One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת כֵּלִים
Vessels · Chapters 21-23
Sefer Taharah · Where a vessel stops being itself • How much cloth makes a garment • What is fit to be lain upon
6
Fingerbreadths of loose
thread still part of a sheet
50
Cubits of cord on a
large builder's plumb line
6×6
Handbreadths: the measure
for a woven mat
1
Strand pulled out, and the
whole garment drops a level
Ch 21How far out does the vessel reach
- Loose threads have a measure. The strands at the edge of a weave, the nimin, count as part of the fabric for six fingerbreadths on a sheet, a head covering, a scarf or a veil; ten on a cloak that opens its full length and closes with loops; three on a thick blanket, a mantle or a cloak. Touch a strand past the measure and you stay pure, and impurity landing out there does not reach the garment. (21:1)
- Plumb lines: twelve, eighteen, fifty. An ordinary plumb line carries twelve handbreadths of cord, a carpenter's eighteen, and the line used by builders of large structures fifty cubits. Past those measures a person who touches the cord is pure, and the Rambam adds that this holds even if the owner desires that it be preserved. The plumb lines of roofers and of artists are impure at any length, since the whole length is in use. (21:3-4)
- Every trade gets its own scale. A goldsmith, an ordinary balance, or a weigher of precious purple holds the scale suspended from his hand, so the chain is three fingerbreadths and the beam and strings have no set length. Scrap metal dealers, three handbreadths of chain and twelve of beam and strings. Merchants and householders, one and six. Wool merchants and glass weighers, two and nine. Anything beyond is not joined. (21:5)
- Cords are measured by necessity, not by attachment. A bed cord is joined once three squares are tied; three fingerbreadths outside the knot are part of the bed and no more, since cutting past that would not undo the knot. A cord running off an impure bed is pure for four handbreadths (useless length), impure from the fifth through the tenth (the length used to hang beds on a wall), and pure beyond ten. A mizran gets ten handbreadths, and a worn out one stays susceptible while seven handbreadths remain, enough for a donkey's girdle. (21:6-8)
RememberTen handbreadths is the limit for midras only. For corpse impurity, a crawling carcass or impure liquids, even 100 cubits of wound mizran is attached, and the bed contracts impurity from that far away.
Ch 22How much cloth makes a garment
- Two measures, two impurities. Exactly three fingerbreadths by three, counting the hanging strands, for corpse impurity and other kinds; three handbreadths by three for midras, the impurity of a support for a zav. That is for wool or flax. Other fabrics need the full handbreadths for any impurity, learned from the inclusive "or a garment" in Leviticus 11:32. Felt and thick blankets, and the Egyptian linens through which flesh can be seen, also need the full handbreadths. (22:1-2)
- Torn scraps need size; made things do not. All those measures govern pieces torn from something larger. Weave a garment on purpose and it is susceptible to every impurity at any size, excepting midras, to which only articles fit to be lain upon are susceptible. Needle work such as pockets and leggings is susceptible only once finished, and a trap once the receptacle that does the job is complete. (22:1, 22:12-13)
- Purpose decides, not fabric. A worn wine filter stays susceptible as long as it can still filter, and is pure when it cannot. A scroll cover with designs worked into it is never susceptible, since it serves the scroll and not a person; strip the designs and it takes every impurity but midras, because a man sitting on it would be told "stand up and let us do our work." A porter's shoulder cushion does take midras; a wine filter does not. (22:5-7)
- Throwing out and taking back. A small cloth prepared to plug a bathhouse, hold a hot pot or clean a mill is finished once cast on the dung heap; hung on a hook or set behind the door it is still as if among his clothes. Out it is pure, retrieved it is susceptible, in a cycle. Remnants of purple fabric and fine red silk stay susceptible even on the dung heap, being valuable. A three handbreadth rag on a dung heap must hold a quarter kab of coarse salt without tearing. (22:22-23, 22:26)
RememberUnder three fingerbreadths by three nothing is ever susceptible, even when prepared for use. Below that measure intention cannot make a thing out of it.
Ch 23What it takes to be worth lying on
- The mat that was not on the list. A mapatz, woven of cords, reeds or grasses, is not among the vessels the Torah names, and takes midras by Scriptural law anyway, since Leviticus 15:4 says "all surfaces on which one lies" and a mat is made to lie on. It takes corpse impurity and the rest by Rabbinic law, like flat wooden vessels. Great general principle: whatever is susceptible to midras is susceptible to every other impurity. (23:1)
- A ladder of measures by material. Cloth, three handbreadths by three. Goats' hair, four by four. Leather, five by five. A mat, six by six. The same measures for midras and for every other impurity, and anything smaller is pure on all accounts. The coarser the material, the more of it a person needs before he would rest on it. (23:2-3)
- Completing the measure runs one way only. Join three handbreadths of goats' hair to one of cloth and it is susceptible; four of leather to one of goats' hair, susceptible; five of mat to one of leather, susceptible. Join two handbreadths of cloth to one of goats' hair and it is pure. The principle: complete the minimum measure with a more stringent substance and it is susceptible, with a less stringent one it is pure. (23:4)
- Cut on purpose and the measure collapses. Those measures are for fabric torn unintentionally. Cut a piece deliberately and one handbreadth by one is enough for a seat, three handbreadths by three for a surface to lie on, in cloth, goats' hair, leather or mat alike. A scrap set aside to hold in the hand, as fig harvesters do so their fingers are not damaged, is susceptible at any size down to three fingerbreadths. (23:3)
RememberWeave exactly three handbreadths, let it catch midras, finish the garment and the whole garment carries it. Pull one strand out of the original square and the finished garment drops a level; in the fingerbreadth case it comes out pure.