Study Shabbat folio 96A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
הא ברברבי, והא בזוטרי. אמר רב אסי, שונין: כלי חרס שיעורו בכונס משקה. ולא אמרו מוציא משקה אלא לענין גיסטרא בלבד. מאי טעמא? אמר מר זוטרא בריה דרב נחמן: לפי, שאין אומרים ״הבא גיסטרא לגיסטרא״.
This statement, that a hole must be large enough to enable a pomegranate to go out in order to purify the vessel, is referring to large vessels. And this statement, that teaches that a vessel is purified only when the majority of the vessel is broken, is referring to small vessels. Rav Asi said that they teach this halakha: With regard to an earthenware vessel, the measure of the hole that renders it unable to become ritually impure is large enough to enable liquid to enter it. And they only said: The measure of a small hole from which liquid seeps, with regard to the impurity of a shard [gistera]. The Talmud asks: What is the reason for this? The Talmud answers that Mar Zutra, son of Rav Naḥman, said: A shard is used as a plate beneath a perforated earthenware vessel. If the shard is also perforated and leaks, it is no longer of any use. Because one does not say: Bring another shard to seal the leak of a shard, but throws it out immediately.
אמר עולא: פליגי בה תרי אמוראי במערבא, רבי יוסי ברבי אבין ורבי יוסי בר זבדא. חד אמר כמוציא רמון, וחד אמר: כשורש קטן. וסימניך, אחד המרבה ואחד הממעיט. אמר רב חיננא בר כהנא משמיה דרבי אליעזר: כלי חרס שיעורו כמוציא זיתים. ומר קשישא בריה דרבה מסיים בה משמיה דרבי אליעזר: והרי הן ככלי גללים וכלי אבנים וכלי אדמה — שאין מקבלין טומאה לא מדברי תורה ולא מדברי סופרים. ולענין צמיד פתיל, עד שיפחת רובו.
Ulla said: Two amora’im in the West, Eretz Yisrael, disagree about this topic: They are R' Yosei, son of R' Avin, and R' Yosei bar Zavda. One said: The measure of a hole that purifies an earthenware vessel is large enough to enable a pomegranate to go out. And one said: The size of a small root. And your mnemonic to remember that neither holds that the measure is size of an olive is the expression: Both one who increases and one who decreases. They hold extreme positions in this dispute and eschew the intermediate position. Rav Ḥinnana bar Kahana said an intermediate position in the name of R' Eliezer: An earthenware vessel becomes ritually pure with a hole large enough to enable olives to go out. And Mar Kashisha, son of Rabba, concluded this halakha in the name of R' Eliezer: And vessels that have been perforated are like dung vessels, and so too, stone vessels and earth vessels that were not baked in a kiln, which neither become impure by Torah law nor by rabbinic law. And, as far as the matter of an earthenware vessel with a sealed cover in a room with a corpse, it maintains its impurity until the majority of it is broken.