Commentaire sur Kéilim 9:3
הַשֶּׁרֶץ שֶׁנִּמְצָא לְמַטָּה מִנְּחֻשְׁתּוֹ שֶׁל תַּנּוּר, טָהוֹר, שֶׁאֲנִי אוֹמֵר, חַי נָפַל וְעַכְשָׁיו מֵת. מַחַט אוֹ טַבַּעַת שֶׁנִּמְצְאוּ לְמַטָּה מִנְּחֻשְׁתּוֹ שֶׁל תַּנּוּר, טָהוֹר, שֶׁאֲנִי אוֹמֵר, שָׁם הָיוּ עַד שֶׁלֹּא בָא הַתַּנּוּר. נִמְצְאוּ בְאֵפֶר מִקְלֶה, טָמֵא, שֶׁאֵין לוֹ בַמֶּה יִתְלֶה:
Si un sheretz [une des nombreuses petites créatures qui transmettent des impuretés] se trouve sous le fond d'un four, le four reste pur, car je peux dire qu'il y est tombé alors qu'il était encore vivant et qu'il est mort seulement maintenant. Si une aiguille ou un anneau se trouve sous le fond d'un four, le four reste pur, car je peux dire qu'ils étaient là avant l'arrivée du four. S'ils ont été trouvés dans les cendres de bois, le four est impur puisqu'il n'y a rien sur quoi fonder une hypothèse [de pureté].
Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
למטה מנחושתו של תנור – the block pavement that they place the oven on, for the oven is made like a kind of large pot that lacks rims, and they prepare for it a block pavement on the ground and place it there, and that block pavement is the ground of the oven.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
If a sheretz was found beneath the bottom of an oven, the oven remains clean, for I can assume that it fell there while it was still alive and that it died only now. Underneath the bottom of the oven does not count as the air-space of the oven. Therefore, the dead sheretz found there does not defile the oven. We can assume that the sheretz was still alive while it passed through the air-space of the oven, and did not defile the oven on its way down. Thus the oven is clean.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
חי נפל – [it fell while alive] but the oven was not defiled, for if it had fallen when dead, the oven would have been defiled in its airspace when it fell through the mouth of the oven. For this we don’t leave in doubt lest it was there prior that they placed the oven there, because sometimes, the unclean reptile is found moist and it is recognized that it just died and the oven has many days that they placed it there, but now it is impossible to say that the unclean reptile preceded the oven there, for if so, from the heat of the fire, it (i.e., the unclean reptile) would have been burned up and would have come ashes, but we leave in doubt that perhaps it fell while living, for it is the manner of unclean reptiles to make pits in the ground to be hidden/preserved there therefore it is found below the copper bottom or rim of the stove.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
If a needle or a ring was found beneath the bottom of an oven, the oven remains clean, for I can assume that they were there before the oven arrived. Similarly, if an unclean needle or ring is found underneath the oven, we need not assume that it made its way there through the oven's air-space, defiling the oven while it was going down.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
שם היו עד שלא בא התנור – prior to their placing it (i.e., the oven) there and it did not see the airspace of the oven.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kelim
If it was found in the wood ashes, the oven is unclean since one has no ground on which to base an assumption of cleanness. However, if the needle or ring is found in the midst of the oven's ashes, even if it is underneath the oven, it defiles the oven, because we cannot assume that it was there before the oven was put there. Had it been there before the oven, it should have been underneath the ashes, not in them.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kelim
באפר מקלה (calcined ashes/wood ashes) – in the ashes that are made on account of the burning of the fire. But this is above in the cavity of the oven. For because we find dust that we call ashes, and here it is the ashes of burning that is referred to, because of this, it (i.e., the Mishnah) teaches the wood ashes/calcined ashes which is the language of קלוי באש/roasted in fire (see Leviticus 2:14: “[If you bring a grain offering of first fruits to the LORD, you shall bring new ears] parched with fire, [grits of the fresh grain, as your grain offering of first fruits].”
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