Commentary for Leviticus 11:35

תנור וכרים OVEN OR RANGES FOR POTS — These are movable objects, and they are of earthenware, they have an interior and one places the pot over the opening of the hollow space (the cavity); both have their openings on top.

AND EVERYTHING WHEREUPON ANY PART OF THEIR CARCASS FALLETH SHALL BE UNCLEAN; WHETHER OVEN, OR RANGE FOR POTS, ‘YUTATZ’ (IT SHALL BE BROKEN DOWN). Scripture teaches you here that the law of the oven and range for pots which are made of clay — in which fire is kindled and bread baked — is, [although they are] attached to the ground, like the law of earthenware pottery such as pots and jugs, which are burnt in a furnace and are movable objects, in that they too [oven and ranges], can become impure, and cannot [thereafter] be purified in an immersion-pool [in the same way that movable pottery cannot be purified].²⁵⁵Tosafoth Shabbath 91 a. Scripture states ‘yutatz’ (it shall be broken down) and does not say yishaber [“it shall be broken in pieces” — as it says in speaking of movable earthenware which has become impure,]²⁵⁶Further. 15:12. in order to teach that the oven and range need not be broken so that there shall not be found among the pieces thereof a shard to take fire from the hearth,²⁵⁷Isaiah 30:14. but instead they should be destroyed to the extent that they should no longer be capable of serving their [original] purpose. [The word ‘yutatz’ is] further used to teach that they become impure even though they are attached to the earth,²⁵⁸The novelty of this point is that generally whatever is attached to the ground is like the ground, and cannot become impure. The oven and range made of clay are thus an exception to this rule, for they are susceptible of impurity even though they are attached to the earth. and [the owner] must break down what he built, for the meaning of the term nethitzah is the breaking down of something built, such as the expressions: ‘vatitzu’ (and ye broke down)the houses;²⁵⁹Ibid., 22:10. ‘v’nathatz’ (and he shall pull down) the house.²⁶⁰Further, 14:45.

תנור וכירים יותץ, “an oven or stove must be smashed;” the news in this verse is that although these ovens or stoves are fastened to the ground they stand on, something which normally would make them immune to becoming affected with ritual impurity, in the situation described they are subject to the same rules as are earthenware vessels which are not fastened to the ground anymore. In order for such vessels to lose their contamination they must be broken up into pieces small enough to make them practically useless in terms of what they were made for. The reason why the Torah employed the expression יותץ instead of the more common ישבר, for describing something broken, is because the term יותץ which describes the destruction of a building, contains within it the hint that even stoves and ovens which are like buildings must also be destroyed in order to shed their ritual impurity. We find this expression in connection with houses afflicted with tzoraat, as in Leviticus