Mesorat%20hashas for Shabbat 116:14

אלא אמר רבא

But in the case of an adult, it is an ornament for him even without a clapper. The Master said: 'If their clappers are removed, they still retain their uncleanness.' What are they fit for?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' That they are not regarded as broken utensils. ');">¹⁴</span> Said Abaye: [They are still utensils,] because an unskilled person can put it back. Raba objected: A bell and its clapper are [counted as] connected.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' And rank as a single utensil, so that if once becomes unclean the other is too. (This is, of course, when they are together.) Similarly, if one is besprinkled (v. Num. XIX, 18f), the other becomes clean. This shows that when they are separated, each is but a fragment of a utensil, though an unskilled person can replace it, and should therefore be clean. ');">¹⁵</span> And should you answer, This is its meaning: Even when they are not connected, they are [counted as] connected,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Exactly as the sense in Abaye's explanation. ');">¹⁶</span> — surely it was taught: A shears of separate blades<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'joints'. ');">¹⁷</span> and the cutter of a [carpenter's] plane are [counted as] connected in respect of uncleanness, but not in respect of sprinkling. Now we objected, What will you: if they are [counted as] connected, [they should be so] even in respect of sprinkling too; [if they count] not as connected, they should not [be so] even in respect of defilement either? And Rabbah answered: By Scriptural law, when in use they are [counted as] connected in respect of both defilement and sprinkling; when not in use, they are [counted as] connected in respect of neither defilement nor sprinkling. But they [the Rabbis] enacted a preventive measure in respect of defilement when they are not in use on account of defilement when they are in use; and in respect of sprinkling, when they are in use, on account of when they are not in use!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' For notes v. supra 48b and 49a. Now, obviously this must all refer to where the parts are joined, since we compare these utensils when not in use to same when in use. Hence it is implied that when not actually together they do not become defiled even by Rabbinical law, because each is regarded as a fragment, though all unskilled person can join them. ');">¹⁸</span> Rather said Raba,

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