One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הלכות כלים
Kelim 18-20 · Vessels, chapters 18 to 20
Sefer Taharah · What makes earthenware a vessel, what size of hole ends it, and what counts as part of it.
0
Moments of purity a vessel may survive
5
Graded stages of a dying earthenware k'li
1 revi'it
Shard of a mid-size vessel still susceptible
1 tefach
Oven coating that counts as the oven itself
Ch 18What counts as a vessel at all
- Receptacle plus intent. Earthenware is susceptible only if it has a receptacle AND was made to serve as one. A clay chair, bed, bench, table or candelabra is pure, by Torah law and by decree (18:1)
- A pipe is a passage. A large clay pipe is pure even when curved and even while standing full of water, since it was made for water to pass through. A swimmer's barrel and the cask serving as a carrying handle are likewise pure (18:1)
- Two identical funnels. A homeowner's funnel is pure; a perfumer's funnel is susceptible, because he tilts it so customers can smell the contents. A lantern with an oil receptacle is susceptible, without one it is pure (18:2-3)
- Upside down equals pure. Jug and barrel covers are pure; a frying-pan cover with a hole or knob on top is pure, without one it is susceptible, since a woman drains sauce with it. General rule: whatever serves a container while inverted is pure (18:4-5)
- Tiny catchers are vessels. A perforated titrus, the dish under a lamp catching oil drops, and the base under a jug catching seepage are all susceptible. An earthenware boat is not, since a boat is not among the Torah's keilim (18:6-9)
- Shards, by size. Only earthenware shards stay susceptible, from "any earthenware container" (Lev. 11:33). It must hold liquid resting on its base, not leaning. Mid-size vessel: a revi'it. Barrel of 1-2 se'ah: half a log. Larger: a log (18:10-14)
- Cruse bottoms only. From a small broken cruse, a base shard holding the slightest drop is susceptible; a wall shard is not, because those walls are fundamentally flat, like flat earthenware (18:15)
- Where shards are found. Shards found anywhere are presumed pure, except in a potter's workshop, since most there serve as bases for containers, and a base is susceptible even when broken (18:16)
RememberCapacity decides nothing. A pipe holding gallons is pure; a saucer meant for three drops of oil is a vessel.
Ch 19The hole that ends it, measured
- Measured against purpose. Food container: a hole an olive falls through. Liquid container: a hole liquid seeps in through. Made for both: judged strictly, so olives. "Liquid seeping out" applies only to a base for containers (19:1)
- Five graded deaths. Liquid seeps out, then seeps in, then a small root emerges, then olives fall through. At each stage it loses one function and keeps another, down to sealing out corpse impurity unless its larger part breaks (19:2)
- Vessel-specific measures. A barrel: a hole nuts fall through. A pot or frying pan: olives. A cruse: oil seeps through. A pitcher: water seeps in. A 40-se'ah kneading trough is pure once olives fall through, even though people knead in it tipped on its side (19:3-4)
- Handles and bases. Remove even one barrel handle, or crack it below the handles, and it ranks only as a base under containers. A base cracked so liquid leaks is pure, even if food still sits in it, since a base is never set under another base (19:7, 19:9)
- Remnants of remnants. A base that itself breaks in two is pure. Only remnants of actual containers stay susceptible, not remnants of remnants (19:9)
- Never interrupted. A cracked barrel smeared with animal turds stays susceptible, since its status was never nullified. Shards that fell apart first and were then stuck together are pure forever, even if they now stand on their own (19:13)
- One moment is final. Once earthenware has been pure for a single moment it is never susceptible again. A shard perforated after separating from the vessel stays pure even once tar makes it hold a revi'it again (19:14, 18:11)
- Tar has limits. A perforated kettle patched with tar is pure, since it cannot hold hot liquid as it holds cold. Vessels made of tar or beeswax are not keilim. Tar makes a wooden funnel a container, never an earthenware one (19:15-16)
RememberTwo barrels can look identical and only one is counted. The question is not what it holds today but whether it ever stopped.
Ch 20What belongs to the vessel
- Need is the test. Whatever an implement requires while in use is an integral part of it. Coating on a sound, strong earthenware vessel is not part of it; coating on an unsound one is, as is leather reinforcing a weak drawing-jug (20:1)
- Plugs and purposes. Coating applied in order to cook is not joined; coating applied to heat tar is. A hole plugged with tar, tin, sulfur, lime or gypsum is not joined; plugged with other substances it is (20:2-3)
- One handbreadth of oven. An oven's coating is the oven itself up to a tefach thick; beyond a tefach it is unnecessary and what touches it stays pure. A range needs three fingerbreadths. Surplus tar in a hole, and tar that merely dripped, belong to nothing (20:4-5)
- Mortar yes, ground shards no. On a samovar coated with both, touching the mortar conveys impurity and touching the ground shards does not, because ground shards never truly bond to the vessel (20:6)
- Sewn, not tied. Straps on book covers, hoes, sacks and bushels count as attached when sewn, not when merely tied. Straps on the handles of an earthenware vessel never count, sewn or not, since nothing can be attached to earthenware (20:10)
- Handle measures. Hatchet head: three fingerbreadths of shaft, one tefach of grip. Remnant handles: compass and jeweler's hammer 1, goldsmith's 2, carpenter's 3, irrigation hatchet 4, pruning hatchet 5, hammer 6, ladle 8, lime trowel 10 tefachim (20:11-12)
- Joined while working. A borrowed staff wedged into a hatchet head, and the diyustar pegged together to set up a loom, count as attached only while the work is being done (20:13)
- Threads and ropes. A thread unraveled from a garment is attached for 100 cubits; a rope on an earthenware vessel likewise, but only up to a knot tying on a second rope. Thread in a needle is not joined; sewn into a garment, only the length needed is (20:17)
RememberService is not membership. The plaster is the oven for exactly one handbreadth, with no visible seam where it stops.