Mesorat%20hashas for Shabbat 31:4

פשוטיהן מיהא ליטמא דהא פשוטי כלי מתכות דאורייתא נינהו עבדי בהו רבנן הכירא כי היכי דלא לשרוף עלייהו תרומה וקדשים

If so, let them revert to their former uncleanness, like metal utensils? For we learnt: Metal vessels, both flat and hollow,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'those of them which receive'. ');">¹⁰</span> are subject to defilement. If broken, they become clean; if remade into utensils, they revert to their former uncleanness. Whereas in respect to glass vessels we learnt: Wooden, skin, bone and glass utensils, if flat, they are clean;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., they cannot be defiled. ');">¹¹</span> if hollow, they are unclean;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' As in n. 7. ');">¹²</span> if broken, they become clean; if remade into vessels, they are liable to defilement from then onwards. [Thus] only from then onwards, but not retrospectively? — The uncleanness of glass utensils is Rabbinical, and [the resuscitation of] former uncleanness is [also] Rabbinical: now, in the case of that which is unclean by Scriptural law, the Rabbis have imposed [retrospective] uncleanness upon it, but upon that which is unclean by Rabbinical law the Rabbis have imposed no [retrospective] uncleanness. Yet at least let their flat utensils be unclean, since flat metal utensils are [susceptible to uncleanness] by Scriptural law!-The Rabbis made a distinction in their case, so that <i>terumah</i> and sacred food should not be burnt on their account.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' For these must not be burnt when defiled by Rabbinical law, except in the six cases of doubtful uncleanness enumerated on 15b. ');">¹³</span>

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