Keilim, Chapter 25, Mishnah 6. This chapter has been occupied with the distinction between the outside of a utensil and its inside, achorayim vetoch, a distinction that the Chachamim introduced in connection with their decree that tamei liquids convey tumah to utensils. Our mishnah now turns to the parts of a utensil that are not the utensil itself: the base it stands on, the rim around its mouth, the sockets that hold its handles, and the handles themselves. These pieces do not perform the utensil's real work of holding its contents, yet they assist it in one way or another. What is their status when tamei liquid lands on them?
Each item is named in turn. "Kenei kelim" refers to the stands or pedestals upon which vessels are set down. "Ve'ogneihem" refers to their rims: the lip that runs around a vessel's opening and folds back over itself. "Ve'ozneihem" means, literally, their ears: the pair of small sockets into which a handle is inserted. "Veyedot hakelim" are the handles that a person grips. Every one of these is an appendage that serves the vessel, and not the vessel proper.
The mishnah qualifies which utensils it is discussing: "hamekabelim," those that receive, that is, utensils with a receptacle capable of containing something. Only such utensils fall under the rule of achorayim vetoch that this chapter has been developing, since only they have a genuine inside and a genuine outside.
Then comes the halachah. "Shenafelu aleihen mashkin": should tamei liquids come down upon any of these appendages, the mishnah rules "menagvan vehem tehorim", that one dries them off and nothing further is required. The appendage stays tahor, and the vessel to which it belongs is unaffected as well. Why? Because of the way the Rabbinic decree was framed. The Chachamim declared that liquids render a vessel's inner surface tamei and its outer surface tamei, and beyond those two they legislated nothing at all. A stand, a lip, a socket or a handle is neither the one nor the other, so no decree reaches it. The liquid thus leaves behind mere wetness, and wiping it away settles the matter.
The mishnah continues with the contrasting case: "ushar kol hakelim she'ein lahem achorayim vetoch." All other utensils, those that have no distinct outside and inside because they have no receptacle at all and cannot hold anything, follow a different rule. "Shenafelu mashkin al miktzato, kulo tamei." If tamei liquid fell on any portion of such a utensil, even on a part we would call secondary, the entire utensil is tamei. This follows the principle established earlier: in a utensil without a receptacle, every part is treated alike. There is no ranking of primary and secondary here, no place where the decree applies and another where it does not. Touch any point of it with tamei liquid and the whole becomes tamei.
The mishnah then spells out, regarding a vessel that does possess an inside and an outside, how liquid tumah travels through it. "Kli shenitme'u achorav bemashkin": where liquids rendered the vessel's exterior tamei, the ruling is "achorav teme'in", the exterior alone carries that tumah. As for the remaining parts, "tocho ve'ogno" (the interior and the rim) along with "ve'ozno veyadav tehorin" (the socket and the handles) stay tahor.
"Nitma tocho": where instead liquid tumah reached the vessel's inner space, the verdict is "kulo tamei", the vessel is tamei in its entirety, its exterior and each of its appendages along with it. For a vessel designed to contain, the inner space is what it fundamentally is; once tumah has settled there, it pulls all the rest along after it.
So this mishnah gives us two clear teachings. First, the accessories of a utensil that has a receptacle are outside the scope of the Chachamim's decree on liquids, and liquid falling on them need only be wiped away. Second, the direction of the tumah matters: outside tumah stays outside, while inside tumah takes the whole utensil with it, handles, ears, rim and all.