פירוש על כלים 9:14

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.

ומניקת בתוכה (and a syphon/tube is in it) – like a kind of hollow reed made from metal, that they place one head in the perforation of the jar and he sucks/drains with his mouth from the other head, and all of the liquids that are in the jar go out through this syphon/tube.

A jar that was full of clean liquids, with a siphon in it, and it had a tightly fitting cover and was in a tent in which there was a corpse: Bet Shammai says: both the jar and the liquids are clean but the siphon is unclean. And Bet Hillel says: the siphon also is clean. The siphon is made of metal, and as we learned, an earthenware vessel with a tightly fitting cover does not prevent impurity from defiling metal vessels that are within it. Therefore, Bet Shammai rules that the metal siphon is impure. The jar and the liquids inside are clean because the covered earthenware vessel does protect them from the impurity.

החבית והמשקין טהורים והמניקת טמאה – the earthenware jar, but the syphon/tube that is within it is of metal. Therefore, the jar and the liquids that have no purification if the Mikveh, but if it purifies them and they belong to a commoner/uneducated person [who is not careful in the observance of laws of ritual purity], a Haver/member of a group dedicated to the punctilious observance of the commandments should not come to use them, for they are separated from their contact and if it is not, it would be so that all of its food is impure, the Rabbis did not make a decree concerning this, and they are protected/saved by an airtight lid, but a metal syphon/tube that has purification in a Mikveh/ritual bath, if one would purify it, a Haver/member of a group dedicated to the punctilious observance of the commandments would come to use it and he would borrow it from a common/uneducated person [who is not careful in the observance of the laws of ritual purity and immerse it [in a Mikveh] and when its sun had set (i.e., a sunset had passed for this object), he would use it, thinking that there is nothing in it other than because of contact with something impure, but he did not know that it had been in the tent of a corpse and it requires sprinkling [of a mixture of the ashes of the red heifer with waters of purification on the third and seventh days to purify it from the impurity imparted by a corpse, but even though it was in an earthenware vessel that is covered with an airtight lid, the airtight lid of vessels of a commoner/uneducated person [who is not careful in the observance of the laws of ritual purity] save/protect it from the defilement with a Haver, for all of the vessels of a commoner/uneducated person are under the presumption of defilement concerning a Haver, and an impure vessel does not protect/save with an airtight lid, for an airtight lid only protects/saves for a pure earthenware vessel alone. But whereas the Sages came to make a decree that the no earthenware vessel belonging to a common/uneducated person [who is not careful in the observance of the laws of ritual purity] does not protect [even] with an airtight lid, the people of the lands would not accept it from them. Because they would hold that they are expert and preserve their vessels/utensils in purity. Therefore regarding earthenware vessels and food and liquids which do not attain purity in a ritual bath/Mikveh, when they were within an airtight lid of a utensil belonging to a common/uneducated person, they say to them that they are pure and they would use them for they hold their vessels/utensils to be under the presumption of ritual purity, they should not be concerned lest the Haver should borrow from them, for they are, concerning him, in the presumption of being ritually impure and they don’t have purity ever, but a vessel that requires only rinsing in order to be restored to Levitical cleanness where there is a concern that perhaps the Haver will borrow it from them and he will immerse them [in a ritual bath] and use them without sprinkling [of a mixture of the ashes of the red heifer with waters of purification] on the third and seventh days [to purify it from the impurity imparted by a corpse], they made the law equivalent for all and stated that a vessel requiring only rinsing in order to be restored to Levitical cleanness is protected/saved by an airtight lid.

Bet Hillel changed their mind and ruled in agreement with Bet Shammai. At first Bet Hillel disagreed and held that even the siphon was pure. However, they eventually changed their mind and agreed with Bet Shammai. This is a phenomenon that occurs occasionally in the Mishnah. Bet Hillel at first disagrees with Bet Shammai, but eventually they change their mind.

ובית הלל אומרים אף מניקת טהורה – prior to their having heard the reasoning of the School of Shammai they did not know for what reason foods and liquids that are within an airtight lid are pure and metal vessels are impure, but after they heard their reasoning as we have explained, they (i.e., the School of Hillel) retracted to teach according to the words of the School of Shammai.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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].”

ונפל לאויר התנור טמא – for impure liquids defile a vessel. But even though the liquids are absorbed within the sponge, they are like they are discharged/escaped, because the sponge is made to bring in and to release/expunge [the water] through it.

A sponge which had absorbed unclean liquids and its outer surface became dry and it fell into the air-space of an oven, the oven is unclean, for the liquid would eventually come out. Since the unclean liquids in the sponge will eventually seep out, the oven is unclean as soon as the sponge enters. In other words, since the liquids will eventually seep out, we look at them as if they are already out, and as we have learned, unclean liquids can defile an oven.

וכן חתיכה של לפת ושל גמי – they are like a sponge. Because through the reed grass we examine through it the wine and it too is made to bring in and to release/expunge like a sponge. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon [who permits the turnip and the reed grass].

And the same with regard to a piece of turnip or reed grass. Rabbi Shimon says: the oven is clean in both these cases. Evidently, turnips and reed grass were also used in a "sponge-like" manner, to gather in liquids and then to squeeze them out later. Therefore, according to the first opinion, if a piece of turnip or reed grass that has been used to soak up unclean liquids falls into the oven, the oven is immediately unclean, the same as it is with a sponge. Rabbi Shimon says that in these two cases the liquid will not seep out like it does from a sponge and therefore the oven remains clean.

חרסים שנשתמש בהן משקין טמאים (potsherds that had been used with unclean liquids) – as for example, a large vessel for the collection of urine (for manufacturing purposes) of a man who has gonorrhea or a woman with a flux that was broken and its potsherds absorbed their urine. But we are speaking about, for example that they rinsed them in water three times in order that there should not remain in them unclean liquid. For if he did not rinse them, the oven is defiled on account of the liquids that are attached to their walls as if they are visible to the eye.

Potsherds that had been used for unclean liquids which fell into the air-space of an oven, if the oven was heated, it becomes unclean, for the liquid would eventually come out. The potsherd which was used in a vessel which contained unclean liquids would have absorbed some of that liquid. When it falls into a heated oven, the liquids will eventually come out and therefore the oven is unclean.

שסוף משקה לצאת – that is to say, it is the manner of liquid to exit through heating of the potsherds, and since that these potsherds were in the oven at the time of heating, the liquids left them and defiled the oven from its airspace.

And the same with regard to fresh olive peat, but if it was old, the oven remains clean. If it was known that liquid emerges, even after the lapse of three years, the oven becomes unclean. Olive peat is the olive waste that is left over after the olives have been pressed. If the olive press was unclean (or the pressing was done by unclean people), the oil is also unclean. Fresh olive peat will still retain some of this oil, so if fresh peat falls into a hot oven, the oven is unclean. The oil will emerge due to the heat. Old olive peat (after twelve months) no longer contains the oil and therefore impure oil will not seep out and defile the oven. This is true unless we know that liquid came out of the old olive peat. If we know that liquid came out, then it can defile the oven even if the peat is as old as three years.

גפת – the refuse of olives (i.e., peat) after they removed their oils.

חדשה – within twelve months.

ישנה – after twelve months, that all of the liquid that was in them left on their own.

והלכו עליהם טמאים – ritually impure people [walked on them].

If olive peat or grape skins had been prepared in conditions of cleanness, and unclean persons trod upon them and afterwards liquids emerged from them, they remain clean, since they had originally been prepared in conditions of cleanness. The olives and grapes were squeezed or tread upon by people who were in a state of purity. Then unclean people tread upon the waste products the olive peat or the grape skins and then liquids emerged. Generally, liquids make things susceptible to impurity. But because the person treading upon the olive peat or grape skins did not intend to squeeze out the liquids (because he probably wanted them to remain dry), this type of liquid does not make the olive peat or grape skins susceptible to impurity. They both remain pure, and if they are put into an oven, the oven also remains pure.

טהורים – they were not defiled through their treading/walking [on them], since they were not ever called/referred to as defiled.

If a spindle hook was sunk into the spindle, or the iron point into the ox goad, or a ring into a brick, and all these were clean, and then they were brought into a tent in which was a corpse, they become unclean. The instruments in this section consist of one metal instrument sunk into another larger instrument that cannot become impure because it does not have a receptacle. If the larger item with the smaller instrument inside it are taken into a tent in which a corpse is found, the sunken metal instrument is not protected by the larger item from becoming impure. Metal instruments are not protected from impurity unless they were swallowed by a living being (animal or human).

כוש (reed used as a spindle) – a spindle that a woman spins on it and there is a curved/winding iron tool at its head and its name is צנורא /hook and sometimes the iron tool is sunk within the wood and all it is covered by the wood.

If a zav caused them to move they become unclean. A zav (person with abnormal genital discharge) who moves something causes it to be impure, even without touching it. Again, the outer vessel does not protect these instruments from becoming impure.

מלמד (ox-goad/handle – in which the iron point was driven in so that nothing could be seen of it) – a long staff and at its head is something similar to a thin nail/pin, and they direct with it the cow to its furrow/ridge, therefore, it is called מלמד בקר/it trains the cattle. But the nail/pin that is at its head is called a goad/the iron point on the staff, like (Ecclesiastes 12:11): “The sayings of the wise are like goads.”

If they then fell into the air-space of a clean oven, they cause it to be unclean. Just as they are not protected from being defiled, so too they can defile an oven if they enter its airspace.

ולבנה שבלעה את הטבעת (the clay brick which swallowed up the ring) – that the ring was kneaded in the plaster of the brick and smelted with it in the furnace/kiln.

If a loaf of terumah came in contact with them, it remains clean. However, if a loaf of terumah bread comes into contact with them, it remains pure because it did not directly come into contact with the spindle hook, iron point or ring. It only touched the spindle, goad or brick and they were pure.

נכנסו לאוהל המת – when they are absorbed and hidden within the reed or within the ox-goad or within the brick.

נטמאו – for the tent of a corpse does not protect/save them and similarly from the hand of an earthenware vessel but rather a vessel that has an inside. But this is not similar other than a bone like the size of a barley corn that is wrapped in fibrous substance (i.e., bast of a palm tree).

הסיטן הזב (if the man with gonorrhea shook/shifted – to move it from its place) – even though he did not come in contact with them but that he overbalanced/outweighed them.

נטמאו – for the person with gonorrhea defiles through shaking an object so as to move it from place to place. Even that which is surrounded by an airtight lid defiles through shaking, all the more so this.

נגע בהן ככר של תרומה – when they are absorbed.

טהור – the loaf [is pure]. But even though it is of heave-offering and something of second-degree [of ritual uncleanness] defiles it, and even the iron that is absorbed/swallowed which is the primary source of ritual impurity we don’t say that we make the wood that covers it first [degree of ritual uncleanness] or second [degree of ritual uncleanness] and the loaf will be third [degree of ritual uncleanness] and be defiled, but it defiles the oven, and even though they are absorbed/swallowed, because the oven is defiled through its airspace and even if the defiling object did not come in contact with it, and the defilement that is absorbed from its defilement is as we explained in our chapter above (see Tractate Kelim, Chapter 8, Mishnah 5).

סרידה (stuffed matting/ slightly hollow perforated tile used for stoppers of stoves, bags/colander) – like a kind of small kneading trough that the baker uses, and it is stretched and is not susceptible to receive defilement.

If there was netting placed over the mouth of an oven, forming a tightly fitting lid, and a split appeared between the oven and the colander, the minimum size [to allow impurity to enter] is that of the circumference of the tip of an ox goad that cannot actually enter it. Rabbi Judah says: it must be one into which the tip can actually enter. We have learned that if an earthenware vessel has a tightly fitting cover, impurity cannot enter into it and defile it. If such a vessel is found in the same room as a dead body, the vessel remains pure. In the case discussed here, if the netting (some sort of colander) is truly "tightly fitting" it counts as a cover and the vessel remains pure. If the part between the oven and the netting is split, if the split is the exact same measurement as the circumference of the tip of an ox goad, it is not considered tightly fitting, and the oven is impure (if it is in a tent with a corpse). According to the first opinion, the tip need not actually be able to enter the split. Rabbi Judah holds that in order for the oven to be considered to not have a "tightly fitting lid" the split needs to be large enough to allow the tip to actually enter.

שהיא נתונה על פי התנור – and it is crushed in plaster in order to surround it with an airtight lid and the oven will not become defiled in the tent of a corpse.

If a split appeared in the netting, the minimum size is the circumference of the tip of an ox goad that can enter it. Rabbi Judah says: even if it cannot enter. In this case, the split is not between the netting and the oven but in the netting itself. The opinions from section one are reversed. We should note that there is no inherent logic as to when the measure is "the ox goad can enter" and when it is "even if it cannot enter." It seems random why the sages reverse their opinions in the two cases. Albeck explains that all of the sages of the Mishnah (the tannaim) had a tradition that in one case the split must be large enough for the ox goad to actually enter, and in the other case, the split need be no larger than the ox goad. The sages and Rabbi Judah disagreed as to which measure was applicable in which case. In other words, they had some sort of halakhic tradition that they had received from their predecessors, but its details were not received and therefore they argued over them.

נסדק מן תנור לסרידה (was cracked from the oven to the colander) – that is, the shaping was cracked.

If the split was curved it must not be regarded as straight, and still the minimum size must be the circumference of the tip of an ox goad that can actually enter. If the split was really like a small hole, from the oven to the netting, and it wasn't just a regular crack, the minimum size still remains in effect. Albeck explains that this means that if we were to even out the curved split, and only then could it allow in the tip of the ox goad, the oven is still not considered to have a tightly fitting lid. It must actually be the size of the ox goad.

מלוא פי מרדע שלא נכנס (its measure is the tip of an ox-goad that cannot enter) – the ox-goad is that trains the cattle, and there is in its circumference a handbreadth, and its thickness is three handbreadths, for all that is of one-handbreadth in its thickness, there is in its circumference three handbreadths, and the measure of the crack when the smearing is cracked, according to the Rabbis, its measure is the tip of an ox-goad is equivalent, and even though the incision is not large when the tip of an ox enters, for since the crack is equivalent to the tip of an ox-goad, there isn’t here an airtight lid, but according to Rabbi Yehuda, there always is an airtight lid until the crack will be large enough that the tip of an ox-goad can enter.

נסדקה סרידה עצמה – according to the Rabbis, an enclosure/compartment once the pile of plaster is cracked , but according to Rabbi Yehuda, an enclosure/compartment that when the pile of plaster is cracked, from when the small kneading trough is itself cracked. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

שנקב מעינו – the eye of the oven, this is the perforation/incision that one makes in it in order that the smoke can go out, and they seal the eye with plaster and close it up and make a perforation afterwards in the place of the plastering.

Introduction Today's mishnah continues to deal with the topic of how large a hole in an oven can be before it ceases to be considered "tightly closed." The size of this hole will vary depending upon where in the oven it is located.

נכנס ויוצא דולק – that the perforation is wide and the spindle staff enters and goes out in a wide space.

If there was a hole in the "eye" of an oven, the minimum size [for it to leave the category of being tightly closed] is the circumference of a burning spindle staff that can enter and come out [without being extinguished]. Rabbi Judah says: one that is not burning. The "eye" of the oven is the hole made in the oven's bottom to let in wind and let out smoke (see 8:7). If there is a hole that would allow a burning spindle staff to come in and go out while burning and not be extinguished, the oven is not considered to be "tightly covered" and if found in a tent with a dead body, it is impure. Again, Rabbi Judah argues about one of these details. He holds that it need not be able to enter and come out while burning (and not be extinguished). As long as it can come in and out, the oven is unclean.

ניקב מצדו – of the wood.

If the hole appeared at its side, the minimum size must be that of the circumference of a spindle staff that can enter and come out while it is not burning. Rabbi Judah says: while burning. If the hole is in the side of the oven, then the opinions in section one are reversed, although the basic measure is the same. Note that this debate is formatted similarly to the debate in yesterday's mishnah. There is no rational reason why one place should have to allow in a burning and one place need not. Rather all sages (the anonymous opinion and Rabbi Judah) hold that in one case the spindle staff must be burning and in one case it need not, and they dispute as to which case is which.

וכן היה אומר במגופת החבית – and so would Rabbi Shimon say with all of these, that their law is that from the middle one enters, but from the side one does not enter. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.

Rabbi Shimon says: if the hole is in the middle its size must be such that a spindle staff can enter it, but if it was at the side it need only be such as the spindle staff cannot actually enter. And similarly he used to rule concerning the stopper of a jar in which a hole appeared: the minimum size is the circumference of the second knot in an oat stalk. If the hole was in the middle the stalk should be able to enter, and if at the side it need not be able to enter. And similarly he used to rule concerning large stone jars in the stoppers of which appeared a hole. The minimum size is the circumference of the second knot in a reed. If the hole was in the middle the reed must be able to enter it, and if it was at the side the reed need not be able to enter it. Rabbi Shimon holds that there is a difference if the hole is in the middle of the oven, or in its side. If the hole is in the middle, the spindle must be able to go in and out, but if it is on the side, the measure is smaller, and the oven is considered open even if the hole is the exact same size as the spindle-staff. According to other sources, the other rabbis disagree with Rabbi Shimon and hold the reverse if the hole is on the side, the measure is larger than if it's in the middle. The mishnah now proceeds to list several cases, in which Rabbi Shimon holds that if the hole is in the side, the measure is larger than if the hole is in the middle. The first is a hole found in a stopper. The minimum measure is the size of the second knot in an oat-stalk. Oat stalks (so I gather from this mishnah) had many knots, and the sages used the second knot as a basis this measure. The second instance is a hole found in a large jar. Here the measure was the second knot found in a reed (which I guess also have knots).

מלא מיצה שניה של שיפון (is the thickness of the second joint of a stem of oats) – this thickness of the second knot of the reed of oats, that the second is thinner than the first but more thick than the third, that the reed is thick from the bottom and becomes thinner as one ascends. שיפון is VIINEH in the foreign tongue.

When is this so? When the jars were made for wine, but if they were made for other liquids, if they have even the smallest hole, they are unclean. The above two halakhot are true when it comes to wine jars, which regularly had holes in them. Since holes were normal in these vessels, they had to establish minimum sizes for a hole to nullify the vessel from being considered "tightly covered." If the vessel was used for other liquids, then it shouldn't have any holes. Therefore, even the smallest hole will nullify it from being considered "tightly lidded."

לשאר משקין – as for example, oil, honey and milk.

When is this so? When the holes were not made by a person, but if they were made by a person, if they have even the smallest hole, they are unclean. If the hole was done intentionally by a person, then even the smallest hole nullifies it from being "tightly covered." The minimum measurements refer only to cases where the hole appeared on its own.

אפילו כל שהן טמאים – even the slightest perforation does not protect with an airtight lid and they are defiled.

If a hole appeared [in other vessels its prescribed size ] is as follows: if the vessel was used for food, [the hole must be one] through which olives can fall out; if for liquids, one that lets out liquids; If for either, the greater restriction is imposed [even with regard to the issue of] a tightly fitting cover [the size of the hole need only be] one that admits a liquid. If other types of vessels (not wine jars) have holes in them, then the minimum measure depends on what the jar is used for. If it is used for food, it must be a big enough hole to let out food. If it holds liquids, then the vessel is not considered tightly covered if it would allow in other liquids. Finally, if the vessel is used for both liquids and solids, the more stringent measure, that of liquids is applied.

שלא נעשו בידי אדם – that they were not perforated with intention, but that it happened on its own.

ניקבו העשוי לאוכלים שיעורו בזיתים – now we are speaking of when the utensil itself was hollowed out/broken through and perforated. And all of these measurements that are above is when the closure/cover was hollowed out in its opening.

שיעורן בזיתים – if it was hollowed out when they remove the olive, it requires plastering/leveling, but less than this, it does not require plastering. And in the Gemara in Tractate Shabbat [96a] it proves that when a large vessel that was perforated when they remove the pomegranate and a small vessel that was hallowed out in its majority, the plastering and closing it up have no effect, and furthermore, it does not protect with an airtight lid since it it no longer has the status of a vessel. But if they plastered it, it becomes like foodstuffs that were kneaded with plaster that the plaster does not protect/save them.

שיעורן במשקין – when one brings in liquids.

העשוי לכך ולכך – for liquids and for foods.

מטילין אותו לחומרו – but if he perforated at the place where the liquids enter, he does not save/protect it with an airtight lid until it is plastered over.