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Multi-use Kelei Cheres

Keilim (3:1) | Yisrael Bankier | 8 hours ago

The first ten perakim of Keilim ("Bava Kama") discuss the laws of klei cheres -- earthenware utensils. The discussion includes when they are susceptible to tumah, how tumah is transferred to and from them, and how the keilim become tahor. For earthenware utensils, they can only be come tahor if they are effectively broken.

The Mishnah (3:1) teaches that if the kli has a hole in it, then if they are made to contain food, the size of the hole to make it tahor is a kezayit. If however, it was designed to contain liquids, then the hole would need to be the size that would prevent its use for that purpose. This is referred to as being kekones mashke, large enough that water could seep into the kli. This size is of course much smaller than a kezayit.

The Mishnah then continues that if the utensil was designed for both solids and liquids then we rule stringently that the hole would need to be the size of a kezayit for the kli to then become tahor.

The Bartenura explains that the last case in the Mishnah is referring to a pot that is used to cook meat. It follows that both solids and liquids are being used at the same time.

The next Mishnah discusses the cooking pot directly. The Tosfot Yom Tov there explains that the shiur (measure) being a kezayit is rabbinic. He cites the Tosfot (Zevachim 94b, s.v. lo) who explains that for this kli it would sufficient if it was kekones mashke, since it can no longer function its normal way. The gezeira requiring the larger size was so as not confuse this kli with a kli that was only use for solid that does require the larger size. In other words, if we allowed the small size for this cooking pot, people might wrongly assume that the small size is sufficient for a kli that is used exclusively for solids.

The Chazon Ish (Keilim 11:40) however cites the Tosfot (Shabbat 96a) who explains that the larger size is really the required size -- this kli contains food. In other cases where this kli required the smaller shiur, that is a gezeira so as not to confuse this kli with a kli that is used solely for liquids. It is a stringency in those cases about which we will learn in the later Mishnayomt.

The Mishnah Achrona however explains that all the above discussion relates to the next Mishnah that discusses the cooking pot directly, that is used for both solids and liquids at the same time. If our Mishnah was also referring to that case, why would it be necessary to repeat it in the next Mishanh? The Mishanh Achrona therefore suggests that our Mishnah is referring to a kli that is used for solids or liquids. Either of them, but not at the same time. That being the case, since it is used for solids alone, it is clear that the shiur of the hole must be a kezayit.

One might ask, why then does the Mishnah teach that we rule "stringently"¹ that the size is a kezayit? The Mishnah Achrona explains that the Mishnah is simply following the same language that is uses in the later Mishnah (8:2) where it uses the language that "we rule stringently" there regarding this kli that the shiur is kekones mashke in that case.²

Yisrael Bankier

¹ Note that not all Mishnahyot have the word "stringently".

² The Mishnah Achrona (Zevachim 95a) cites the Tosfot that indeed explains our Mishnah in this way. Nevertheless, he notes that the Tosefta cited by the Rash clearly explain our Mishnah like the Barternua.

Also note that sources for this article were taken from Mishnayot Ryzman (3:1), Iyunim 5.

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