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מסכת כלים

פרק כ משנה ו

סדין

A sheet

שהוא טמא מדרס

which is susceptible to tumas midras,

ועשאו וילון and one made it into a curtain (or a boat's sail)
טהור מן המדרס is tahor from midras
אבל טמא טמא מת but is tamei the tumah of a corpse.
מאימתי היא טהרתו From what point is it tahor?
בית שמאי אומרים Bais Shammai say

משיתבר

from when it is broken (i.e. cut down to the size or shape of the curtain or sail);

בית הלל אומרים

Bais Hillel say

משיקשר

from when [the loops that will hold it in place as a curtain or sail are] tied to it;

רבי עקיבא אומר

Rabbi Akiva says

משיקבע

from when it is attached (in the doorway or the boat's mast).

 

פרק כ משנה ז

מחצלת

A mat (made of woven from soft plant material, this type of mat was sometimes used as a surface to sleep on, in which case it would be susceptible to tumas midras, and sometimes it was roofing material, which was not; when used as a sleeping surface, a person would lie along its width, and not its length),

שעשה לה קנים לארכה

that one made reeds for along its length (these reeds stiffened the mat, but also made it uncomfortable to sleep on)

טהורה

is tahor;

וחכמים אומרים

and the Sages say [it is not tahor]

עד שיעשה כמין כי

until they are made [like the Greek letter] chi (which is shaped like the letter "X"; the Sages held that a person could otherwise lie along its length and avoid the reeds);

עשאם לרחבה

if one made them along its length

ואין בין קנה לחבירו

and there is not between a reed and its neighbor

ארבעה טפחים

four handbreadths,

טהור

it is tahor (as there is not enough room this way for a person to lay comfortably between the reeds);

נחלקה לרחבה

if it is split along its width (but the reeds along the width remained in place in the two halves),

רבי יהודה מטהר

Rabbi Yehuda rules it is tahor (as it will unravel; the Sages disagreed, as they held tha t the reeds would hold it together);

וכן המתיר ראשי המעדנין

and similarly if one unties the end knots (similar to the knots along the end of a talis, these knots held the fibers together at their ends, and once they were untied the mat would unravel)

טהורה

it is tahor;

נחלקה לארכה

if it was split along its length

ונשתירו בה שלשה מעדנין

and there were three end knots left in it

של ששה טפחים

of six handbreadths (the minimum size for a mat to be susceptible to tumas midras)

טמאה

it is tamei.

מחצלת

A mat,

מאימתי מקבלת טומאה

from what point is it susceptible to tumah?

משתקנב

From when it is trimmed (of the ends of the material that stick out from the surface of the mat)

והיא גמר מלאכתה

and this is the completion of its manufacture (even if the maker intends to do further work on it).

         

לרפואת מרים חיה בת ברכה בתוך שאר חולי ישראל