Maimonides

1A mapatz is a mat made by interweaving cords, reeds, grasses, or the like. A mapatz is not one of the keilim mentioned by the Torah.In the Book of Leviticus, chs. 15, 31-32, and in the Book of Numbers, ch. 20, the Torah mentions several keilim in connect...

1What is the minimum measure for a cloth to contract impurity? Three handbreadths by three handbreadths to contract the impurity of a support for a zav,A cloth this size can be used to sit upon. A smaller cloth would not be useful for such a purpose [the ...

1The strands that emerge from the weaveI.e., for aesthetic purposes, a garment is not necessarily hemmed. Instead, some of the threads protrude beyond the weave. and those at the beginning of the sheet of fabric and at its end are called nimin. Until what...

1We already explainedChapter 17, Halachah 1. that every accessory that is required by an implement when it is being used is considered as an integral element of the implement with regard to both contracting and imparting impurity. Therefore, when one coat...

1To what degree is it necessary for an earthenware utensil to be broken so that it can no longer serve as an effective container and, hence,The bracketed additions are made on the basis of the Rambam’s Commentary to the Mishnah (Keilim 3:1). have its impu...

1An earthenware k’li is not susceptible to ritual impurity unless it has a receptacle and was made with the intent that it serve as a receptacle. If, by contrast it does not have a receptacle or even if it has a receptacle, but it was not made to serve th...

1All accessoriesThis is translating the Hebrew term yad, which literally means “hand,” often is used to refer to a handle, but as will be seen in this chapter is used to refer to an accessory of a k’li. See also Hilchot Tum’at Ochalin, ch. 5, which uses t...

1The remnants of a larger oven are four handbreadths.I.e., just as a large oven becomes susceptible to impurity when it is built to a height of four handbreadths (Chapter 15, Halachah 2), so too, it does not leave that category until it is destroyed to th...

1An earthenware container does not become susceptible to ritual impurity until the tasks necessary to finish it are completed.See the parallels in Chapters 4 and 8 above.In his Commentary to the Mishnah (Keilim4:4), the Rambam explains that there are cert...

1Any entity that protects from ritual impurity as a sealed covering in a structure that is impure because of a human corpse,As explained in Hilchot Tum’at Meit 20:1, 21:1-2, although generally every article contained in a house where a human corpse is loc...