Keilim, Chapter 4, Mishnah 3. Earlier in the chapter a line was drawn between two situations: a complete utensil that has developed a crack, and a gistera, a broken piece of a utensil, that has since cracked again. An intact earthenware utensil that cracks continues to be susceptible to tum'ah for as long as it can still contain half a kav of dried figs. With a gistera the standard is far stricter: the moment liquid trickles out through its crack it is finished, since a fragment that has broken a second time is simply not something people bother to keep using. Our mishnah goes back to where that whole discussion began and asks the prior question: how much breakage must a utensil suffer before it forfeits the name utensil and becomes a gistera?
The Mishnah opens with the question itself: "Eizehi gistera?" What qualifies as a gistera? At what point is a broken vessel no longer regarded as an ordinary utensil, but as a mere fragment?
The answer: "Kol shenitlu ozneha", any utensil whose handles were removed. Even though the vessel still holds exactly as much as it held before the handles came off, it is already treated as broken, because it can no longer be conveniently carried from place to place. And the implication runs further. If the loss of the handles alone, with the container itself fully intact, is enough to give the utensil the status of a gistera, then a kal vachomer applies: certainly if the containing part of the vessel itself has broken, it is a gistera.
Which Parts of a Broken Vessel Convey Tum'ah Through Airspace
The Mishnah now turns to a second question. When an earthenware vessel breaks, which portions of it still convey tum'ah through their enclosed airspace? "Hayu bachidudin yotzin", the case is a barrel whose upper section broke away, leaving sharp points protruding upward. When the top of a barrel shatters, the edges almost never break off cleanly; they are left jagged, at uneven heights, with gaps of varying widths between the points.
The lower portion of the barrel presents no problem: it is whole, with no cracks or holes, so food entering its airspace becomes tamei in the ordinary way. Our focus is the airspace among the jagged points at the top. That rim is not a level surface at all, and its shape varies from spot to spot. How is it treated?
The ruling comes in two halves. First: "Kol hamekabel ima bazeisim", wherever the shattered rim is still able to hold olives, meaning that the distance separating one point from the next is small enough that an olive set there will not slip through, the halachah is "metamei bemaga", anything edible resting against that section becomes tamei, and beyond that, "uchenegdo metamei ba'avir", produce suspended in the hollow bounded by those points contracts tum'ah as well, without touching them at all. Why so? Because such a place is still doing the work of the barrel's cavity. A tamei barrel therefore imparts tum'ah there by touch, and since olives stay put in it, the space it encloses transmits tum'ah too.
The second half is the mirror image: "Vechol she'eino mekabel ima bazeisim", any stretch of the ragged rim that cannot keep olives in place, since the distance from one jagged tooth to its neighbor is generous and an olive would drop straight down, is governed by "metamei bemaga" alone, so edibles pressed up against it become tamei, while "ve'ein kenegdo metamei ba'avir", the hollow enclosed by those particular points imparts nothing to what enters it. The logic is that a place unable to detain an olive has ceased to serve as the barrel's receptacle, and so its inner space conveys no tum'ah. Even so, it has not been severed from the vessel entirely: such a projection functions for the barrel as a yad, a handhold, and a yad passes tum'ah along to whatever comes in contact with it.
A Barrel That Can Only Be Used Lying on Its Side
These same distinctions are now transferred to a fragment that can no longer be used upright and must instead be set down sideways. "Hayesa mutah al tzidah", the mishnah pictures the ruined barrel resting on its flank, "kemin katedra", positioned like a katedra, a chair whose back and two arms enclose it while the front remains open. Imagine a barrel that once stood upright and then lost a section of its wall, leaving a ragged gap in the side. The only way to get it to hold anything again is to tip it over onto its flank, so that the torn edge now faces upward.
The halachah is unchanged. "Kol hamekabel ima bazeisim", every stretch of the torn edge capable of keeping olives from falling through is "metamei bemaga", conveying tum'ah by touch, and "uchenegdo metamei ba'avir", conveying it through the hollow it encloses as well. "Vechol she'eino mekabel ima bazeisim", wherever the interval from one sharp projection to the next is too wide to retain an olive, only "metamei bemaga" applies, direct touch and nothing more, and "ve'ein kenegdo metamei ba'avir", the space it surrounds is inert. Since that portion of the surviving piece of barrel will not hold olives, it is no longer reckoned a receptacle and its airspace transmits nothing; yet the points there still function as a yad for what remains of the vessel, and the handhold of an earthenware utensil does pass tum'ah to anything touching it.
Vessels Made to Be Supported
The opening mishnah of this chapter taught that a gistera is susceptible to tum'ah only when it is steady enough to rest by itself, with nothing propping it up. The mishnah closes by noting the cases where that requirement does not apply.
"Shulei churphayos veshulei chosot hasidoniyim", the pointed bases of the vessels of Churphayos and the pointed bases of the Sidonian chosot. Churphayos and Sidon are place names, and the vessels made in them are pointed at the bottom and designed from the outset to be held up by something else. The churphi vessel has no flat base at all but a pointed one, which is set into a stand or holder that keeps it from tipping over. The Sidonian chos is a type of pot with a pointed bottom, placed on a tripod over the fire, which holds it in position while the food cooks.
Of these the mishnah rules: "Af al pi", even so, "she'einam yecholim lishev", though they are unable to sit "shelo mesumachin", unless something braces them, they are "teme'in", susceptible to tum'ah, "shelekhakh na'asu mitechilasan", since this is precisely the way they were fashioned from the outset. Needing outside support is no flaw in such vessels; it is simply how they are meant to be used. Consequently, in their present condition as a gistera as well, tum'ah can take hold of them.
The mishnah thus gives us three measures at once: the loss of the handles alone is enough to reduce a whole utensil to a gistera; the jagged remains of a break are judged spot by spot according to whether they can hold an olive, conveying tum'ah by contact in every case but through airspace only where they still form a container; and a vessel built to rest in a stand is judged by the purpose for which it was made, not by its inability to stand alone.