Keilim 20:2 - 20:3

חמת חלילין (bagpipe) – a bag that is full of wind and they place the flutes in he mouth of the bag and the wind exits through the incisions/holes and produces from the flutes a sound of song.

טהורה מן המדרס – for it is not fit for lying.

עריבת פיסונות (a trough for mixing mortar) – a trough that they bring into it small stones and clods of earth in order to provide a mold filled with earth or rubble of ethe building. And [the word] פיפוסנות is the language of “he took up a lump [of brittle stone] and threw it at it (the idolatrous statue)” as we state in the Gemara in [Tractate] Sanhedrin 64a concerning Mercurius (name of the Roman divinity, identified with the Grecian Hermes).

בית שמאי אומרים מדרס – for they hold that they use it for lying with their work. But the School of Hillel holds that they don’t use it.

שנסדקה טמאה מדרס (which was split is impure through treading) – but if it was not split, it not impure through treading, for we say to him: “Stand and let us do our work.” But when it was split and liquids come out, it is not worthy other than for lying. But less than two LOG or more than nine Kab, is not ritually impure through treading and even if it was split.

ונתפחה (and it swelled up) – on account of the rains the wood swells and the split is closed up.

טמאה טומאת מת – as it was at the outset before it became split, because it has a receptacle. But it is not impure from treading, for it is not designated to lie upon it, for they use it in kneading.

בקדים ונסדקה – after the wood had swelled up and the split had closed up, he placed it in an east wind and it split.

טמאה מדרס – that it returned to being fit for lying but not to knead with it.

זה חומר בשיירי כלי עץ – that at their outset they are not impure through treading, but when they are split, they are impure through treading.

כלי נצרים – baskets made of wickerwork of willows and of similar things.

עד שיתחסמו (until they be sealed/glazed) – when their upper rim/lip is completed.

אע"פ שנשרו שפתותיהן כל שהן – that their lips fell and there doesn’t remain anything of their lips to any degree at all, they are ritually impure.

מקל – merely [a wooden] staff that a handle/heft for a hatchet according to the time [of use], but did not fit it [permanently] within it.

חיבור לטומאה בשעת מלאכה (is a connector for uncleanness at the time of its use) – even though that on its own, it is a plain wooden vessel, it does not receive ritual uncleanness; but here it is a sleeve, and handles increased through the Torah of the defilement of the vessel or the food, and if the ax/hatchet became defiled, the handle became defiled, and similarly, if the defilment came in contact with the handle, it is defiled, and the ax/hatchet became defiled with it. And specifically, at the time of work there is a connector/attachment to defilement, but not during the time when not working., for when it is not the time of work, a person generally would throw them among the wood.

דיוסטר (the transverse staff of the upright loom/pole reaching from end to end) – a vessel that one uses for two sides. [The word דיוסטר – is now broken down into its component parts. "דיו" is “two;” "סטר" is “sides,” as we translate in Aramaic, “to one side.” And it is a staff that has two incisions, one from the bottom and the other from the top, and two handles are inserted in them, one from the east to the west and one from the north and the south, and the women roll the yarn that is in the spindle, and we call it NASPA in the foreign language. And sometimes they make these handles from iron and they receive ritual impurity.

קבעו בכלונס (if he inserted the transverse staff of the loom in the beam/yarn winder) – if he inserted the transverse staff of the pole reaching from end to end), that is the staff with its two handles/pegs in the beam, which is a long and large piece of wood that is fastened into the ground.

טמא – the traverse staff of the upright loom reaching from end to end is impure from this side and that, if the defilement came in contact with it, for it is an attached staff to the handles/pegs whether at the time of work or not at the time of work, since it was affixed, a person is not likely to throw it among the wood, but the traverse staff of the loom in the beam, it is not attached to it, and the rest of it whether above or below is ritually pure, for the staff of the loom in the beam is long and large.

כסא – that is made, and it is affixed into the traverse staff of the loom in the beam, the chair is impure through treading, but the traverse staff of the loom in the beam is not attached to it to be made impure through treading like it.

עשה בו כסא –from the traverse staff of the loom in the beam, he made a chair.

אין טמא אלא במקומו – that is, the need of the sitting. But the rest of the traverse staff of the loom in the beam is pure.

קבע הכסא בקורת בית הבד (if he affixed the chair onto a beam in the olive press) – that gathers/stores away the il from the olives, the chair is ritually impure through treading, but the beam is not attached and is a pure. But if from the wood of the beam itself the chair is made at one end, even the chair is pure, for we say to him: “Stand and let us do our work.” And it is taught in a Baraitha in Torat Kohanim [i.e., the Sifra, the Halakhic Midrash on the Book of Leviticus): “[Any bedding on which the one with the discharge lies shall be unclean, and every object] on which he sits shall be unclean” (Leviticus 15:4) – “it includes even one who sat on a stone or on the beam, the inference teaches us, a vessel, but not a stone nor a beam, and I will not exclude the vessels of stone, the vessels of excrement or vessels of earth, the inference teaches us the vessel, the vessel that is designated to receive impurity, but these vessels do not receive defilement ever (see Sifra Metzora, Parshat Zahav, portion 4, beginning of the seventh chapter, letter 10). I lack all other than a chair or a bench or a chair with a back/soft seat that is designated for sitting , from where is the chest of the bath attendant, a chest that opened from its side, a trough from two LOG until nine Kab that was chipped, he is unable to wash his foot in it, the inference teaches us, “and all the vessel,” which is an extension. It is possible even if he covered a Seah and sat upon it, a field requiring three Kab of seed and he sat upon it, the inference teaches us, “on which he sits” (Leviticus 15:4), that which is designated for sitting, we don’t say to him: “Stand up, and let us do our work” (see Talmud Shabbat 59a).