Zevachim 96a — the Talmud in English

And we challenge:

Rather, with regard to the pots of the Temple, why should they be broken?

But they have a remedy through heating white-hot, for we said that the reason for the prohibition is because of the absorbed flavor within them, and not because of the cooking alone [without absorption]. And in the Tabernacle it is understandable that it should be broken, because they were not fixed in one place and they did not have kilns in which to heat earthenware vessels white-hot. But in the Temple,

let us return them to the kilns,

in which the potter fires them, and they will become white-hot.

And we answer:

Rabbi Zeira said: Because they do not make kilns in Jerusalem,

because of the smoke, which blackens the wall of the Temple, and it is disgraceful.

And we refute:

Abaye said to him: Do they make refuse heaps in the courtyard

from broken earthenware vessels? We learned, after all, that they do not make refuse heaps there, because of the creeping creatures that tend to grow in refuse, and they increase impurity, since the creeping creatures die there and render the sacred food impure.

And we answer:

It escaped him

—Abaye forgot

that which Rav Shemaya taught in Kelnבו,

a place-name:

Broken earthenware vessels are absorbed in their place,

which is one of the miracles that occurred in the Temple. And consequently, refuse heaps are not made from them.

And we refute:

Rather, concerning that which Rav Nahman said in the name of Rabbah bar Avuha: The oven of the Temple was made of metal,

this is difficult: why not

make

an oven

of earthenware

in the Temple, since

its firing is on the inside,

and it has a remedy through heating white-hot?

And we answer:

Since there are the two loaves

on the festival of Shavuot

and the showbread,

which they arrange every Shabbat on the table,

for their baking is in the oven, and their sanctity is in the oven,

as they are not made in a Temple service vessel, since they do not require oil, as we learned: their kneading and arranging are outside, and their baking is inside; therefore, the oven sanctifies them,

and it becomes

the oven

a Temple service vessel, and we do not make a Temple service vessel of earthenware

but only of metal.