Comentario sobre Keilim 14:8

מפתח של ארכובה (a key with a joint – broken at the joint) – that is scraped/cut at the knee/joint with the leg, that is made like our bent [letter] Nun. And most of the keys that are in the Land of Israel are like this.

Introduction Our mishnah deals with the purity of keys.

רבי יהודה מטמא – But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

A knee-shaped key that was broken off at the knee is clean. Rabbi Judah says that it is unclean because one can open with it from within. The first opinion holds that if a knee-shaped key is broken off at the knee, the key is pure because it can no longer be used to open the door. Rabbi Judah says it still retains some function. The key can be used from the inside to unlock the door, but from the outside, the key would not reach the lock. Because it still has some use, it is still susceptible.

ושל גם – like the Greek [letter] gamma which is like the inverted [letter] Nun.

A gamma-shaped key that was broken off at its shorter arm is clean. This key is similar to the Greek letter gamma. If it is broken off such that he can no longer handle it, it is clean.

היו בו חפין (if it had teeth – of the bit) – when it was broken within its junction, if there remained in it teeth of the bit and gaps/holes, the חפין are the teeth, the gaps/holes are what the teeth of the lock enter into, that sometimes the key has teeth and they enter into the gaps of the lock and open up [the door], and sometimes there are holes in the key and he brings those gaps/holes into the teeth of the lock and opens up [the door].

If it retained the teeth and the gaps it remains unclean. If the teeth were missing it is still unclean on account of the gaps; if the gaps were blocked up it is unclean on account of the teeth. If the teeth were missing and the gaps were blocked up, or if they were merged into one another, it is clean. This mishnah discusses keys in general, and not just the gamma key mentioned in section two. A key has teeth and gaps both are necessary to open the lock. Obviously, if both remain, the key is functional and susceptible to impurity. However, even if only the teeth or gaps are still there, the key is still susceptible to impurity. The key only becomes clean when both the teeth are missing and the gaps are blocked up.

או שפרצו זה לתוך זה (or merged one into the other) – that the teeth were not removed and the gaps/holes were not blocked, but rather that they merged, as for example, when the teeth were curved or the gaps/holes widened and they touched each other.

If in a mustard-strainer three holes in its bottom were merged into one another the strainer is clean. If there were three holes in a mustard-strainer that joined together to form one large gap, the strainer is no longer usable and it is clean.

מסננת של חרדל (mustard mixture in the strainer – see also Tractate Shabbat, Chapter 20, Mishnah 2) – a kind of metal winnow that the mustard is placed in it and it strains and collects the refuse.

A metal mill-funnel is unclean. The metal mill-funnel that is used for pouring wheat into the mill is considered a vessel and is susceptible to impurity.

מלמטן – in the rim of the strainer from when three holes merged and all three of them became one hole/gap, more than this, it is not appropriate to filter/strain in it.

אפרכס (clepsydra) – a vessel of the millstone that is wide from above and gradually narrows from below, and we place it wheat in it and it issues them bit by bit in the millstone.