Keilim 2:3 - 2:4

הטהורים שבכלי חרס – flat earthenware vessels (without a receptacle) which are pure, as it is written concerning them (Leviticus 11:33): “And if any of those (i.e., an article of wood, or a cloth, or a skin, or a sack – see previous verse) falls into [an earthen vessel, everything inside it shall be impure and -the vessel – itself you shall break],” that which has an inside is impure; that which lacks an inside is pure.

טבלא שאין לו לזבז (a tray without a rim/edge) – a smooth board that lacks a rim around it.

ומחתה (a coal-pan) – that they take coals out with a pan.

פרוצה (the rims of are broken off) – that it does not have sides/walls.

אבוב של קלאים (an iron tube for roasting grain) – earthenware vessel that they roast pulse/peas over a fire. And it is flat/plain without a receptacle and is perforated like a basket used as a sieve on its rims in order that the heat [of the fire] can have power over it.

[The word] קלאים/parched ears is parched by fire.

סילונות – tubes/spouts.

אף על פי כפופין – even though they are bent from their two sides. And this is which they did not shape a receptacle surrounding them.

כבכב (an arched round vessel) – a vessel in which they cover bread baskets (but not as a receptacle). And there are those who have the reading of כפכף – that they cover it on top of the basket. But even if it has a receptacle, it is [ritually] pure for all who use something bent with an earthenware vessel is [ritually] pure.

והטפי (vessel with a narrow neck – made with intention of using it for grapes) – it is an earthenware vessel that has a receptacle and is susceptible to receive defilement, and this is proven further on in the other chapter (Tractate Kelim, Chapter 3, Mishnah 2). But this is [ritually] pure here, because they (i.e., the Rabbis) prepared it as a cover for grapes and they made a change in it, which proves that they require it for covering graves and it was not made for reception.

חבית של שייטין (swimmers’ bottle used for practicing) – like a hallowed out jug, and it is closed and doesn’t have a mouth (i.e., opening), in order that It would not sink in the water. And they lean upon it and learn to swim by it. But it even though it has a receptacle, it is not designed for receiving anything And anything which is not made for receiving anything even though it has a receptacle is not susceptible to receiving defilement.

וחבית דפונה בשולי המחץ (an attachment in the shape of a jar fitted into the projecting rims of a vessel – to serve as a handle) – a ladle for filling vessels out of the well or wine or oil-pit which is a large earthenware vessel and it is a kind of jar made at its rim that a person can place his hand into it when he wants to lift the ladle, and because of this, the jar was not made for reception, and is not susceptible to receive defilement.

דפונה – fitted into.

המטה והכסא והספסל – all of these are not designed for reception.

והספינה – and even though it was made for reception and even though it is earthenware, it is pure. And in the Tractate Shabbat 9b, we derive it, as it is written (Proverbs 30:19): “[How an eagle makes its way over the sky; How a snake makes its way over a rock;] How a ship makes its way through the high seas; [How a man has his way with a maiden],” and it is obvious that a ship is on the high seas, but rather to inform you that just as the high seas are [ritually] pure, so also the ship is [ritually] pure.

כל שאין לו תוך בכלי חרס אין לו אחוריים – And the Sages decreed on [ritually] impure liquids that defile vessels, and even though the liquids were not defiled other than on account of an unclean reptile, for now they are first-degree of ritual impurity, they defile vessels/utensils from the words of the Scribes, and if they came in contact with/touched the back of the vessel, its outside is defiled, but the inside is not defiled. But now we hold that the defilement of the outside does not take effect other than with an earthenware vessel that has an inside. But all that lacks an inside, there is no defilement of the outside, שsand if impure liquids came in contact with it from the outside, they did not defile the outside of the vessel.

פנס – a kind of earthenware lantern that is perforated in its walls/sides that from them the light goes out, and we place the candle inside it so that wind does not extinguish it.

שאין בו – a receptacle for oil. Even though it has a receptacle for a candle.

טהור – for a receptacle for a lantern has no inside other than the candle/lantern that is laid upon it.

מגופת היוצרים (potter’s mould) – it is similar to stones of earthenware that the potters make the vessels upon them.

את שהוא פוחת בה (begins to shape the clay) – meaning to say, the mould that the potter casts upon it the plaster and engraves upon it with his hands the form of the vessel.

טהורה – because it lacks a rim/border around it and there is no inside here.

ושהוא גומר בה – and the stopper that he places upon the vessel after its form has been completed has an “inside,” and therefore, it is impure. But my Rabbis/teachers explained, that that there is a vessel/utensil for potters that is called a מגופה/stopper or bung and some of them have narrow openings and some have wide openings; that which he opens it by, meaning to say, that he will eventually widen its opening, is pure, that its work has not yet been completed, and it is like the lump/shapeless earthenware vessel. But when he completes it, that he places as such at the narrow opening, it is impure. But our Mishnah is according to Rabbi Meir who stated (Tractate Betza 32a and Tosefta Kelim Bava Kamma, Chapter 3, Halakha 13) : When do earthenware vessels become susceptible to receiving impurity? From the time when their manufacture is complete.” But not according to the Rabbis who state (Tractate Kelim, Chapter 4, Mishnah 4): “from when they are fired in the furnace.” And the first explanation appears to me to be essential.

משפך – a vessel/utensil that we place on the mouth of a jug or on the mouth of a leather bottle/skin when we want to fill it with wine or oil.

ושל רוכלין – which is small and made to bring in oil to small flasks. And it holds a LOG or two LOGS and the peddler places his finger from underneath it corresponding to the hole/perforation and measures with it the oil, and removes his finger and the oil descends to the vessels of the purchaser. And it is made for reception and is susceptible to receive impurity.

רבי עקיבא אומר מפני שמטהו על צדו – that is to say even if it is not of a measure, the funnel of a peddler always is defiled because he turns it on its side to receive in it a bit in order that the purchase can smell from it m and it is found that it is made to [be susceptible to] receive defilement. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Akiva.