62. Utensils - Kelim
Only utensils of cloth, animal leather or bone, metal,
wood or earthenware (and rabbinically, glass) can become
impure, as it says "[Anything that they fall on...] any
wooden vessel or garment or skin or sack...; and if any
of them falls into any earthenware vessel...",1 and it
says "And every garment and every skin vessel and
anything made of goats and any wooden vessel you shall
purify... but the gold and the silver [the copper, the
iron, the tin and the lead (shall be purified)]".2 A
non-metal utensil other than a container can only become impure
rabbinically, except when it becomes impure by being sat on
or lain on; and an earthenware utensil that is not a
container cannot become impure at all, as it says "...into".1,a
A utensil can only become impure after its fabrication
is complete. A utensil part or a broken utensil that can
no longer be used for its purpose (for earthenware: that can
no longer be used as a container) cannot become impure; and
if an impure utensil is broken it becomes pure (but
rabbinically, if a metal vessel is later
repaired it becomes impure again).b
An earthenware utensil becomes impure only when a source
of impurity enters inside it even if it does not touch it,
as it says "...into"1; but all other types of utensils
become impure by touch even from the outside. Similarly,
an earthenware utensil makes food and drink that are inside
it impure even if they do not touch it, as it says "Everything that
is in it becomes impure"3; and all types of
utensils make food and drink impure by touch.c
Sources: |
| 1. Lev. 11:32-33 |
a. 1:1-2,5,8-10 |
| 2. Num. 31:20,22 |
b. 5:1; 6:1; 9:1; 12:1-2; 18:10 |
| 3. Lev. 11:35 |
c. 13:1-2,4 |
