פירוש על כלים 9:1

מחט או טבעת – an impure/unclean [needle or ring] (from corpse uncleanness).

Introduction This mishnah deals with a needle or a ring (metal vessels) that are found in certain places, and with the question of whether or not they have become impure.

שנמצאו בנחושתו של תנור (that were found in the copper rim of the oven) – on the floor of the ground that the oven is attached to.

If a needle or a ring was found in the ground of an oven, and they can be seen but they don't stick out into the oven, if one bakes dough and it touches them, the [oven] is unclean. In this section we don't know for certain whether or not the needle or the ring is impure, but we have reason to suspect that they might be. They are found in the floor of an oven and can be seen from inside the oven but they do not project into the oven's air-space. If a person bakes dough and the dough can expand into the hole in the floor in which these instruments are found, the oven is defiled by the needle or ring. In other words, since the dough enters this space, it is considered part of the oven and if a defiling agent is found there, it defiles the oven. If the dough did not touch them, then it would be a sign that the place in which they are found is not considered to be part of the oven.

נראין – in the oven.

Regarding which dough did they speak? Medium dough. The mishnah clarifies that the dough which the mishnah uses as a barometer is of medium elasticity. It is not so soft that it would sink into any hole, nor is it so hard that it wouldn't sink at all.

אבל לא יוצאין – in the airspace of the oven. As for example, that they are absorbed in the thickness of the floor of the ground and appear in the airspace of the oven but do not project/protrude into it.

If they are found in the plaster of an oven with a tightly fitting lid: If the oven is unclean, they are unclean, If the oven is clean, they are clean. Here we have an oven that has a layer of plaster around its outside. In this layer of plaster the ring and needle are imbedded. The oven is tightly covered and it is found in a building in which a dead body is also located. If the oven is impure, then the needle and ring are impure. An earthenware vessel with a tightly fitting lid prevents impurity from entering, but only if the vessel itself is impure. And since the oven doesn't prevent impurity, so too anything attached to it doesn't prevent impurity.

אם אופה הוא את הבצק – if at the time that he fastens the bread into it, the dough comes in contact with the needle or the ring, it is considered like the airspace of the oven and it defiles it. But if not, it is a pure, for the All-Merciful wrote "תוכו" (Leviticus 11:33 – “And if any of those fall into/תוכו an earthen vessel, everything inside it shall be unclean and – the vessel – itself you shall break), and this is not “inside it”/תוכו. As for example, that they were absorbed there in the floor prior to attaching the oven there, for if they brought them in through the mouth of the oven, when they entered into its airspace, the oven was defiled.

If they are found in the stopper of a jar: If on the sides, they are unclean. If opposite the mouth, they are clean. Now this pesky little ring or needle is found in the stopper of a tightly closed jar, which is also found in a building with a dead person in it. The jar, since it is tightly closed, does prevent impurity from infiltrating but only if the needle or ring is found opposite the mouth of the jar. If it is found on the sides of the stopper, since this is not the part of the stopper used by the jar, it doesn't count as part of the jar. Thus the needle and ring are defiled.

בבצק הבינוני – not that its mixture is soft, that it descended below to the cracks. But not that its mixture was hard, that it does not affixed/attached.

If they can be seen in it, but they do not enter its airspace, they are clean. If the ring or needle can be seen from the top in the stopper, then they have not gotten into the airspace of the stopper, which is the airspace of the jar. Since they are part of the stopper, they are pure.

בטפילת התנור (in the plaster of the oven) – it is the plaster of clay/mud that they place around the oven to thicken it so that it can hold/contain its heat.

If they sink into it, and there is [plaster] underneath them as thick as garlic peel, they are clean. If they are sunken into the stopper, and there is still stopper, even as thin as a peel of garlic, underneath them, then they are pure. However if they have truly entered the jar's air-space they are impure because an earthenware vessel with a tightly covered lid does not save metal vessels found inside it from being defiled.

מוקף צמיד פתיל – and it is placed in the tent of the corpse.

בטמא – if the oven is unclean/impure.

טמאים – the needle and the ring that are found in the plaster of the oven.

ובטהור טהורים – for since the oven is surrounded by an airtight lid and is saved/protected, these also are protected with it, for in regard to the plaster, they are neutralized.

נמצאו במגופת החבית (if they are found in the bung/stopper of the jar) – in the plaster that they regularly make for it as a cover over the mouth of the jar.

מצדיה – of the jar.

טמאים – for the sides of the jar do not need the plaster.

מכנגד פיה – if the needle and the ring are drawn opposite its mouth.

טהורין – provided/as long as that they will be within the plaster of the bung/stopper and not be brought into the airspace of the jar. But even though they appear from its inside, since they don’t enter into its airspace, they are clean/pure.

שוקעים בתוכה ותחתיהן כקליפת השום (if they sink into it and under them is [plaster] about as much as a garlic peel) – if there was between the needle and/or the ring and between the airspace of the jar a thin divider like the garlic peel, that it is found that they protrude into the bung/stopper, but it does not enter into the airspace of the jar at all, the are pure, for they are nullified concerning the bung/stopper. But if they enter within the jar, they are impure/unclean, for the airtight lid does not save/protect in the tent of a corpse other than in an earthenware vessel for food and liquids, things that have no purification in a Mikveh/ritual bath. But on metal vessels, such as a needle and/or a ring, they have purification in a Mikveh, the airtight lid does not protect them, therefore if they enter into the airspace of the jar, the are not nullified regarding the bung/stopper and are not protected/saved by the airtight lid. Such appears in my eyes the explanation of this Mishnah. But my Teachers/Rabbis did not explain it thusly. But their explanation I did not know how to justify/maintain it and therefore I did not write it.