Commentary for Mikvaot 3:10

רבי יוסי אומר. ולזה לוג ומחצה ונתערבו – And behold there are three LOG of drawn water that invalidate the Mikveh, nevertheless, they are kosher/fit.

Rabbi Yose says: two mikvehs neither of which contains forty seahs and a log and a half [of drawn water] fell into this one and a log and a half into this one, and then they are mixed together, they remain valid, since they had never been called as invalid. But if there is a mikveh holding less than forty seahs, and three logs [of drawn water] fell into it, and it was then divided into two, it is invalid, since it had already been called invalid. According to Rabbi Yose, if the mikveh was never declared invalid because a full three logs of drawn water fell in at one time, then it remains valid even if it turns out that there are three logs of drawn water in it. This is what occurs in the first scenario. The opposite is true in the second scenario. Even though the mikveh was split into two and now in each mikveh there are less than three logs of drawn water, since it was originally declared invalid, both mikvaot remain invalid.

שלא נקרא עלהים שם פסול – that if they add kosher water (i.e., rainwater, for example) in all of them until the completion of the measurement of the Mikveh, that each one of them was kosher.

Rabbi Joshua declares it valid, for Rabbi Joshua used to say: any mikveh containing less than forty seahs into which three logs [of drawn water] fell and from which a kortov was withdrawn becomes valid, since the three logs have also been diminished. Rabbi Joshua says that both mikvaot are valid because neither mikveh now contains three logs of drawn water. This matches his general opinion that a mikveh into which exactly three logs of drawn water have been put can be made valid by removal of even a kortov, 1/64 of a log of water. Since this tiny bit of water will have some drawn water mixed in with it, there will now be less than three logs of drawn water in the mikveh. Therefore it is valid.

ונחלק לשנים – and they added to each one of them kosher water until there is in each one of them according to the measurement of the Mikveh (i.e., forty Seah).

But the sages say: it always remains invalid until the amount of its former contents and a little more are removed. The other sages disagree with Rabbi Joshua. They hold that once a mikveh is disqualified because it has three logs of drawn water it cannot be made valid until an amount equal to and a little bit more than its original contents (the amount that was in it before the three logs were put in) is removed.

פסול – each one of them.

וחסר אפילו קרטוב – after three contracted/squeezed in LOGS of drawn water fell in it that was missing even a Kartuv (i.e., a small liquid measure equivalent to 1/64th of a LOG) of water.

כשר – [it is kosher/fit] to add upon it water to complete it for the measurement of a Mikveh/ritual bath. It is impossible that with this one that is lacking is not missing a little bit from the three LOGS, and it is found that there weren’t three LOGS of drawn water.

קרטוב – 1/64th of a LOG.

עד שיצא ממנו מלואו – that water that was in it initially when the three LOGS of drawn water fell in.

ועוד –a bit more in order to omit/lessen from the three LOGS [of drawn water]. As for example, a Mikveh which had in it twenty Seah of kosher water and three LOGS of drawn water fell into it and it was filled up afterwards with rain water, it will always be in its status of invalidity/unfitness until he removes from it the twenty Seah that were there initially, and a little bit more, to omit three LOGS [of drawn water].

שיעמיד בחצר ארבעים סאה – a kosher Mikveh below from the invalid/unfit one, and he opens a channel to the Kosher one (i.e., Mikveh) so that they can combine and the upper unit/invalid one can be purified from the lower Kosher one (i.e., Mikveh), as we stated, we raise/stretch it (i.e., the partitions – adopting the legal fictions that the partitions around the stand are prolonged). And all the more so, if the kosher [Mikveh] is above and the unfit/invalid one is below, for we state that we stretch and bring the partitions down (i.e., adopt the fiction that the walls are prolonged so as to reach the bottom).

Introduction Today's mishnah is a continuation of yesterday's. It explains how a mikveh that has been disqualified because three logs fell into it can again become valid.

אא"כ פסק – that the waters spotted and went out from it to its fullness and a bit more, as we stated (in Mishnah 1). And there are those who have the reading [at the end of the Mishnah]: "אא"כ פקק"/unless he inserted a stop-gap/stopped it up, meaning to say, unless he closed off on the Mikveh that he had made until it will not make contact/touch any of the water. But the first reading appears to me to be the essential one. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah.

How so? If there was a cistern in a courtyard and three logs [of drawn water] fell into it, it will always remain invalid until the whole of it is removed and a little more, or until [another mikveh containing] forty se'ahs is placed in the courtyard, so that the higher mikveh is rendered valid by the lower. The mishnah provides two ways to revalidate a mikveh that has been declared invalid because of three logs of drawn water. The first is to remove all of the water and then allow new valid water to flow in. This is the solution we saw in yesterday's mishnah. The second way of validating the mikveh can work if there are two cisterns in the courtyard, one higher than the other. The higher one is the one that has been made invalid. He can add water to this cistern so that it overflows and the water will flow down into the lower cistern which also has less than forty seahs of water. The water flowing from the upper cistern will cause the lower one to have more than forty seahs and it will be pure. By virtue of its connection with the lower cistern which is valid, the higher cistern is also validated as a mikveh. We shall learn of this principle below in 6:8.

Rabbi Elazer ben Azariah declares it invalid unless the [new mikveh] is stopped up. Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says he must stop up the upper mikveh, and then the bottom mikveh will fill up with forty seahs of valid water that he has allowed to flow into the courtyard and then he can attach the two mikvaot. But if he doesn't stop up the upper mikveh, then the invalid water will flow into the lower mikveh and it too will be invalid.

האמה נכנסת לו (the water channel enters it) – as for example rain waters that come from the sloping and enter it.

If a cistern is full of drawn water and a channel leads into it and out of it, it continues to be invalid until it can be reckoned that there does not remain in it three logs of the former [water]. The water flowing through the channel is valid to be used as a mikveh. It will validate the cistern full of drawn water when we can assume that the channel has flushed out most of the drawn water, leaving no more than three logs worth in the cistern.

הסוחט את כסותו (a person who wrings out his garment) – and the water that was absorbed by it is considered drawn water, and when he wrings them out into the cistern/pit they come from many places, that from here and from there to the clothing.

If two men each poured a log and a half [of drawn water] into a mikveh, or if one wrung out his clothes and so poured in [water] from several places, or if one emptied out a water-jug and so poured in [water]from several places, Rabbi Akiva declares it valid, But the sages declare it invalid. Rabbi Akiva said: they did not say "if they poured in," rather "if one poured in." But they said: they said neither thus nor thus, but rather "if there fell in three logs [of drawn water]." Rabbi Akiva says that for three logs of drawn water to invalidate a mikveh, they must all come from one source made in one pouring. Separate pourings do not join together to invalidate the mikveh. The water-jug to which he refers seems to have multiple spouts, so if one person pours in, it gets there in several pouring. The other sages disagree. Three logs of drawn water invalidate the mikveh even if they come from multiple sources. Both Rabbi Akiva and the sages derive their halakhah from a precise understanding of their received oral tradition. Rabbi Akiva's mishnah reads "If one poured into a mikveh three logs of drawn water he invalidates it." Rabbi Akiva reads this mishnah precisely it is invalid only if one poured three logs in. If two or more together poured three logs into the mikveh, it is not invalid. The other sages have a different reading in their older mishnah. There mishnah reads "if there fell in…" There is no difference how these three logs got in. Their very presence invalidates the mikveh. As an aside, this is one of the most interesting examples I have come across of two sages arguing over the wording of an ancient mishnah. It is a clear example of the fact that prior to the generation of Rabbi Akiva there already existed an oral Torah upon which each sage could base his argument.

והמערה מן הצרצור (if one pouring water out of a cooler throws water out in several places) – an earthenware utensil that they make on its mouth network of lattice-work, and when he empties [water] from it, he pours in water from many places.

ר' עקיבא מכשיר – for he (i.e., Rabbi Akiva) holds that three LOGS of drawn water do not invalidate the Mikveh/ritual bath unless he pours them from one utensil and from one place, what is not the case with garments and a water cooler.

וחכמים פוסלים – for they (i.e., the Sages) hold that three utensils combine.

לא אמרו מטילין אלא מטיל – according to this language, Rabbi Akiva received [the tradition] from his Rabbis/teachers, a utensil that pours three LOGS of water to a Mikveh invalidates the Mikveh/ritual bath.

ולא כך אמרו אלא שנפלו – it does not make a difference whether it is from one utensil or from many utensils. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Akiva.

מכלי אחד משנים וכו' – the conclusion of their matter is according to the Rabbis.

Introduction This mishnah is a continuation of yesterday's mishnah. It continues to deal with logs of drawn water that fell from different vessels joining together to disqualify a mikveh.

תשעה קבין מים – one who experienced a seminal emission (i.e., whether involuntarily, intentionally or during sexual relations, he becomes ritually impure – and must immerse himself in a ritual bath, and after nightfall on the day of his immersion, becomes ritually pure) who is infirm and is not able to immerse [in a Mikveh], if they placed upon him nine KABS (i.e., a KAB = one-sixth of a SEAH, or twenty- four egg bulks) of water, he is ritually pure. And our Mishnah comes to teach us that it doesn’t matter whether one uses one utensil, two utensils or three utensils.

[If the three logs of drawn water fell in] from one vessel or from two or from three, they combine together; but if from four, they do not combine together. As we learned in yesterday's mishnah, the sages hold that the three logs can fall in from multiple sources and still disqualify the mikveh. However, if they fall in from four different vessels, since each vessel does not contain a full log (assuming equal distribution) they do not disqualify the mikveh.

וכן טהור שנפלו על ראשו ועל רובו שלשת לוגין מים שאובין – that invalidate the priest-due/heave-offering, as we stated in the first chapter of [Tractate] Shabbat [13b – and Tractate Zavim, Chapter 5, Mishnah 12]. These three LOGS, from two or three utensils – combine; from four [utensils] they do not combine.

If a man who had a seminal issue was sick and nine kavs of water fell on him, or if there fell on the head and the greater part of the body of a clean person three logs of drawn water from one vessel or from two or from three, they combine together; but if from four, they do not combine together. The mishnah now addresses a similar issue where there is a difference between three and four. There are two situations here. The first is a sick person who can't immerse in a mikveh. He is allowed to have nine kavs of drawn water poured on him to purify him from the impurity that is a result of a seminal emission. The second situation is a pure person upon whom fall three logs of drawn water this water is considered impure and will defile him. In both of these cases, if the amount falls on his head and the greater part of his body from three different sources, they combine together to purify the man who had the seminal emission or to defile the clean person. But if from four different sources, they do not have any effect.

במה דברים אמורים – that from two or three utensils they combine.

In what case does this apply? When the second began before the first finished. The pouring from different vessels joins together if the second vessel began to be poured before the first was completed. If not, they are considered separate episodes of pouring.

בזמן שלא נתכוין לרבות (at the time that he did not intend to add to more [drawn] water) – it is referring to the Mikveh, that he didn’t intend to add to it in order to increase its water.

And in what case does [the other statement] apply? When there was no intention to increase it. But if there was an intention to increase it, if only a kortov in a whole year, they combine together to add up to the three logs. This section limits the cases where the separate pourings do not join, either because they were from four vessels or because the first pouring stopped before the second began. That is only true when one poured into the mikveh by accident. If one poured the drawn water into the mikveh on purpose then it disqualifies the mikveh no matter how long it takes to get the three logs into the mikveh, even if it takes a whole year, the mikveh is invalidated.

אפילו קרטוב – a small measurement, one sixth-fourth of a LOG.