Keilim 10:1 - 10:2

אלו כלים. כלי גללים – of the dung of cattle.

כלי אבנים וכלי אדמה – for all of these they lack defilement whether from the words of the Torah or from the words of the Scribes/סופרים, and therefore they protect/save [from defilement in the airspace of a tent with a corpse] with an airtight lid. But even though that every open vessel (see Numbers 19:15), Scripture is speaking of an earthenware vessel, in a vessel that the defilement precedes its opening that is an earthenware vessel that becomes defiled from its airspace, nevertheless, we include the rest of the utensils that protect/save, as it is written (Numbers 19:15): "וכל כלי פתוח"/”And every open vessel, [with no lid fastened down, shall be impure].”

ועצמות הדג – if he made a vessel/utensil from the bones of creatures that are in the sea, they save/protect. Since they are not susceptible to receive defilement, as it is taught in the Mishnah of [Tractate Kelim] Chapter 17 [Mishnah 13]: “Everything that is in the sea is pure”/כל שבים טהור. And vessels [made] from the bones of fowl are pure, as it is written (Numbers 31:20): “[You shall also purify every cloth, every article of skin,] everything made of goats’ hair/וכל מעשה עזים, [and every object of wood],” excluding fowl.

כלי עץ הטהורים – as for example large vessels that come in a measure that contains forty Seah in liquid measure which is equal to two KOR in dry measure (see Tractate Kelim, Chapter 15, Mishnah 1), that are not susceptible to receive defilement, for we require something similar to a sackcloth that can be carried full and/or empty, and since they are so large, they are not carried full, and they protect/save with an airtight lid.

מפיהן – that the airtight lid is in their mouth/at their opening.

מצדיהן – if they were perforated at their sides and were surrounded with an airtight lid.

ר' אליעזר מטמא – for he holds that something that is turned upside down does not save/protect, and even it was smoothed into an even pile below the ground, as it states (Numbers 19:15): “[with no] lid fastened down,” and with no airtight lid on top of it. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.

על הכל מצילין – all of these utensils that are taught in our Mishnah, they save/protect on everything that is within them, whether there were in them vessels only requiring rinsing in order to be restored to Levitical cleanness or whether earthenware vessels or whether clothes or whether foods or liquids.

חוץ מכלי חרס – that they don’t protect/save other than on foods and liquids and earthenware vessels that are within them, things that have no purification in a Mikveh/ritual bath, and not on metal utensils and clothing, which have purification in a Mikveh. And the reason I explained in the chapter above (see Tractate Kelim, Chapter 9, Mishnah 2). But this Mishnah is after the School of Hillel retracted to teach according to the words of the School of Shammai.

במה מקיפים – with what do they stop up the mouth of a vessel or seal up the covering upon the mouth of the vessel that it be considered an airtight lid?

גפסים (gypsum) – is a kind of plaster/lime, but it is more white than plaster and is burned in an oven like the plaster.

חרסית (potter’s clay/clay-ground) – the crushing/pounding of potter’s clay and they knead it in water.

בעץ (tin) – it is making a separation/partition, that which separates. We translate it in Aramaic as that which is tin. And the Aramaic translation in the Jerusalem Talmud is בעצא – tin.

שהוא פתיל ואינו צמיד (because it is a covering [i.e., the neck of the vessel] but it is not airtight [i.e., the lid]) – meaning to say that it is a covering, but it is not attached and glued well to the mouth of the vessel.

לא בדבילה שמינה ולא בבצק שנלוש במי פירות – even though they protect/save for they were not susceptible to receive defilement, nevertheless they don’t stop them up with them, as a decree lest they become susceptible that liquids fall upon them that make them susceptible , for nothing that is impure can protect/save.

ואם הקיף – and water does not come upon them or one of the liquids that make them susceptible [for Levitical uncleanness], they save/protect.