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Keilim 16:6-7

Keilim 16:6

The leather gloves worn by winnowers, travelers and flax workers are susceptible to ritual impurity but those worn by dyers and blacksmiths are insusceptible; Rabbi Yosi adds the gloves worn by grain millers. The general principle is that those that are designed for holding things are susceptible to impurity, while those that are designed to protect against sweat are insusceptible.

Keilim 16:7

The dung collection bag of cattle and its muzzle, a bee smoker and a fan are insusceptible to ritual impurity. The cover of a jewelry box is susceptible to impurity and the cover of a clothes chest is insusceptible. The cover of a large box or of a hamper, a carpenter’s vice, the rug under a box and its arched lid, a podium for a book, the socket for a bolt or for a lock, a mezuzah case, a lyre case, a lute case, a hat-maker’s block, an entertainer’s hobby horse, the noisemakers of professional mourners, a laborer’s canopy, bed posts, the mold for tefillin and a haberdasher’s dummy are all insusceptible to ritual impurity. The general principle put forth by Rabbi Yosi is that anything that serves a person’s utensils both when they’re in use and when they’re not in use are susceptible to ritual impurity, while those things that only serve a person’s utensils when they’re in use are insusceptible.

Author: Rabbi Jack Abramowitz