Parashat HaShavua 5784: Matot-Masei

(19) “You shall then stay outside the camp seven days; every one among you or among your captives who has slain a person or touched a corpse shall purify himself on the third and seventh days. (20) You shall also purify every garment, every article of leather, every work of goat, and every object of wood.”

It is taught that Rabbi Yishmael, son of Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Beroka, says: What is the meaning when the verse states: “And all work of goats…you shall purify” (Numbers 31:20)? It is to include vessels that come from the goats, from the horns and from the hooves. And from where is it derived that vessels that come from the horns and the hooves of other domesticated animals and undomesticated animals are susceptible to impurity? As the verse states: “And all work.”If so, why must the verse state: “Goats?” It serves to exclude birds.

(3) And these are the gifts that you shall accept from them: gold, silver, and copper; (4) blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats;

ועזים is GOATS’ HAIR; therefore Onkelos translates it by וּמְעַזֵּי which denotes something that comes from the goats — not the goats themselves, for the Aramaic translation of עזים is עִזַּיָּא‎.

Hair of goats. . . [Rashi knows this] because if it meant skins of goats, Scripture should have written עורות עזים [as it is written for rams’ skins in next verse]. It is written “goats” instead of “goats’ hair” because they spun the threads from [the hair that was attached to] the goats themselves.

(2) 2) And thus is it written in respect to dead-body (tumah, Bamidbar 31:20): "and every work of goats." I might think (to include) ropes and cords. It follows: A dead body confers tumah and a sheretz confers tumah. Just as a sheretz confers tumah only on what is woven, so a dead body confers tumah only on what is woven.
(3) But if Scripture was lenient with a sheretz, a lesser (form of tumah, should we, therefore, be lenient with dead-body (tumah), an acute (form)? But (by reason alone a dead body) should confer tumah on ropes and cords. It must, therefore, be written "a garment … skin" (Vayikra 11:33, in respect to sheretz) — "a garment … skin" (Bamidbar 31:20, in respect to dead-body tumah), as an identity (gezeirah shavah) — Just as a sheretz confers tumah only on what is woven, so a dead body confers tumah only on what is woven; and just as a dead body confers tumah on "every work of goats," so a sheretz confers tumah on every work of goats.

(1) There are seven types of keilim that are susceptible to impurity according to Scriptural Law. They are: clothes, keilim from sackcloth, leather keilim, keilim made from bone, metal keilim, wooden keilim, and earthenware keilim. For Leviticus 11:32 states: "From all wooden implements, garments, leather articles, or sackcloth." And with regard to metal utensils, Numbers 31:22 states: "But the gold and the silver...." And with regard to earthenware utensils, Leviticus 11:33 states: "And every earthenware container into whose inner space one of them will fall, everything inside of it will contract impurity and the container should be broken."
(2) According to the Oral Tradition, it was taught that the Torah's statement Numbers 31:20: "And anything made from goats" includes keilim made from the horns, hooves, and bones of goats. The same applies to keilim made from the body parts of other domesticated and undomesticated animals. keilim made from the bones of fowl, by contrast, are not susceptible to impurity with the sole exception of keilim made from the wings of an osprey and an ostrich egg that was coated. Since they resemble bones, they are susceptible to ritual impurity as a bone implement is. It appears to me that their impurity is of Rabbinic origin.