Keilim 3:7 - 3:8

מיחם – a vessel that they heat water in (i.e., a boiler).

בחומר- thick plaster.

חרסית (potter’s clay) – thin like earthenware. But there are those who explain/interpret it as crushing/pounding of earthenware.

הנוגע בחומר טמא – because it Is joined and attached to the kettle and is considered like the essence of the vessel. Therefore, if the boiler is defiled, the thick plaster surrounding it is defiled like it, and those eating who touch the thick plaster are impure.

ובחרסית טהור – for the potter’s clay is not joined but is scraped/peeled and falls off, and is not considered like the essence of the vessel.

קומקום (kettle) – it is larger than a boiler, and in the foreign language, they call it a KUMKUMO.

שאינו יכול לקבל את החמין – for the pitch is smelted and melts/dissolves in hot water, and even though it is able to hold the cold water, it is not considered as a vessel and is pure.

וכן היה אומר בכלי זפת – vessels that are made from pitch itself, which are pure, since they are not able to hold the hot like they can the cold. But my Rabbis explained, regarding vessels lined with pitch, in pitch vessels of pitch, and it explains further on [in this Mishnah], how so? Vessels of copper that were lined with pitch are pure. If the vessels were impure and a person or foods or liquids touched/came in contact with pitch, they are pure, for the pitch does not combine and is not considered like the essence of the vessel.

ואם ליין – if he lined them with pitch from the outset to place in them wine and it was not his intention to use them for hot liquids at all.

טמאין – for the vessel requires pitch and the pitch is attached/joined.

יותר מצרכה – corresponding to the hole/perforation it needs it, and what is not corresponding to the hole/perforation is more than its needs, and it is not considered an attachment/joining, since it is not needed for the jar. But Maimonides explained that more that is its need as for example that he made the closure most thick until one would be able to remove from it and it would remain closed, and even if everything is corresponding to the hole/perforation.

זפת שנטפה על החבית (pitch which dripped on the jar) – that is not perforated.

הנוגע בה – with the drop of pitch.

טהור – even though the jar is impure. For the pitch is not in a connection/attachment to the jar, since the jar does not require it.

שפקקן בזפת – he closed up the mouth of the hole/perforation of the funnel that is made to bring wine from it into the jar.

רבי אלעזר בן עזריה מטמא – because it (i.e., the pitch) is considered for it as a closure, whether of wood or whether of earthenware.

ר"ע מטמא בשל עץ – because the pitch is of its [same] species/kind, for the pitch comes out from the tree.

ומטהר בשל חרס – which is not its kind/species and is not considered an attachment. And the closing of the mouth of a funnel is not similar to the closing of the perforation of a jug which is considered an attachment, because the perforation in the mouth of the funnel that was made by the artisan from the outset was smooth and the pitch was peeled from it and does not endure, but the jug that was perforated after it was heated in a kiln, it is impossible to perforate to be smooth and even, and the pitch is not peeled from it, or alternatively, the perforation that is at the mouth of the funnel, its function is to remove its covering/closure when he wants to pour wine from the jug. Therefore, it is not considered a closing other than with a wooden funnel because it is its kind/species, but a jug that is perforated, its function is not to remove the closure.

רבי יוסי מטהר בשניהם – for the closing of the mouth of the funnel is not considered a closure, and it is as if it was not closed and lacks a receptacle. But the Halakha is according to Rabbi Akiva.