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Shabbos 58b

שבת נ״ח ע״ב

Shabbat 58b

Learn Shabbos 58b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Shabbos 58b in Gemara Clarity

Topic

When a bell (זוג) can become טמא: the role of the clapper (עינבל), a child's bell versus an adult's, and why a bell stays טמא after its clapper is removed.

Overview

This amud asks when a bell (זוג) can become טמא. It finishes a ברייתא teaching that an animal's bell is טמא while a door's bell, which counts as part of the house, is טהור. The reason given is that a כלי enters טומאה through מחשבה alone but leaves it only through a שינוי מעשה. This ברייתא contradicts an earlier source that called the animal's bell טהור, so the גמרא answers that one source speaks of a bell with an עינבל (clapper) and the other of a bell without one. When challenged on how a clapper could matter, the גמרא brings רבי יונתן's teaching that a metal object that makes sound counts as a כלי. The גמרא then distinguishes a child's bell, which is meant for sound, from an adult's bell, which is a תכשיט and is a כלי even without a clapper. Next, אביי explains why a bell stays טמא after its clapper is removed: an ordinary person can put the clapper back. רבא challenges this from a source calling bell and clapper a חיבור, and רבה's rule about tools in use and not in use shows that חיבור means parts that are actually attached. So אביי's answer falls, and the גמרא begins רבא's new explanation, which continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

וְשֶׁל דֶּלֶת — טָהוֹר.

And a door's [bell] is pure.

שֶׁל דֶּלֶת וַעֲשָׂאוֹ לִבְהֵמָה — טָמֵא.

A door's [bell] that one made into an animal's bell is impure.

שֶׁל בְּהֵמָה וַעֲשָׂאוֹ לְדֶלֶת,

An animal's [bell] that one made into a door's bell,

אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁחִבְּרוֹ לַדֶּלֶת

even though he attached it to the door

The steps (14)

  1. ChallengeThe contradicting ברייתא: animal bell can become impure, door bell cannot
  2. ResolutionThe answer: it depends on whether the bell has a clapper
  3. ChallengeChallenge: how can a clapper decide whether the bell is a vessel?
  4. ResolutionYes, the sound makes it a vessel
  5. ChallengeThe middle clause says a person's bells receive impurity
  6. ChallengeA teaching says bells without clappers are pure
  7. ResolutionA child's bell is for sound; an adult's bell is jewelry
  8. ChallengeWhy does a bell without its clapper stay impure?
  9. ResolutionAnyone can put the clapper back
  10. ChallengeBell and clapper are called a connection
  11. ChallengeBlocking the reading 'considered connected even when apart'
  12. ChallengeThe difficulty with the scissors ruling
  13. Challengeרבה's two-part rule for tools in use and not in use
  14. Resolutionרבא offers a different explanation