similarly a patch of cloth/woven stuff) – for all of these are hollow, and all of them do not protect other than when they don’t have the measure to receive defilement.

וקשרה במשיחה (and tied it with a cord) – with a thin thread like they do when they cover the mouth of the skin/leather bottle in a cloth or in a piece of paper when they tie it, and added on to the tie requires also plastering from the sides.

חבית שנתקלפה (an earthen jug which is peeled off – crumbled away – the pitch lining standing by itself) – a jug that is lined with pitch from the inside and the earthenware was taken from it from the outside and the pitch stands opposite it from the inside.

If [the outer layer] a jar had been peeled off but its pitch [lining] remained intact, The outer layer of plaster peeled off the jar, but the inner layer of pitch remains, thereby sealing the jar off at the place where the outer layer peeled off.

קבותים (pots of pickle which are lined with pitch up to the rim – so that the lid does not touch the body of the vessel itself) – cans of earthenware in which they place in them brine/pickle [containing fish-hash] are called קבותים/pots of pickle [lined with pitch up to the rim].

And similarly if pots of fish brine were sealed up with gypsum at a level with the brim: Rabbi Judah says: they do not protect. But the sages say: they do protect. The type of fish pot referred to here has a lip below the rim and inside the pot. The person sealed the pot at this point, in other words within the pot.

שגפסן (that they paste them [with gypsum to make them airtight]) – that he covers them with a a kind of plaster that they call plaster that they call גפסים/gypsum as is taught in the Mishnah above that they the surround it.

It turns out that in both of these cases the seal is inside the pot or jar and not external to it. According to Rabbi Judah these containers do not protect their contents because the lid must be on the jar. This is a very literal reading of Numbers 19:15—”a tightly fitting lid on it.”

עם השפה – below from the lip of the vessel, that is found that airtight lid from the inside and the lip is revealed from the outside.

The other sages do not read the text quite as literally, and therefore claim that these types of lids or seals do protect their contents from impurity.

ר' יהודה אומר אין מצילין – for he holds that that it is written (Numbers 19:15): “a lid fastened down”/"צמיד פתיל עליו", but not a lid fastened from within. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

וסתמוה שמרים הצילוה (and the wine-lees have stopped up) – the anonymous teaching is like the [teaching of] the Sages that there is an airtight lid from the inside.

If a jar had a hole in it and wine lees stopped it up, they protect it. This section goes according to the opinion of the sages in yesterday's mishnah. The wine lees protect the jar from impurity because they form a tight seal from within.

עד שימרח – around the vine-shoot from the sides. But on the vine-shoot itself, it doesn’t require plastering.

If one stopped it up with a vine shoot [it does not protect] until he plasters it at the sides. In order for the vine shoot to count as a tightly-fitting lid, he must plaster it around from the sides.

נסר (boards) – it is plain, flat pieces of wood.

If there were two vine shoots, [it does not protect] unless he plastered it at the sides and also between the one shoot and the other. If he closed it up with two vine shoots, then he must plaster it from both the sides and between the shoots in order for the shoots to be considered a tight seal.

סינים – that he placed between each board thin husks of clay.

If a board was placed over the mouth of an oven, it protects if he plastered it at the sides. A board, one that cannot become impure, can offer a protective seal to an oven, as long as he plasters it from the sides.

או בשגמין (or with hinges/joints) – thin husks of joints/hinges (Maimonides says with bamboo). But those shells/peelings he placed between each board in order to attach them.

If there were two boards [it does not protect] unless he plastered at the sides and also between the one board and the other. If they were fastened together with pegs or with bamboo joints there is no need for them to be plastered in the middle. Similar to the case of the two vines, if he uses two boards, he must plaster in between them as well as at the sides. However, if the two boards were fastened together with either pegs or joints, he need not plaster in between them for them to be considered a tight lid.

תנור ישן – that was heated in order to bake in it cakes made of spongy dough (i.e., a sort of crackers) that this is its completion of work to be considered a vessel susceptible to receive ritual impurity.

Introduction Our mishnah discusses a case where one oven is within another oven. A note of introduction will help in understanding this mishnah. For a jar (susceptible to impurity) to be protected from impurity when it is found inside a tent with a dead body it must have a tightly fitting lid. However, an inner tent (not susceptible to impurity) can protect its contents from an outer tent with a dead body in it, even if the covering of the inner tent is not "tightly-fitting." As long as the inner tent is covered, it protects its contents.

חדש – that was not heated and is not susceptible to receive ritual impurity.

An old oven was within a new one and netting was over the mouth of the old [new] one: If [it was placed such that if] the old one were to be removed the netting would drop, all [the contents of both ovens] are unclean; But if it would not drop, all are clean. In this scenario, the old oven, one that had already been used, was within a new one, which had not been glazed and therefore was not susceptible to impurity (see 5:1). There is netting over the new one (this according to Albeck is how the mishnah should read. The reading "old one" is a mistake.) Concerning "netting" see 9:7. The first possibility is that when the old one is removed the netting would fall. In such a case the netting is on the old, inside oven, and not on the new outer oven. The mishnah rules that if the old oven is found in a tent with a dead body, it and all of its contents, are impure. The outer oven cannot serve as a tent-covering because its opening is not covered by the netting. And the inner oven is not considered to have a lid, because although the netting is over its opening, it is not considered a tight-fitting lid. However, if the netting was placed over the outer, new oven, it protects the inner oven because the new oven serves as a "tent." In other words, the netting is not sufficient to act as a lid for the old oven, but it is sufficient to turn the new oven, one that is not susceptible to impurity, into a "tent" such that the inner oven is not directly in a tent with a dead body. Rather it is inside one tent which is inside another tent with a dead body.

וסרידא על פי הישן (and a colander is over the mouth of the old) – but it is not spread with plaster, and there is no airtight lid here.

A new oven was within an old one and netting was over the mouth of the old one if there was not a handbreadth of space between the new oven and the netting, all the contents of the new one are clean. In this case, the new oven is on the inside and the old, susceptible to impurity oven, is on the outside. The netting is over the old, outer one but if the old one is removed, it won't fall into the new oven, because its mouth is narrower. The outer one is definitely impure because nothing is protecting it from the impurity in the tent. But if there is less than a handbreadth between the new one and the netting, then the netting turns the new one into a "tent" and it can protect its contents from the impurity found in the larger tent in which it is all found.

ניטל הישן וסרידא נופלת – that it is not adjoined on the mouth of the new oven.

הכל טמא – for the old (i.e., oven) one that the colander is upon is considered a vessel and it does not protect other than with an airtight lid, and behold, there isn’t an airtight lid here. But the new (i.e., oven) one that is not a vessel would interpose in the face of the defilement because of the tent if the colander was adjoined upon it, for all that protects/saves because of a tent formed does not require an airtight lid. But at the time when the colander is not adjoined upon it, there isn’t a tent here, therefore everything is impure.

אם אין בין חדש לסדירא פותח טפח – if it is not one handbreadth high between the covering that is on the old (i.e., oven) one to the mouth of the new oven, the covering that is upon the old one is considered as if it is in the mouth of he news, and the new becomes a tent which protrudes before the defilement and all that is within it is ritually pure (see also Tractate Ohalot, Chapter 3, Mishnah 7 and Chapter 12, Mishnah1).

לפסין (tightly covered pot/stew-pot) – like אלפסין/tightly covered pots. Large iron pans – that they cook in them.

If [earthenware] pans were placed one within the other and their rims were on the same level, and there was a sheretz in the upper one or in the lower one, that pan alone becomes unclean but all the others remain clean. If the sheretz is in the upper pan, the lower pans are still clean because the sheretz is not considered to be in the air-space of the lower pans. Only the upper pan is impure because the sheretz is in its air-space. If the sheretz is in the lower pan it is unclean but the upper pans are clean because the sheretz is not in their air-space.

ושפתותיהן שוות – that one rim from them is no higher than its neighbor.

If [they were perforated] to the extent of admitting a liquid, and the sheretz was in the uppermost one, all become unclean. If in the lowest one, that one is unclean while the others remain clean. If the pans were perforated enough that they could let liquid in and out, they are still susceptible to impurity. In order for them not to be susceptible they must be able to admit and let out an olive (see 3:2). Nevertheless, they are not considered to be "vessels" vis a vis other vessels in order to afford protection from impurity. Therefore, if the sheretz is in the upper one, it doesn't protect the lower ones. The sheretz is considered to be in their air-space as well. However, if it is in the lower one, the upper (inner) pans are pure because the sheretz is still not in their air-space.

בעליונה – this is the inner one for the outer one is underneath it.

If the sheretz was in the uppermost one and the lowest projected above it, both are unclean. The mishnah now returns to the first scenario, where the pans are not perforated. If the lowest pan projects above the upper one, and the sheretz is in the upper one, then both of those pans are unclean, because the sheretz is in both of their air-spaces. However, the middle pans remain clean because the sheretz is not in their air-space.

היא טמאה – if the unclean reptile/insect is in the upper [saucepan], foods that are in the lower one are clean/pure, for the All-Merciful stated (Leviticus 11:33): “And if any of those falls into an earthen vessel/כל אשר יפול אל תוכו” and not "אל תוך תוכו"/within that which it is into, but the unclean insect/reptile that is in the upper [saucepan] is within that which it is into – of the lower [saucepan]. But if the unclean insect in the lower [saucepan], the foods that are in the upper [saucepan] are not are not made impure, for the All-Merciful stated (Leviticus 11:33): "כל אשר בתוכו/everything inside it [shall be impure and -the vessel -itself you shall break],” but not that which is within it.

If the sheretz was in the uppermost one and the lowest projected above it, any one that contained dripping liquid becomes unclean. This section seems to be some sort of later addition to the mishnah which relates to that which was immediately stated before. When it was stated in section three that the middle pans are pure, that was true only if they were dry. If they were moist with dripping liquid, then the liquid is unclean and it in turn defiles the pan.

היו בכונס משקה ([if] they were [so damaged] that liquids could penetrate) – meaning to say, perforated so that liquids could penetrate that is, in order [to preserve] their ritual purity, for tightly covered pots are made for liquids and food-stuff, and we place upon them for stringency when liquids penetrate.

השרץ בעליונה – that is, the inner [saucepan].

כולן טמאות – for we see the unclean insect as if it is each one [of the pans], since they are perforated where the liquids penetrate.

בתחתונה – which is the outer [saucepan].

היא טמאה וכולן טהורות – for the defilement does not enter through its rims. But however, if there were food and liquids in the inner [saucepan], they were defiled, since the incision was not plastered over as is it is proven above in Chapter 8 [Mishnah 2]. And this is the reason, because he made a perforation in order [to preserve] its ritual purity, it is considered like the airspace of the outer vessel, and food-stuffs and liquids are made ritually impure from the airspace of an earthenware vessel, and neither people nor vessels are defiled from the airspace of earthenware vessels.

השרץ בעליונה – now we are speaking about complete stew-pots.

היא והתחתנה טמאה – since it is like as if it is placed within it since it (i.e., the bottom saucepan) exceeds [the others in height], but the middle one is ritually pure, for a utensil does not become defiled through the airspace of an earthenware vessel.

כל שיש בו משקה טופח טמא (each one in which here is moist liquid is unclean) – the moist liquid that is within the middle vessel is defiled from the airspace of the earthenware vessel, and the liquid returned and defiled the utensils. For the Rabbis decreed on liquids that it would defile a utensil, as a decree because of the liquid of a man with gonorrhea and a woman with a flux . And the same law applies where one is able to inform us of this novel [concept] of moist liquid in the first clause [of the Mishnah] that the unclean insect in the upper and lower [saucepans] exceeds [the others] and there is moist liquid in the middle [pan].