Commentaire sur Kéilim 24:17

מהוהה (threadbare shred) – an old and worn-out cloth.

Introduction The last mishnah of this chapter (yes, we made it there) ostensibly follows the same literary pattern as the first sixteen mishnayot. It begins with the words "there are three types of…" However, the internal structure is quite different. The topic is baskets that are attached to other baskets in cases where one basket is pure and one is impure.

שטלייה (that is patched) – like that is patched. From the language of patch upon patch (see Tractate Berakhot 43b), that is to say, that he placed the old shred/patch on the new one.

There are three different types of baskets: If a worn-out basket is patched on to a sound one, all is determined by the sound one; If a small basket is patched on to a large one all is determined by the large one; If they are equal all is determined by the inner one. Whereas in the previous sixteen mishnayot the "three different types of x" meant that one was subject to midras impurity, one to corpse impurity and one was pure, today's mishnah deals with three possible results of one basket being attached to another. If a worn-out basket is attached to a sound one, the purity/impurity is determined by the sound basket, because that is the basket that is essential. Thus is the sound basket is pure, both are pure, and if the sound basket is impure, both are impure. Similarly, if a small basket is attached to a large basket, the status of the large basket determines the purity/impurity of both baskets. If both baskets are equal in size and soundness, then the inner basket is the one that is essentially used so it determines the purity status. If the inner one is pure, both are pure and if the inner one is impure, both are impure.

הולכים אחר הבריאה (they follow – the status in respect of uncleanness – of the sound one) – we judge it according to the law/status of the healthy one/sound one. If [that one] is impure, it is impure, but if it is pure, it is pure.

Rabbi Shimon says: if the cup of a balance was patched on to the bottom of a boiler on the inside, the latter becomes unclean; but if on the outside it remains clean. If it was patched on to the side, whether on the inside or the outside, it remains clean. Rabbi Shimon extends the principle learned above. If an impure cup of a balance was patched on to the inside of a hot water boiler then the cup has the status of the "inside" vessel and the entire apparatus is impure. However, if the cup is patched onto the side of the hot water boiler, then the boiler is considered the inside vessel and the entire apparatus is pure. This is true even if the cup is inside the boiler. Since it is not attached to the bottom, it is not the main part and the boiler determines the status of the cup.

קטנה על גדולה – whether they are both threadbare shreds or both of them are sound.

הולכין אחר הגדולה – and if the larger one is perforated, like that of one which removes/emits pomegranates that that is breaking like this is purified, also the small one that is attached to it is pure, even though it is whole/complete. But if the larger one is complete, and behold it is susceptible to receive Levitical uncleanness, even the small one (i.e., patch) attached with it is impure, even though it is perforated like that which emits a pomegranate.

הולכים אחר הפנימית – if the inner one is ritually impure, the outer one is ritually impure, and if the inner one is ritually pure, the outer one is also ritually pure.

ר' שמעון אומר כף מאזים (Rabbi Shimon says: The cup of the balance) – it comes to explain [the words] of the first Tanna/teacher, and it is speaking of the cup of a metal balance that is ritually impure, for if one patched on the bottom of the vessel for heating water from the inside, the vessel for heating water is impure. But if he patched from the outside, the vessel for heating water is ritually pure.

טלייה על צידה (if he patched it on its side) – that he attached the patch on ethe walls of the vessel for heating water, not on its bottom, whether from the outside or whether from the inside, it is ritually pure. But the upshot/final result of the entire chapter and the reason that everything is ritually impure through treading or ritually impure through contact with a corpse or pure from everything that are mentioned here, is that it and everything thing that is fit for lying, or that will be made for lying for or sitting or for sitting or for leaning upon is ritually impure through treading. Excepting if it is an earthenware vessel that does not defile by treading, and this we derive from Scripture, as it is written (Leviticus 15:5): “Anyone who touches his bedding [shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain impure until evening],” [The Rabbis] make an analogy between “his bedding” and himself, just as he has purity in a ritual bath/Mikveh, even his bedding has purification in a ritual bath, excluding an earthenware vessel which does not have purity in a ritual bath. But the mat of reeds/poor-man’s mattress which is made for lying, even though it doesn’t have ritual purity in a Mikveh, from what is written (Leviticus 11:32): “any such article that can be put to use shall be dipped in water,” but this is not a utensil/article, nevertheless it is impure through treading as we expand upon from Scripture as it is written (Leviticus 15:4): “Any bedding [on which the one with the discharge lies shall be impure],” [the word] “Any” includes the mat of reeds/poor-man’s mattress , but it ha no ritual purity/cleanliness until it is cut/severed and there remains from it less than six [handbreadths] by six [handbreadths]. But stone vessels and vessels of baked ordure and vessels of earth, are pure from everything. And similarly, everything that comes from the ocean is pure. And wooden vessels that hold the prescribed measurements, that contain forty Se’ah moist which are two Kor in dry, are also pure from everything, because they are not carried full. And similarly, anything which does not have the designation of a vessel, or that is the designation of a vessel but is not from things used by human beings, but are used by those who serve his users, is pure, such as the dresser in which olives are spread and the matting of winepresses and the sheet of frames, that we stated in our Mishnah that they are pure from everything, for they are not considered vessels that are attendant upon humans.