This Week's Article

Leather

Keilim (24:12) | Yisrael Bankier | 6 hours ago

The Mishnayot in the twenty-fourth perek follow a similar pattern. Each Mishnah discusses a different item or material and explains when it could be susceptible to tumat midras, when it is susceptible to tumat met or other forms of tumah and when it is completely tahor. The twelfth Mishnah discuss leather. If it was made for a spread (that was placed of the floor for sitting on) then it is susceptible to tumat midras. If it was made to wrap and protect other utensils, for example knives, then it is susceptible to other forms of tumah. If it was for cutting leather straps then it tahor.

One question raised on this Mishnah is that there is no mention of dimensions. How big is the leather under discussion? The reason why this is important is because will learn (27:2) that the minimum size of leather for it to be susceptible to tumah is five by five tephachim -- for tumat midras or tumat met.

The Chazon Ish (Keilim 28:10) therefore understands that our Mishnah is also referring to where the leather is indeed five by five tephachim so that it is consistent with the later Mishnah. The Chazon Ish (30:13) adds that the requirement of these dimensions is when it is a simple cut of leather. If however, it is set aside for a particular task and cut in a way that is suitable for that task, and people would preserve that leather for that task like one would do with other keilim, then even if it is smaller than that size it would be tameh. It is when the leather has no specific shape such that any piece would do, that is when there is a size requirement. Consequently, the last case in the Mishnah, where the leather is tahor, could equally be a case where it was a small piece of leather.

The Mishnah Achrona however understands that the reason why no dimensions are mentioned in this Mishnah is because it is not relevant to this Mishnah. He explains that the size requirement is relevant when discussing random cuts of leather. In our Mishnah however the leather was made for a spread. He explains this aligns with the later Mishnah (27:4) that teach that if a one-by-one tephach piece was cut specifically for sitting on it would be tameh midras.

The Mishnah Achrona continues by trying to understand the final case. The Bartenura explains that the case is where the (large) piece of leather was set aside for making straps. The issue the Mishnah Achrona has is that if it is already five-by-five, it is already susceptible to tumah. Intent to use it for something else, machshava alone, is insufficient to make an object tahor without a substantive action performedc upon it. One could answer that the cutting had begun, with the fabrication in progress. Consequently, it is not susceptible to tumah yet. Nevertheless, that is not how the Bartenura explains the Mishnah.

The Mishnah Achrona therefore suggests that from the very outset, the hide was tanned for the purpose of making the straps. That way, even though it is of a sufficient size, it never had the chance to become susceptible to tumah. This is comparable to the early Mishnah (11:2) where we learnt that if a kli was made to be attached to the ground (e.g. a door) that it is not susceptible to tumah even if it has not yet been a fixed. That would then explain way, even though leather is large enough, it is nonetheless not susceptible to tumah.

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