MISHNA:A person may break a barrel on Shabbat in order to eat dried figs from it, provided he does not intend to make a vessel. And one may not perforate the plug of a barrel to extract wine from it; rather, one must remove the plug entirely to avoid creating a new opening for the barrel. This is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. And the Rabbis permit puncturing the plug, but they too restrict this leniency and say that one may not perforate the plug of the barrel on its side. And if it was already perforated, one may not apply wax to it to seal the hole, because in doing so he spreads the wax evenly on the barrel and thereby violates the prohibited labor of smoothing. Rabbi Yehuda said: An incident of that kind came before Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai in the city of Arav, and he said: I am concerned for him, because he may be liable to bring a sin-offering as a result of this.
A person may break a barrel on Shabbat in order to eat dried figs from it, provided he does not intend to make a vessel. And one may not perforate the plug of a barrel to extract wine from it; rather, one must remove the plug entirely to avoid creating a new opening for the barrel. This is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. And the Rabbis permit puncturing the plug, but they too restrict this leniency and say that one may not perforate the plug of the barrel on its side. And if it was already perforated, one may not apply wax to it to seal the hole, because in doing so he spreads the wax evenly on the barrel and thereby violates the prohibited labor of smoothing. Rabbi Yehuda said: An incident of that kind came before Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai in the city of Arav, and he said: I am concerned for him, because he may be liable to bring a sin-offering as a result of this.
6. One is permitted to slash the top of a barrel with a sword because one does not intend to make an opening since he is removing its top. However, to bore a hole either into the side of the barrel or into the lid is forbidden, even if it is bored with a dagger which forms a large hole and does not look like an opening. Nevertheless, since it is in the side [of the barrel] the intention is clearly to create an opening. One is permitted to bore a hole through the top of the lid because the intention is not to create an opening, as it is abnormal to make an opening on its top, because usually the lid is just removed.
1. Construction and demolishing do not apply to Keilim which are not themselves a complete construction, for example a barrel RAMA: (that does not hold 40-se’ah)made of pieces bonded together with pitch, may be broken in order to take out what is inside, provided that one does not intend to cut a fine hole that will be used as an opening, because then it is called making a Keili. If it is a perfect article it is forbidden to break it even if one does not transform it into a Keili. It is forbidden even to create a small hole and a new hole may not be widened. RAMA: provided that one intends it. (Mordechai) If a knife was wedged into the barrel before Shabbos it is permitted to withdraw it and replace it because one does not intend to widen it. RAMA: As long as it was extracted once before Shabbos, but if not it is forbidden because surely it will be creating a hole and an opening to the barrel. If one is permitted to break a piece off a broken Keili, see Siman 308:44.