Commentary for Kelim 12:4
מַסְמֵר הַגָּרָע, טָמֵא. וְשֶׁל אֶבֶן הַשָּׁעוֹת, טָהוֹר. רַבִּי צָדוֹק מְטַמֵּא. מַסְמֵר הַגַּרְדִּי, טָמֵא. וְאָרוֹן שֶׁל גָּרוֹסוֹת, רַבִּי צָדוֹק מְטַמֵּא, וַחֲכָמִים מְטַהֲרִין. הָיְתָה עֲגָלָה שֶׁלָּהּ שֶׁל מַתֶּכֶת, טְמֵאָה:
A blood letter's lancet is impure. The style of a sundial is pure. Rabbi Zadok declares it impure. The pin of a weaver is impure. The chest of grist-makers: Rabbi Zadok declares it impure and the Sages declare it pure. If its wagon is made of metal, it is impure.
Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
מסמר הגרע (the nail of the bloodletter) – the cutting tool/surgeon’s knife of an artisan who lets blood flow (i.e., old-time, low-class doctors), and he is called a blood letter because he diminishes the blood. But there are those who interpret the nail of blacksmiths for they had a nail affixed on the block, when they remove a piece of iron from the fire and they want to cut from it, they place it on a nail and beat it with a mallet and it is reduced.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
Introduction
Today's mishnah, as well as tomorrow's, deals with the purity of various types of "nails." When the Mishnah uses the word "nail" it does not refer only to building nails, but to various nail-like instruments used in a variety of ways.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
אבן השעות (sundial) – a rock/stone that has upon it lines and inscriptions upon them of the names of the hours, and nails are inserted I it and through them, they determine the hours.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
A blood-letters’ nail is susceptible to impurity. The word "nail" is used here, but we are probably talking about a small scalpel. It is considered a vessel and therefore is susceptible to impurity.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
מסמר הגרדים (weaver’s nail/pin) – a long nail that the weaver brings into a thin reed and attaches yarn on the reed.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
But [the nail] of a sundial is clean. Rabbi Zadok says that it is susceptible to impurity. Since the nail of a sundial is fixed in the stone that serves as its base, it counts as if it were attached to the ground, and things that are attached to the ground are not susceptible to impurity.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
ארון של גרוסות (ark of the grist dealer) – those who make pounded beans in their millstones, they have a kind of wooden ark/chest.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
A weaver's nail is susceptible to impurity. This "nail" is an instrument used to straighten out the thread on the loom. It is susceptible to impurity.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
רבי צדוק מטמא – that ark/chest, for it has the law of a vessel upon it.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
The chest of a grist-dealer: Rabbi Zadok says: it is susceptible to impurity, But the sages say that it is clean. Albeck brings two interpretations of the "chest of a grist-dealer." The first is that it refers to the chest itself. The second that it refers to the nail used to attach the chest to a wagon. Rabbi Zadok and the sages debate whether this nail is susceptible to impurity.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
וחכמים מטהרין – for a wooden vessel is made for pleasure and is not made to be carried. But Rabbi Tzadok holds, sometimes, hey carry it to repair it. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Tzadok.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
If its wagon was made of metal it is susceptible to impurity. If the wagon used to draw the chest is made of metal, then it (the wagon) is susceptible.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
היתה עגלה – that the ark was placed upon it, of metal.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
טמאה – for it is made for usage.
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