Komentarz do Kelim 19:1

המפרק את המטה להטבילה – even though it had become defiled while it was whole/complete, sometimes, on occasion when it is large and is unable to enter the Mikveh [whole], and one needs to take it apart.

One who dismantles a bed in order that he might immerse it and [while doing so] touches the ropes remains clean. If while dismantling a large bed in order to immerse it in a mikveh to purify it a person touched the ropes of the bed, he is not thereby defiled. This is because the ropes of a dismantled bed are not considered impure. As we shall see, the ropes are considered to be impure only when attached to the bed.

והנוגע בחבלים – this is our reading. Meaning to say, whether one takes it (i.e., the bed) apart or one touches the ropes, one is ritually pure. But we are speaking about a bed that was defiled through contact with a corpse or though a person with gonorrhea lying on it, and as for example, that is no on the bed a long board and two legs, even though, it is necessary to immerse it [in a Mikveh], in order that it not return to its defilement when it is connected. But the person who touches the ropes is ritually pure, for since he took it (i.e., the bed) apart, the ropes are no longer connected.

When does the rope begin to constitute a connective with the bed? As soon as three rows of meshes of it have been knotted. Beds in the time of the Mishnah were made by tying ropes tightly around the bed frame. The mishnah now asks when are ropes considered connected to the bed such that their purity/impurity status matches that of the bed. The answer is that as soon as three rows have been tied onto the bed. It would seem that at that point the bed offers at least minimal support.

החבל מאימתי חיבור – at the outset when a person makes a partition by means of net-work/makes a zig-zag completely and girds it with three [rows of] meshes with it, and the rope still remains very long. If the bed became defiled, the rope is defiled. And a person who touches the rope, is impure. For it is all connected/attached, for ultimately, one is making a partition by means of net-work.

And [if another rope was tied to this one] and a person touches it: If from the knot inwards he becomes unclean; But if from the knot outwards he remains clean. If one ties another rope to the rope that is already tied to the bed, the new rope is considered connected from the knot and inwards. That portion of the rope is impure, and if the bed is impure it will defile him if he touches it. But from the rope and outwards, it is pure and it will not defile him.

מן הקשר ולפנים – if he tied another rope to this rope that he is making a lattice-work with, the other rope is not attached from the knot and outward.

As to the loose ends of the knot, any one that touches that part which is needed for it becomes unclean. And how much is needed for it? Rabbi Judah says: three fingerbreadths. The first three fingerbreadths of the loose ends of the knot were needed to tie the knot. Therefore, they are impure. Anything beyond that is not impure.

נימי הקשר (fringes of a knot) – when they tie in a knot two ropes with one another, they leave a bit from the heads of the ropes from this side and from that side they exit beyond the knot, and they are called the “fringes of a knot.”

הנוגע בצורכו – for since there is a need to tie them in a knot, that if the knot at the actual top of the of the rope was an extra knot, it is found that these fringes establish the knot an they are like the knot itself.

רבי יהודה אומר שלש אצבעות – is an attachment/connection, and he requires the knot, but not more.