Keilim 15:6 — Tumah and the Objects of the Mikdash

נבלי השירה – harps that they sing with them. The language of lyre and harp (i.e., secular music). טמאין – that the lyres and harps are profane and are perforated to the side of the strings in order to produce the sound of the melody. And it is the manner of those of play to leave within them the money that they collect from people who come to listen. And it is carried both full and empty. נבלי בני לוי – who play on the platform [of the Temple]. טהורין – they are not made to place money in them, and they are not made to receive anything. כל המשקין טמאין – each one of the seven liquids which are water, wine, oil, honey, milk, blood [and] dew, are susceptible to receive ritual defilement, and make fit the seeds to receive ritual defilement. ומשקה בית מטבחיא – the water and the blood that are in the slaughterhouse that is in the Temple courtyard. כל הספרים מטמאין את הידים – because at the outset, they would hide the food of the heave-offering with the Torah scrolls, for they said: “this is holy, and that is holy,” since they saw that these Scrolls came to a loss, that the mice that would be found near the foods would cause loss to them, they (i.e., the Sages) decreed that all Scrolls of all Holy Writings defile the heave-offering through their contact, they decreed further that the hands that touch the Scrolls would be second-level of ritual defilement and would invalidate the heave-offering [for the Kohanim]. מספר העזרה – The Torah scroll that the High Priest reads from in the Women’s Court on Yom Kippur, for one should not be concerned lest they place food-stuffs of heave-offering near it, because of his fear and its importance. מרכוף (name of a musical instrument made stationary) – a wooden horse that the jesters/scoffers make to ride upon to make fun of. הבטנון (a sort of bagpipe, cittern fastened around the body; workingman’s pinafore, lute) – a large musical instrument, that the player rests on his stomach. And they call it TZITRA in the foreign language. הנקטמון – a kind of musical instrument made in the form of a leg of wood that a person makes whose leg was cut/severed. הארוס (drum) – made like a kind of sieve whose walls are round and they stretch thin leather over its mouth and strike it with a mallet and it produces a clear sound. TAMBOROV in the foreign tongue (i.e., tambourine). טמא מושב – if a person with gonorrhea or a woman with a flux, a menstruating woman or a woman who gave birth to a child sat upon it, it becomes a primary form of Levitical impurity to ritually defile people [and] to ritually defile clothing. For it is a vessel that is special for sitting. שהאלית – that is to say those [women] who sing dirges and howl sit upon it, for they would regularly eulogize and sing dirges through the melody of that instrument. And such is the custom today in the countries of the Ishmaelites. אלית (the female wailer) – it is the language of (Joel 1:8): “Lament – like a maiden girt with sackcloth [for the husband of her youth!]"אלי כבתולה חגרת-שק [על-בעל נעוריה]". But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda. מצודת החולדה טמאה – because it has upon it the form of a vessel, which is not the case regarding the trap of the mouse.

Ordinary harps are susceptible to impurity, but the harps of Levites are clean. According to one explanation of this section, ordinary harps are susceptible because the harp-player sometimes uses certain parts of the harp to collect the coins he receives for playing. The harps used by the Levites do not have places to collect coins, so they are pure. All liquids are susceptible to impurity, but the liquids in the Temple slaughtering house are clean. The seven main types of liquid are: water, wine, oil, honey, milk, blood and dew. These are all susceptible to impurity and if they moisten food items, the food item becomes susceptible to impurity (we will learn more about this when we learn Tracate Makshirin). The exception is the liquids found in the place in the Temple were they would slaughter. One explanation of this is that the concept of the impurity of liquids is a rabbinic innovation (derabanan). The Rabbis did not include in this innovation the liquids found in the Temple, so as not to increase the impurity of things found in the Temple (see Eduyot 8:4). All scrolls convey impurity to the hands, excepting the scroll of the Temple courtyard. Sacred scrolls, Torah, Prophets and Writings, convey impurity to the hands of one who handles them. This is a concept we shall discuss when we learn Tractate Yadayim. This is true of all sacred scrolls with one exception the official copy of the Torah which was held in the Temple. A wooden toy horse is clean. Others explain this word (markof) to be a musical instrument made of cedar. In any case, it is pure. The belly-lute, the donkey-shaped musical instrument and the erus are susceptible to impurity. Rabbi Judah says: the erus is susceptible to sitting impurity since the wailing woman sits on it. These are various types of musical instruments. The "belly-lute" rests on the player's belly. The "donkey-shaped instrument" is, according to one interpretation, carried by clowns on their shoulders. The "erus" is some sort of bell. They are all susceptible to impurity, probably because they all have some sort of receptacle. Rabbi Judah holds that it is also susceptible to sitting-impurity, which means that if someone sits on it, they defile it, even if they don't touch it. A weasel-trap is susceptible to impurity, but a mouse- trap is clean. One explanation for the difference between the weasel-trap and the mouse-trap is that the former has the shape of a vessel, whereas the latter does not. Others explain that the former has a receptacle, whereas the mouse-trap does not.