One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
כֵּלִים
Vessels 9-11
Sefer Taharah · Why a metal implement with a name of its own can be defiled while a door, a peg and a wall hook never can, how the same object changes status when the owner changes, and the ruling that a rusted sword is pure until somebody sharpens it again
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Handbreadths of a large bucket's chain that are susceptible with the bucket, the rest being pure for having no name of its own
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Handbreadths of a small bucket's chain that are susceptible, where four are enough for a large one
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Teeth that must remain in one place for a wool comb to keep its impurity, and not if one of the three is an outer tooth
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Separate grounds on which a pepper mill is susceptible: as a metal implement, as a receptacle and as a sieve
Ch 9The test is whether the thing has a name
- An independent name, or nothing. Every metal implement with a name of its own is susceptible, while a door, a bolt, a lock, a hinge and its socket, a beam and a drainpipe are not, even before they are installed, because they serve the earth or the wood; the scorpion of a muzzle is susceptible and the iron cheek plates are not until everything is joined to the reins and becomes one named object. (9:1, 9:2)
- Ornaments decided by name and by hollow. A detached ring shaped like a bowl below and a lentil above leaves the bowl susceptible for its receptacle and the lentil for its name while the wire is neither, a broken cluster ring is pure, a plain leg band is pure and a linked pair is an ornament and susceptible, and snapped necklace links are each a vessel while remnants count so long as they could circle a young girl's neck. (9:3, 9:4, 9:5)
- A lid is the thing on top of the thing. Metal covers of containers are all pure for want of a name, except the lid of a samovar and of a doctor's prescription box, which holds his bandages and is therefore a receptacle; scrape a lid down and polish it into a mirror and it becomes susceptible at once. (9:6, 9:7)
- Weights, broken and designated. Metal weights are susceptible, but once broken they are pure even if the pieces are fitted together and actually used to weigh, becoming susceptible again only when designated as half, third or quarter litra weights, and a coin withdrawn from currency is nothing until it is adjusted for weighing. (9:8, 9:9, 9:10)
- A hook follows its vessel and is nothing alone. Hooks of a chest and of a table are susceptible while those of a porter, a bed pole, a fisherman's snare and a wooden lamp are pure, chains of wholesalers that lock stores are susceptible and a private person's ornamental chain is pure, and the anvil, the builder's iron shaft, the leveling tool, the plumb weights, the scribe's blade, pen, stylus and ruler are all susceptible because each has a name. (9:11, 9:13, 9:16)
RememberA door and a drainpipe are pure before anyone installs them. What was made to serve something else never had a name to lose.
Ch 10The same metal, and what the work decides
- A peg holds, a hook works. Pegs made to be driven into wood or hung on a wall are pure, and so is a peg set as a marker at an entrance and the money changer's peg that carries his scale and his purse, but a hook made to open and lock a door, to lift a wick, or to be set into a mill is susceptible, and a hook for opening barrels is pure unless its point was sharpened. (10:1, 10:2)
- The needle and the sundial. A bloodletter's needle is susceptible and the pointer of a sundial is pure although both are slender metal with a point, and a weaver's long needle is susceptible because it carries the thread. (10:3, 10:4)
- Most of the wagon is scenery. The metal shaft, the yoke, the wings holding the straps, the rod beneath the animals' necks, the bell, the hook and the pegs binding the wagon together are susceptible, while a plated wooden shaft, decorative wings, a sounding reed, the lead plate at the throat, the wheel rim and every ornamental plate and coating are pure. (10:5)
- Two identical doors, two owners. A metal door in a householder's cabinet is not susceptible and the same door in a doctor's cabinet is, because bandages are kept there and scissors hang from it; plates on which a hot pot is set are susceptible and the same plates built into a range are pure; a metal bolt for double doors is susceptible and a wooden bolt coated with metal is pure. (10:8, 10:9, 10:11)
- The trumpet and the saw in the lintel. A dismantled trumpet is a vessel while its parts are joined only where a craftsman alone could reassemble it, and a saw whose teeth were forced into a slit in a lintel is not susceptible even though the household makes use of it, though a saw that was already impure when it was wedged there stays impure until it is fixed with a nail or turned over. (10:15, 10:17)
RememberTwo identical metal doors, one on a householder's cabinet and one on a doctor's. The bandages inside decide, and nothing else does.
Ch 11How broken a vessel must be to stop being one
- Capacity, not damage. A metal vessel stays a vessel, and a whole one, as long as it can be used in a way resembling its task, so a battered bucket that still draws and an urn that still heats water are unchanged, while a mustard strainer whose three holes were widened is pure and a builder's shovel stripped of its hollow is pure although it now looks like a hammer, since it can no longer lift and was never made to strike. (11:1, 11:2)
- Counting teeth. A wool comb keeps its impurity while three teeth remain in one place and loses it if one of the three is an outer tooth that cannot comb, a flax comb needs two, a saw needs a sit of teeth left in one place, and two removed teeth made into tweezers are susceptible on their own. (11:3, 11:4, 11:6)
- Split in two, and who still works. A barber's tongs split in two are pure and a blacksmith's are susceptible because each half can still stir coals, a shaver halved is pure, a bellows split lengthwise is pure and split across is judged by whether it still blows, and a sword, spear or scissors divided in two keep their impurity because each piece still does something like the original work. (11:8, 11:9, 11:11, 11:12)
- Two ends, and what is left of them. A mirror is pure only once it no longer shows most of a face, a needle without its eye or point is pure unless adapted for embroidery while a sackmaker's needle keeps its impurity because its other end serves as a stylus, and an implement with a cup at one end and a fork at the other, or a pen with a nib and an eraser, stays impure on the strength of whichever end survives. (11:13, 11:14, 11:19, 11:20)
- Rust, and what rust does not do. A rusted needle is pure only if the rust prevents sewing, a rusted sword or knife is pure, and when they are smoothed or sharpened they return to their initial impurity; a metal implement fixed to a beam or a wall remains susceptible until its function changes, which is why a baker's sheet nailed to a wall is still impure. (11:16, 11:17, 11:24)
RememberRust makes a sword pure and a sharpening stone makes it impure again. The blade was never cleaned, only briefly unable.