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The last mishnah in tractate Keilim, mishnah 30:4, ends as follows:

אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹסֵי, אַשְׁרַיִךְ כֵּלִים, שֶׁנִּכְנַסְתְּ בְּטֻמְאָה, וְיָצָאת בְּטָהֳרָה.

Rabbi Yose said: Happy are you Kelim; for you began with uncleanness, but you ended with cleanness. [from Sefaria]

Logic (and the commentators) refer this to the opening mishnah 1:1 (which discusses avot hatumah) and the words directly preceding Rabbi Yose's statement ("a glass funnel is clean").

This makes it appear that Rabbi Yose saw a compiled form of the tractate. Rabbi Yose died around 160 (according to Wikipedia), and Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi's redaction of the mishnah is dated at 189 (according to Wikipedia).

Thus, did Rabbi Yose see this tractate in the form we have it now? Did Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi (and his team) change (add/subtract/rephrase) certain things, but keep the beginning and end? If the latter, can we determine what was changed?

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    Maybe this isn't the Tanna R Yose but a later addition? Like R Yehoshua Ben Levi at the end of Uktzin – Double AA Aug 08 '19 at 11:39
  • Title: Who compiled... Keilim? Last para.: Inquiry about the specifics of RYH’s redaction. – Oliver Aug 08 '19 at 14:26
  • @Oliver about the specifics IF he's the redactor. – magicker72 Aug 08 '19 at 15:11
  • The order of the chapters in meseches kelim follows a logical order: first the introduction to taharos, the sources, then pottery vessels, metal tools, wooden leather and cloth items, and finally glass. The last Mishna about metal (end of chapter 14) also is about an afroces, like the Mishna at the end of kalim, but the metal one is tameh and the glass is tahor. So, even if most of Rebbi Yosi's tractate was different, it is reasonable to think that this much of the earlier version followed this pattern – Mordechai Aug 08 '19 at 22:22

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