Cases of uncertainty regarding drawn waters are considered pure by the Sages. [For example,] if it is uncertain whether they [the drawn waters] fell or did not fall [into a <i>mikveh</i>]; even if they did fall, if there is an uncertainty as to whether they [the waters of the <i>mikveh</i>] contained forty se'ah or did not; or if there were two <i>mikva'ot</i>, one mikveh containing forty <i>se'ah</i> and one not, and [drawn waters] fell into one of them and one does not know which it fell into, [in all these cases] its uncertainty is pure, because one has something upon which to hang [a presumption of purity]. If both [<i>mikvaot</i>] contained fewer than forty <i>se'ah</i>, and [drawn waters] fell into one of them and one does not know which it fell into, its uncertainty is impure [i.e. such a case is uncertain and resolved as impure], since one has nothing upon which to hang [a presumption of purity].
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
ספק מים שאובים שטיהרו חכמים – In Tractate Tohorot, Chapter “He Who Threw Something Unclean [from Place to Place – chapter 4, Mishnah 7] there it teaches: “These are the doubtful conditions which the Sages declared clean: A doubt concerning drawn water [that falls into] the ritual bath.”
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
Introduction
Drawn water that falls into a mikveh that has less than forty seahs of water is invalid and remains invalid even if more kosher water comes into the mikveh. In Toharot 4:7 we learned that if there is a doubt about whether drawn water went into the mikveh, the rabbis declared it clean. Our mishnah deals with what sort of case of doubt is pure and what case of doubt must be ruled impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
ספק נפלו – three LOG (i.e., a LOG equals the volume of six eggs) of drawn water in a Mikveh missing [its full complement of forty Seah]/
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
The case of a doubt about drawn water which the sages have declared clean; If there is a doubt whether [three logs of drawn water] fell into the mikveh or not, The first possible doubt is whether or not the three logs of drawn water fell into the mikveh in the first place.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
ספק יש בהן ארבעים סאה – that is to say, there is doubt that it were forty Kosher Seah [of water] in the Mikveh/ritual bath prior to the drawn [waters] that fell in, for furthermore, the drawn [waters] do not invalidate it (i.e., since it is lacking the required forty Seah to begin with).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
Or even if they did fall in, there is a doubt whether [the mikveh] contained forty seahs or not, If the mikveh contained forty seahs of valid water (not drawn) then even if three logs of drawn water fall in, the mikveh remains kosher. So the second level of doubt is whether or not the mikveh was large enough to nullify the three logs.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
שיש לו במה יתלה – that it has a place to depend upon their falling that they did not cause it to become invalidated.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
Or if there were two mikvehs one of which contained forty seahs and the other did not, and drawn water fell into one of them and it is not known into which of them it fell, In this case there are two mikvaot, one of which is large enough to nullify the three logs and we are not sure into which mikveh the logs fell.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
שאין לו במה יתלה – that whichever way you turn, in which of them that it fell, it invalidates it, therefore, both of them are invalid. But that which we purify here – it is doubtful if is drawn water in the place where he has upon which to depend, that is because the [notion of] drawn [water] is from the Rabbbis. And it is taught in a Baraita in Torat Kohanim (i.e., the Halakhic Midrash of SIfra on the Book of Leviticus: - see Leviticus 11:36): “However, a spring or cistern [in which water is collected shall be pure, but whoever touches a such a carcass in it shall be impure],” that just as a spring is in the hands of Heaven, so also is a ritual bath/Mikveh in the hands of heaven, it is a mere support but not an absolute proof.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
In such a doubt it is accounted clean, because there exists [a possibility] on which we may depend [in declaring it clean]. In all of these cases, we can consider the mikveh clean. If the mikveh currently has less than 40 seahs, we can add more water. The reason that the doubt is considered clean is that there is a possibility that the mikveh or both mikvaot are valid.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
If they both contained less than forty seahs, and [drawn water] fell into one of them and it is not known into which of them it fell, in such a doubt it is accounted unclean, because there exists no [possibility] on which we may depend [in declaring it clean]. In contrast, in this case one of the mikvaot is definitely invalid because neither had forty seahs. Therefore, we have to treat both mikvaot as if they are invalid.
