Keilim, Chapter 2, Mishnah 2. In the mishnah before this one we learned a basic law about earthenware, the kli cheres: the moment it breaks, its identity as a utensil is finished. Whatever tum'ah it carried departs, and from that point on it can never be rendered tamei again. That law, however, has boundaries. It speaks only of shards that serve nobody. A fragment still large enough to do a job has never truly stopped being a vessel, and tum'ah can still take hold of it. There is a term for such a fragment: a gistera. And the rule that decides the matter works on a scale: the bigger the vessel had been, the bigger the remaining piece must be before we grant it the name gistera.
Before the Mishnah lays out those graded measures, it establishes something related: what is the minimum capacity of an intact earthenware vessel for it to count as a kli in the laws of tum'ah at all? Both questions turn out to have the same answer, and that is what our mishnah presents.
The Vessels Under Discussion
The Mishnah begins with "hadakin shebiklei cheres," the fine, small vessels made of earthenware, "vekarkiroteihen vedafnoteihen," together with the bases and side pieces left over from vessels that broke, "hayoshvin shelo mesumachin," which rest steadily on their own without any support, and which are able to retain liquid.
Two categories are being addressed together. First, tiny vessels that were made small to begin with. Second, the remains of a vessel that shattered, where a meaningful chunk survived: picture a large jug that breaks and its base is left standing, still capable of serving as a container. Such a piece qualifies only if it functions independently. It must stand on the ground by itself, without being leaned against a wall or wedged into something, and it must actually hold liquid rather than let it run out.
Rebbi Yishmael's Graded Measures
Of these the Mishnah says, "shiuran mikdei sichat katan," their measure is enough to hold the oil used for rubbing a small child. In those days oil was applied to an infant's skin as a moisturizer, and that modest quantity is the baseline: a piece that can hold that much still has a use, and therefore still has the status of a kli.
"Ve'ad log." This lenient measure is not universal. It applies to fragments that came from a vessel whose original capacity was up to a log. If the original vessel held a log, and the surviving piece can still hold the oil needed for an infant, that piece remains a kli. But where the original vessel was larger than a log, we demand correspondingly more from the fragment. There is a sliding relationship between the size of the vessel that was and the size of the piece that remains.
"Milog ve'ad se'ah, berevi'it." Where the vessel from which the piece came had held between a log and a se'ah, the fragment is required to contain a revi'it.
Next, "mise'ah ve'ad sa'atayim," from a se'ah up to two se'ah, the requirement is "bachatzi log," a capacity of half a log in the piece that survived.
Then, "misa'atayim ve'ad shalosh," from two se'ah up to three, "ve'ad chamesh se'in," and onward to five se'ah, meaning the genuinely large containers: here the shard needs a capacity of a whole log, "belog," if it is to keep the status of a kli. All of this, the Mishnah tells us, is "divrei Rebbi Yishmael," the opinion of Rebbi Yishmael.
Rebbi Akiva's Way of Describing It
"Rebbi Akiva omeir." Rebbi Akiva now speaks, and he is not coming to argue with Rebbi Yishmael. He is offering a clearer way to present the very same halachah. "Ani eyni notein bahem middah," I do not assign them a measure, meaning he does not describe the original vessels by liquid capacity. Instead he identifies them by the familiar vessels people actually used, which is easier to picture.
His formulation opens identically: "ella hadakin shebiklei cheres," the small earthenware utensils, "vekarkiroteihen vedafnoteihen hayoshvin shelo mesumachin," along with the bases and side walls of broken vessels that stand unaided and retain what is poured into them, and their measure is "shiuran mikdei sichat katan," the oil used for smearing a young child, precisely the figure Rebbi Yishmael gave. Then comes "ve'ad kedeirot hadakot": that minimum governs a fragment of any vessel as large as the small cooking pots. In place of a volume he hands us an object we can recognize and picture.
"Mehakedeirot hadakot," starting from those small pots, "ve'ad chaviyot ludiot," and continuing to the barrels of Lud, a barrel manufactured in the city of Lod: throughout that range the leftover piece must be able to take in a revi'it, "berevi'it."
"Meludiot ve'ad lachmiyot, bachatzi log." From the Lud barrels up to the lachmiyot barrels, which are larger, a fragment must hold half a log to remain a kli.
"Melachmiyot ve'ad chatzavim gedolim, belog." Beginning with the lachmiyot and continuing to the great casks, the fragment must take in a log. Those chatzavim gedolim were the largest containers in circulation, with capacities upward of two se'ah, occasionally reaching five. Rebbi Akiva has thus led us along precisely the same ladder, substituting familiar objects for bare measures of volume.
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai
Concerning the largest class of all there is a disagreement. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai holds that for "chatzavim gedolim," the great casks, the necessary volume is "shiuran bishnei lugin," two lugin. A shard of so vast a vessel keeps the name kli only if it can take in two lugin, and not merely the single log that Rebbi Akiva demanded.
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai also disputes the earlier Tanna'im at the opposite extreme, in the case of the very tiniest earthenware. "Hapachim hagaliliyim vehachaviyonot," the little Galilean flasks and the diminutive barrels, are those minute vessels with which our mishnah opened, the ones holding under a log, for which both Rebbi Yishmael and Rebbi Akiva demanded the volume of oil used on an infant. His ruling for them is "shiur karkiroteihen kol shehein": however little their bases can take in, that suffices, even below the oil needed for rubbing a baby's limb, and the fragment retains the status of a kli. Since such a vessel was minuscule from the outset, he does not impose the standard of sichat katan either on it or on what remains of it. Any quantity it can contain, tiny as that may be, fits its own small character, so it stays a utensil and remains susceptible to tum'ah.
The Mishnah closes with a limitation on these small vessels: "ve'ein lahem dafanot," they have no walls. The side pieces of the Galil flasks and the miniature barrels are not subject to tum'ah after the vessel breaks, because their walls are straight rather than curved. When such a wall fragment lies on the ground, it forms no hollow and can hold no liquid at all, and so it is not a container in any sense.