Komentarz do Kapłańska 11:33

אל תוכו [AND EVERY EARTHEN VESSEL] WHEREINTO [ANY OF THEM FALLETH SHALL BE UNCLEAN] — An earthen vessel does not become unclean except through the medium of its interior (i. e. only if something unclean is inside it) but not by something unclean touching its exterior) (cf. Chullin 24b).

Except through its interior. I.e., if the impurity entered its interior space but did not touch it, it is impure. From the outside, however, it remains pure even if the impurity touches it. This is derived from, “everything that is within it becomes unclean,” [by means of a comparison:] We find that the interior — when the vessel causes impurity to the food within — even if the impurity never touches [all the food contents] it becomes impure, for even if the vessel was full of mustard seeds, everything is impure, although the vessel does not [directly] touch all the seeds, but only the seeds that are adjacent to its walls. You cannot say that this seed causes impurity to that one, and this one causes impurity to that one, since food cannot cause impurity to food. Furthermore, if it did, this would become a Second [level of impurity], and the next one a Third, but a Third does not cause impurity to make a Fourth. Perforce, the mustard seeds become impure by being in the interior of the vessel. So too, the interior mentioned in the imparting of impurity to the vessel — even though the impurity never touches the vessel, but it is only suspended within [the interior of] the vessel, the vessel becomes impure (Re’m).

אשר יפול מהם, “when into one of them falls;” we find a similar construction to this in Judges 12,7, i.e. באחד מערי גלעד where according to the text as written, ויקבר בערי גלעד, literally: “he was buried in the cities of Gilead,” we might have thought that different parts of his body were buried in different cities, which is of course absurd. The author simply did not feel it necessary to add the word במים אחד, “one of,” in order for the reader to understand his meaning. אל תוכו, “into its inside;” Rashi comments here that earthen vessels do not become ritually unclean except through the airspace they enclose. The reason for this is that because there is no way to dispose of this contamination except by breaking the vessel in question, the Torah, out of concern for the owner, did not want to make it easy for such vessels to become ritually contaminated, as by its outside coming into contact with ritually polluted items. This is why the Torah wrote: (Numbers 19,15) וכל כלי פתוח אשר אין צמיד פתיל עליו טמא הוא, “and any open vessel which has no covering which closes it tightly on it, is ritually unclean.” In other words, if it had had a tight lid on it, it would not have become ritually unclean. If the outside of this vessel had been in contact with something all day it would need to be broken up completely to dispose of this impurity. It could not have been reinstated as fit for use.

כל אשר בתוכו יטמא WHATSOEVER IS INSIDE IT SHALL BE UNCLEAN — the vessel, in turn, renders anything inside it unclean.

In turn causes impurity. [Rashi knows this] from the fact that it is not written “everything that it touches within it.” Rather, even if it does not touch anything but only enters the interior, whatever is in it is impure (Minchas Yehudah). Alternatively, it is not as if the vessel is full of impurity and whatever is in it is touching the impurity, for if so, why are vessels excluded from the law of becoming impure from the interior of an earthenware vessel, as Rashi explains later (v. 34)? Rather, it must be that the vessel itself becomes impure from the creeping creature in its interior, and the vessel becomes a First [source of impurity]. It then in turn causes impurity to whatever is in its interior to make it a Second. Thus, vessels are excluded, because a vessel that is a First does not cause impurity to another vessel (Re’m).

ואתו תשבות, “and you will have to break it.” The reason is that it had absorbed too much impurity.” Besides, seeing that it is not expensive to replace, the financial loss for the owner is minimal.

ואתו תשברו AND IT SHALL YE BREAK — This teaches that there is no purification for it by immersion in a ritual bath, (cf. Sifra, Shemini, Section 7 13).

Cannot be purified. I.e., if you want to purify it from its impurity you must break it until it is no longer fit for its original use. If it was made to hold food items, one makes a hole until olives would fall out, and if it was made for liquids, he bores a hole until it can no longer hold liquid.