Commentaire sur Kéilim 2:1

כלי עץ כלי עור כלי עצם – in the Torah portion of n , it is written (Numbers 31:20): “You shall also purify every cloth, every article of skin, everything made of goats’ hair and every object of wood,” and we extend the scope from, “everything made of goats’ hair”/וכל מעשה עזים to include anything that comes from the goats – from the horns and from the hoofs, that is the vessels of bone and it is juxtaposed to vessels of leather and vessels of wood. And in the Torah portion of Shemini, there is juxtaposition of vessels of leather and vessels of wood to a sack (see Leviticus 11:32: “[And anything on which one of them falls when dead shall be impure:] be it any article of wood, or a cloth, or a skin, or a sack [-any such article that can be put to use shall be dipped in water, and it shall remain impure until evening; then it shall be pure].” Therefore, their flat vessels are pure, that we require something similar to a sack that is carried full and/or empty. But an earthenware vessel, even though when flat are pure, it cannot be taught together with these, because all of these are pure when they don’t have a receptacle even though they have an inside, as for example, a wood jug which does not a rim at the bottom and is perforated from side to side is pure, but an earthenware vessel in the same manner is impure because the All-Merciful made it dependent upon its inside and behold it has an inside even though it does not have a receptacle. But their flat surfaces are pure as it is taught in the Mishnah here, that is, according to the Torah, but the Sages decreed impurity upon all flat wooden vessels and leather and bone as is proven in the Gemara of Bava Batra [66a]. But according to the Torah also, they are not pure other than from defilement through contact with a corpse or defilement by a reptile, but they are defiled through the defilement of lying and sitting if they are appropriate for lying and sitting.

Introduction After the introductory chapter, our mishnah begins to deal with the purity and impurity of vessels.

וכלי זכוכית – the Rabbis decreed defilement upon them (i.e., glass utensils) since the beginning of their creation/formation is from the sand then they are earthenware vessels, and they are [more] stringent than earthenware utensils that are not susceptible to receive defilement from what is upon it, but glass utensils/vessels are defiled from what is upon them, since their inside appears like their outside. But the flat surfaces of glass vessels are pure, even according to the Rabbis, for the Rabbis made a distinction (a somewhat different law) regarding glassware (see Tractate Shabbat 16a) for just as they don’t burn upon them heave offering and Holy Things.

Vessels of wood, vessels of leather, vessels of bone or vessels of glass: If they are simple they are clean If they form a receptacle they are unclean. Vessels made of wood, leather, bone or glass can come in two forms: simple or with a receptacle. They are simple if they are not made to accept anything. Simple vessels cannot become defiled. They are susceptible to impurity only if they have a receptacle. This rule seems to be derived from Leviticus 11:32.

מקבלין טומאה מכאן ולהבא – but they don’t return to their old defilement, for the Rabbis did not decree that if he made from them [new] vessels they return to their old defilement, but rather only a metal utensils/vessel.

If they were broken they become clean again. If the vessel was impure when it was whole and then was broken, it now automatically becomes pure.

כלי נתר (vessels made from alum crystals)– vessels that are made from earth that they dig from it alum crystals. ALUMI in the foreign language.

If one remade them into vessels they are susceptible to impurity henceforth. Once it is fixed, it is now susceptible again to impurity. However, the vessel does not return to its old impurity. In other words, the slate is wiped clean.

מיטמאין ומטמאין באויר (they are both unclean and convey uncleanness through their contained airspace) – it the defilement is suspended in the airspace of the vessel, the vessel is unclean. If he went back and suspended food in their airspace, he defiles the food, even though they did not touch, as it is written (Leviticus 11:33): “[And if any of those falls into an earthen vessel,] everything inside it shall be pure [and – the vessel – itself you shall break].” And even the size of a mustard seed that does not touch the walls of the vessel.

Earthen vessels and vessels of sodium carbonate are equal in respect of impurity: they contract and convey impurity through their air-space; they convey impurity through the outside but they do not become impure through their backs; and when broken they become clean. The rules regarding earthenware and sodium carbonate vessels are different. As I explained in the introduction, they can be made impure only by something entering their air space, even if the defiling agent does not touch them. They also convey impurity to food or other vessels that enter their air space, even if they do not come into contact with them. This is derived from Leviticus 11:33. They also convey impurity through their outsides. So if they are impure, and a piece of food touches the outside of the vessel, the food is impure. But if something impure touches the outside of the vessel (their backs) they are not defiled. Earthenware vessels cannot be made pure by entering a mikveh. The only way they can become pure is by being broken (see Leviticus 6:21, 11:33, 15:12).

ומיטמאין מאחוריהן (they impart uncleanness from their outer sides) – vessels that hollowed out/shaped a receptacle from their place of sitting in the manner that they make for silver cups, and sometimes they turn them upside down on their mouths and use their receptacles from their outer side. If it came in contact with defilement with that receptacle, the earthenware utensil is defiled. But if they did not mix them and repeat it they are defiled and defile from their airspace an from their outer sides, we learn from it that they are defiled from the airspace from the outer side, for we don’t consider the inside that is on the outer side as a complete inside of the Torah, to be defiled from its airspace, but it is defiled if it the defilement came in contact with the same hollowing out that is on its outer side.

ואין מיטמאין מגביהן – as it is written (Leviticus 11:33): “Any if any of those falls into an earthen vessel (i.e., an article of wood, a cloth, a skin, or a sack), [everything inside it shall be impure and – the vessel- itself you shall break],” from inside it becomes defiles but it does become defiled from outside it. But all of the other vessels excluding an earthenware vessel and a vessel of alum crystal are not defiled from their airspace until the defilement touches/comes in contact with the essence of the vessel, but when the defilement touches the essence of the vessel, whether from the outside or from the inside, it is impure, as is taught in the Mishnah in the first chapter of [Tractate] Hullin (Chapter 1, Mishnah 6): “What is clean (insusceptible to uncleanness[ in the case of earthenware vessels is unclean [susceptible in the case of all [other] vessels. What is clean in the case of all [other utensils] is unclean in the case of the earthenware utensils.”

ושבירתן היא טהרתן = all of vessels/utensils, breaking them is their purification, but earthenware vessels and vessels of alum crystal breaking them alone purifies them, but they have no purification through ritual immersion other than through breaking [them] alone.