Keilim - Chapter 15

An earthenware container does not become susceptible to ritual impurity until the tasks necessary to finish it are completed.

When are the tasks necessary to finish it completed? When they are fired in a kiln. An oven: When it is heated to bake donuts. A range with two openings: When it is heated so that a stirred egg can be baked over it in a frying pan. A range with one opening: If it was made for baking, the measure is the same as that of an oven. If it was made for cooking, the measure is the same as that of a range.

When one has begun building an oven, if it is large, once one has begun building it for four handbreadths and heats it, it is susceptible to impurity. If it is small, once one has begun building it a for a handbreadth and heats it, it becomes susceptible to impurity. A range with two openings, becomes susceptible to impurity, once one has begun building it for three fingerbreadths and heats it. With regard to a range with one opening: If it was made for baking, the measure is the same as that of an oven. If it was made for cooking, the measure is the same as that of a range.

When an oven was heated from behind, heated in the shop of the craftsman, or heated unintentionally, since it was nevertheless heated, it is susceptible to impurity. An incident occurred when a fire broke out in an oven in a village. The incident was brought before the court for a ruling and it determined that it is susceptible to impurity.

When an oven was heated to roast food in it, it is susceptible to impurity. When it was heated to whiten bundles of flax, it is pure, because he is not doing work that affects the substance of the oven.

When an oven was divided into half and one of its portions was heated and then contracted impurity from liquids, that portion is impure, but the other portion remains pure. If it contracted impurity from the carcass of a crawling animal or other similar impurities of Scriptural origin, everything is impure. The thickness of the partition separating them is impure.

If they were both heated and only one portion contracted impurity from liquids in its inner space, we divide the thickness of the partition. That which is used by the impure portion is impure; that which is used by the pure portion is pure.

When does the above apply? When it was divided and then heated. If, however, it was heated and then divided, if only one of them became impure, even only due to liquids, everything contracts impurity.

An oven or a range made from stone is always pure. A metal one is pure with regard to the laws of an oven or a range. This is derived from Leviticus 11:35 which states that an impure oven "must be smashed," i.e., these laws apply to an entity that can be smashed. A metal oven or range, is, however, susceptible to the impurity of a metal k'li.

What is implied? Such ovens and ranges do not contract impurity due to the presence of a source of impurity within their inner space, nor do they contract impurity when attached to the ground as an earthenware oven or a range does. And if a source of impurity touches them even from the outside, they contract impurity like all metal keilim. If they contract impurity from a human corpse, they become a primary source of impurity and they can regain purity after contracting other types of impurity through immersion in a mikveh.

When a metal oven was perforated, blemished, or cracked and one patched it with clay or one made it a coating or an upper surface of clay, it contracts impurity as an earthenware oven does.

How large must the hole be for the above law to apply? Large enough for fire to emerge through it.

Similar concepts apply with regard to a metal range. If pot-rests of clay are made for it, it contracts impurity as an earthenware range does. If one smears clay on a metal range, whether inside or outside, it is still not susceptible to impurity.

Although an earthenware oven is not fixed to the ground - even if it is hanging from the neck of a camel - it is susceptible to ritual impurity as an earthenware oven is, as implied by ibid.: "They are impure," i.e., in any place they are located.

A furnace used by smelters of metal that has a place where a pot can be placed contracts impurity as a range does. Similarly, if a range used by glassmakers has a place where a pot can be placed, it contracts impurity as a range does.

A furnace used to produce lime, glass, or pottery, is pure. An oven with an opening at its side, if it has a border at its side, it is susceptible to impurity.

The following laws apply when stones were joined to each other and formed into an oven. If one made a coating for it on the inside and on the outside, it is considered as an oven in all contexts and contracts impurity from the presence of a source of impurity within its inner space. If it was coated from the outside alone, it contracts impurity from contact with a source of impurity, but not from the presence of a source of impurity within its inner space.

If stones were connected to an oven, but were not connected to each other, they contract impurity together with the oven. If they were connected with each other, but were not connected to the oven, they are like a tira. If one dug in the earth and fashioned a tira of earth, it is pure. A tira of a range is pure.

When two barrels and two frying pans are combined to make a range, they contract impurity from the presence of a source of impurity within its inner space and from contact with a source of impurity. The inner space of the barrels is pure. The thickness of the walls of the barrels is divided: That which serves the range is susceptible to impurity; that which serves the inside of the barrels is pure.

When a person affixes the three earthenware stands of a trivet in the earth and connects them with clay so that he can place a pot on them, they are susceptible to impurity like a range. If he affixed three pegs in the earth so that he can place a pot on them, even though he used clay to make a place on which the pot would sit, they are pure, like a metal range. Similarly, stones that were not coated with clay on which one places a pot are not susceptible to impurity. It is like they are a stone range.

When a person makes two stones into a range and connects them with clay, they are susceptible to impurity. If he connected one with clay but he did not connect the other with clay, it does not contract impurity.

When a person rests a pot on a stone and on an oven, on it and on a range with an opening for one pot, or it and on a range with an opening for two pots, it is susceptible to impurity. ...On it and on a wall or on it and on a rock, it is not susceptible to impurity.

With regard to a range made by a cook - in which instance, one stone is placed at the side of another stone, and then another is placed at its side in a continuous chain and they are all connected with clay: If one of them contacts impurity, they all do not contract impurity.

The following rules apply when there are three stones that were connected with clay and were made into two ranges, whether they were connected to each other and not connected to the ground or connected to the ground and not connected to each other. If one of the two ranges contracts impurity, the portion of the middle stone which serves the impure range contracts impurity. The portion which serves the pure range, [by contrast, remains] pure. If one removed the outer stone of the pure range, the middle stone has been definitively classified and is impure in its entirety. If the outer stone of the impure range is removed, the middle stone is purified in its entirety.

The following rules apply if both ranges contracted impurity. If the middle stone is large, one allocates a portion large enough for a pot to be placed down on it on one side for one range and a portion large enough for a pot to be placed down on it on the other side for the other range, but the remainder of the stone is pure. If it was small, everything contracts impurity.

If the middle stone was removed, different laws apply: If a large pot can be placed down on the two outer ones, the range is impure. If they are further apart, the range is pure. If one returned the middle stone, everything is pure as it was. If one coated it with clay, it is susceptible to ritual impurity in the future, provided one heats each of them sufficiently to cook an egg.

When two stones were made into a range and contracted impurity, but afterwards one added one stone to the stone on one side and another stone to the stone on the other side, half of each of the two stones from the first range is impure and half is pure. If the two pure stones that were added were later removed, the two stones of the first range return to their initial impurity.

An earthenware heating counter that has receptacles in which a mixture of ash and coals were placed and which were used for pots is pure with regard to the laws pertaining to a range, but it is susceptible to impurity as a k'li with a receptacle. Therefore, if it was attached to the ground, it is pure as are other keilim. And if it has a hole, it is not susceptible to impurity like other keilim. These laws do not apply to a range.

An entity that touches the sides of the counter does not contract impurity like one which touches a range. Its wide portion where one can sit while the food is cooking contracts impurity if the counter contracts impurity.

Similarly, if one turned over a basket and built a range on top of it, it contracts impurity according to the laws pertaining to a wooden k'li and not according to those applying to a range. Therefore, it does not contract impurity from the presence of a source of impurity in its inner space as a range does.