Commentary for Berakhot 37:14
ובמתני' ליכא והא איכא הא דתנן חתכו חוליות ונתן חול בין חוליא לחוליא ר' אליעזר מטהר וחכמים מטמאים וזהו תנורו של עכנאי
Is there none in the Mishnah ? Yes, there is ; for there is a Mishnaic teaching : If one has cut [a portable earthenware oven] into layers and placed sand between each layer, R. Eliezer declares it clean, but the Sages declare it unclean ; and this is what is known as "the oven of the serpent."
Abraham Cohen Footnotes to the English Translation of Masechet Berakhot
A portable earthenware oven is like an earthenware vessel and can contract defilement. In the latter instance, the vessel cannot be purified and must be broken to pieces. In the opinion of the Sages, the same rule applies to the oven. R. Eliezer allows the oven to be cut horizontally into layers and sand placed in between and cemented over.
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Abraham Cohen Footnotes to the English Translation of Masechet Berakhot
Krauss, p. 251, thinks that the word translated "serpent" is really a proper name, Έχῖυοϛ, after whom that sort of oven was called. See his discussion in Part I of Lehnworter, pp. 295 f.
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