One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
טֻמְאַת אֳכָלִין · כֵּלִים
Defilement of Foods 16, Vessels 1-2
Sefer Taharah · The presumptions of the marketplace and the ruling that ordinary food may be eaten in impurity, the seven materials that can be defiled and the clay that never can, and why a hollow made to be filled is no receptacle at all
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Things the Torah's laws of purity actually govern: the Sanctuary, its sacrifices, terumah and the second tithe
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Materials whose implements are susceptible by Torah law: garments, sackcloth, leather, bone, metal, wood and earthenware
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Se'ah that a metal chest may hold and still be susceptible, since metal is defiled flat or hollow and at any size
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Drop is all a hollow straw needs to hold to be susceptible, because a receptacle has no minimum measure
Ch 16The market's presumptions, and the permission at the end
- Presumed wet, presumed impure. Bundles of vegetables and the flour and fine flour of the marketplace are presumed susceptible, since vegetables are sprinkled and kernels are washed before grinding, and whatever is presumed susceptible is presumed impure because everyone touches it, yet an unlearned person is believed when he says the produce was never made susceptible. (16:1, 16:2)
- Fish are the exception. Fish and fish brine are always presumed susceptible and impure, and an unlearned person is not believed when he says he did not turn the snare over them, while the slightest water falling into pure brine turns the whole mixture into a liquid. (16:3, 16:4)
- A mikveh remedy that works only at the table. Brine bought from an unlearned person is purified by connecting it to mikveh water when it will be used to dip bread, but if it is cooked in a pot with water, one type finds its fellow and the unpurified water becomes significant and impure. (16:5)
- Ordinary food may be eaten impure. All the Torah's laws of purity concern only the Sanctuary, sacrifices, terumah and the second tithe, so ordinary food and drink may be consumed in impurity, made impure even in Eretz Yisrael, and every source of impurity may be touched, apart from a corpse for a kohen or a nazirite. (16:8, 16:9)
- The festivals, and the perushim. Every Israelite is warned to be pure on each pilgrimage festival, and the pious of early generations ate even ordinary food in purity, a path in which separation brings purity of body, purity of body brings holiness of soul, and holiness of soul brings a person to resemble the Divine Presence. (16:10, 16:12)
RememberPurity is a readiness to approach. When nobody is going up to the Sanctuary, impurity is only a fact, and the perushim simply lived as if they were always about to go.
Ch 1Which materials can be defiled, and which never can
- Seven materials, and nothing from the sea. Garments, sackcloth, leather, bone, metal, wood and earthenware are susceptible by Torah law, bone implements of fowl are pure apart from an osprey's wing and a coated ostrich egg, and everything from the sea is pure, even a garment woven from sea wool, unless joined to land fabric so that they count as one. (1:1, 1:2, 1:3)
- Glass is defiled only by touch. Glass is pure by Torah law and was decreed susceptible because it begins as sand like earthenware, but since its inside is seen like its outside it is not defiled through its inner space, flat glass was left out of the decree, and terumah that touched it is held in abeyance rather than burnt. (1:5)
- Dung, stone and earth never. Implements made of animal dung, stone or earth are pure by Torah and Rabbinic law, flat or hollow, while an impure basket swallowed and passed by an elephant remains impure. (1:6, 1:7)
- No inside, no impurity. Flat earthenware such as a lamp, a chair or a table is not susceptible to any impurity at all, since the verse speaks of a vessel into whose inner space something falls, while metal is susceptible whether flat or a container, even a chest holding 40 se'ah. (1:8, 1:9)
- Wood, leather and bone follow the sack. Their containers are susceptible by Torah law and their flat implements only by Rabbinic law, except that anything made to lie or ride upon contracts the impurity of a zav by Torah law. (1:10)
RememberClay is defiled through its hollow and glass only by contact. What hides its inside can be reached from the inside.
Ch 2What counts as a receptacle
- No minimum size, but it must last. A receptacle of raw hide, paper or a nutshell is susceptible even if children hollowed it out, since the deeds of a child are significant though his intent is not, but a hollowed dried turnip, etrog or squash is pure because it cannot last. (2:1)
- Only the receptacle is Scriptural. A scale rod, a peddler's pole or a staff with a small hollow is susceptible by Torah law, but only in the receptacle and the part that serves it, the rest being susceptible only by Rabbinic law. (2:2)
- Made to be filled is not a receptacle. A hollowed block holding a blacksmith's anvil is pure because the hollow was made to be filled, while a jeweler's block is susceptible because he lifts the iron to collect the gold and silver filings beneath it. (2:3)
- The straw and the mezuzah. A straw that received the mezuzah before it was placed in the wall is susceptible even pointing down, while a straw placed in the wall first is susceptible only pointing up, and pure in any direction once it was affixed to the wall. (2:5)
- The pocket left by a pearl. A cup carved beneath the legs of a bed is pure because it only supports, but a hollow left in hide after a pearl was bundled in it is susceptible until smoothed out, while hide that held coins is not. (2:4, 2:8)
RememberThe blacksmith's hollow and the jeweler's hollow are identical. One is lifted to see what gathered underneath, and only that one is a vessel.