One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
כֵּלִים
Vessels 3-5
Sefer Taharah · Why a wooden chest too settled to be carried can never be defiled, why the implement that serves only you is outside the system, and how early the work of making a vessel is finished
40
Se'ah of liquid measure, two kor dry, at which a wooden vessel of undefined use standing on a base leaves the system entirely
5
Wooden keilim that hold more than that and stay susceptible, because they were made from the start to be carried full
3
Categories of wooden implement that hold nothing, sorted entirely by whom they serve and when
2
Circles wound around the width, and a large wicker tray is already a vessel, walls unbuilt and dye not yet on
Ch 3Carried full or empty, or not a vessel at all
- The sack is the definition. Just as a sack is carried whether full or empty, a wooden k'li is susceptible only if it would be carried full or empty, so one made to stay in one place is pure however little it holds, and one made to be carried is susceptible even at 100 se'ah with a base. (3:1)
- Forty se'ah and a base ends it. Where the use is undefined, a vessel that rests on a base so it does not roll and holds 40 se'ah is not susceptible at all, since one may assume nobody means to move it, which covers a chest, a counter, a closet, a reed hive and a large ship's water reservoir. (3:1, 3:2)
- Five exceptions, and one of them is a coffin. A water barrel on a wagon, the food trolley of kings, a leather maker's trough, the water reservoir of a small ship and a coffin are susceptible past 40 se'ah, because from the beginning they were made to be carried while full. (3:2)
- Measured from the outside. One cubit by one cubit by three holds 40 se'ah, measured externally, so it is pure though the inner space is less, since wall thickness does not reduce it and legs and border are not counted, while a fixed drawer, an affixed domed cover and drawers opening inward are included and removable ones are not. (3:4, 3:5, 3:6)
- Tipped, or missing a leg, still pure. A chest short of 40 se'ah upright but capable of it leaned or propped is pure since it is ultimately capable, and one whose leg was removed stays pure though it still works as a container, while glass reverses the pattern: glass chests, counters and closets are pure and every other glass vessel is susceptible at any size. (3:3, 3:7, 3:8)
RememberThe immovable chest is not pure because it is clean. It is pure because the law assumes it was never going anywhere.
Ch 4Who serves whom, and for how long
- Serving a person alone disqualifies. A wooden implement made solely for human use, such as a ladder, is pure by Torah law and was never brought in by decree, while one that serves implements and a person, like a table, a counter top or a bed, is susceptible, since plates, cups and spreads are set upon them. (4:1)
- Serving implements is a question of timing. What serves an implement only while the work is done is wholly pure, like a wooden stand under a burning lamp or any mold, while what the implement still needs afterwards is susceptible, like a sheath for a sword or knife, a stylus case, a writing tablet case or a case for arrows. (4:1)
- Headboards and presses. A capped headboard with legs joined to the bed contracts impurity with it as one of its parts, while a footless one resting on two bedposts is pure like the hanging boards of the Levites, and a shoemaker's press is pure because its hollow is made to hold a stone. (4:2, 4:3)
- Ornament is not work. The coating of a bed and every ornamental covering of wood, bone, leather or metal is pure from the verse about vessels with which work is performed, and a wood or bone receptacle plated with metal is pure, since the plating renders it insignificant and is itself pure. (4:4)
- Wood serving metal is the test. A wooden key with even one metal tooth is susceptible and a metal key with wooden teeth is pure, a metal ring with a coral signet is susceptible and the reverse is not, a metal pomegranate set on a staff as a handle is pure while a cap set on to save the wood from the ground is susceptible, and spikes for a weapon are susceptible where the same spikes as decoration are not. (4:5, 4:6, 4:8, 4:9, 4:10)
RememberThe ladder that serves only you is pure, and the table that other things are set down on is susceptible. Carrying someone else's weight is what puts an object in the system.
Ch 5Finished, and therefore able to be ruined
- Nothing counts until the making is done. A bed and cradle when rubbed with fish skin, or at once if the maker chose not to rub them; baskets when the borders are sealed and protruding ends trimmed; a hanging basket when its loop is finished; a mat when its long leaves are trimmed. (5:1)
- Two circles, and it is already a vessel. A large wicker tray or a large basket becomes susceptible at two circles wound around the width, a sifter, sieve, weighing pan or narrow basket at one, though the walls are unfinished, because it is already fit for its purpose and has the form of that utensil, like a garment partly woven. (5:1)
- Shaped is finished, except boxwood. Unfinished wooden keilim are susceptible once hewn to shape even before dye, compass and plane, and boxwood alone waits for true completion, with bone apparently following it, while wood never formed into a k'li stays pure even while it is used as one. (5:1)
- Receiving, not merely gathering. A baker's tray is susceptible and a private person's only once dyed, a private water trough only once rimmed on four sides and pure again if one side breaks, a shovel gathering waste from the vat is susceptible and one gathering grain into a heap is pure, for a vessel made as a receptacle is susceptible and one made to gather things together is pure. (5:1)
- Assistance at the time of work. All loops are pure except those of a flour maker's sifter, a granary sieve, a handheld sickle and an inspector's staff, and singers' lyres are susceptible where the Levites' Temple lyres were pure, a mole trap susceptible and a mouse trap pure, a fig basket susceptible and a silo weave pure, and a ram's horn is not susceptible until it is cut to serve as a useful k'li. (5:2, 5:3, 5:4, 5:5, 5:8)
RememberThe horn in the field cannot be defiled and cannot be sounded. Susceptibility is the price of being usable at all.