Commentary for Mikvaot 5:5
הַזּוֹחֲלִין, כְּמַעְיָן. וְהַנּוֹטְפִים, כְּמִקְוֶה. הֵעִיד רַבִּי צָדוֹק עַל הַזּוֹחֲלִין שֶׁרַבּוּ עַל הַנּוֹטְפִים, שֶׁהֵם כְּשֵׁרִים. וְנוֹטְפִים שֶׁעֲשָׂאָן זוֹחֲלִין, סוֹמֵךְ אֲפִלּוּ מַקֵּל, אֲפִלּוּ קָנֶה, אֲפִלּוּ זָב וְזָבָה, יוֹרֵד וְטוֹבֵל, דִּבְרֵי רַבִּי יְהוּדָה. רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, כָּל דָּבָר שֶׁהוּא מְקַבֵּל טֻמְאָה, אֵין מַזְחִילִין בּוֹ:
Flowing [water] sources are like a spring, and dripping [water] sources are like a <i>mikveh</i>. Rabbi Tzadok testified regarding flowing sources that [their waters] were greater than [those of] dripping sources [in a case where the two became mixed], that they are valid. And regarding a dripping source that was made into a flowing source [i.e. if it was somehow breached], one may put even a stick, or even a reed, or even a <i>zav</i> or a <i>zavah</i> beside it [the breach, in order to seal it off], and one may [then] descend and immerse [as into a <i>mikveh</i> of gathered waters], according to Rabbi Yehuda. Rabbi Yose says: anything which can be rendered impure, one cannot use it to stop the flowing.
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
הזוחלין – as for example rivers that flow/are running waters, behold they are like a spring and ritually purify with running waters with a miniscule amount (see also Tractate Eduyot, Chapter 7, Mishnah 2).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
Flowing water is considered like a spring and dripping water is considered like a mikveh. If one sees flowing water, then one can assume it comes from a spring and it can be treated like spring water for matters of purity. But if the water is dripping slowly on the ground, then it probably came from rain water and it must be treated like a mikveh. There will need to be forty seahs for it to be a source of purity.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
והנוטפים – as for example, rainwater [that drips].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
Rabbi Zadok testified that if flowing water exceeded dripping water [with which it was mixed] it was valid [as flowing water]. If most of the water comes from flowing water, then it counts as flowing water and there need not be forty seahs for it to be purificatory.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
כמקוה – to ritually purify with forty Seah and with a collection of water found in one place [which does not flow].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
If dripping water became flowing water, its flow may be blocked by a stick or by a reed or even by a zav or a zavah, and then one may go down and immerse oneself in it, the words of Rabbi Judah. Rabbi Yose says: one may not stop the flow of water with anything which is liable to uncleanness. There is a stream of dripping water which one directed downhill such that it now became flowing water and it now flows into a river or wadi. If one wants to gather some of it in a specific place so that he can fully immerse in it, he can put a stick or reed to stop the water up. Even a zav or a zavah who require living water can direct the flow of this water and immerse in it. Rabbi Yose says that if one wants to immerse in flowing water one can't stop the flow with anything that is liable to uncleanness. All the more so, a zav or zavah cannot use such water because it is no longer considered living water. This principle was stated in Parah 6:4.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
שהם כשרים – like that which flows, for they drip a little, and even in a place where isn’t sufficient for ritual immersion in flowing waters, unless the dripping completes them.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
והנוטפים שעשאן זוחלין (and dripping water which one made into flowing water) – as for example, a Mikveh that broke through its rim and its waters depart and flow.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
סומך אפילו מקל – or a reed, either a person (i.e., a man) with gonorrhea or a woman who experiences a flow of menstrual-type blood on three consecutive days during the time of the month when she is not due to experience menstrual bleeding, we rely on the hand or the foot and close up/stop up the place of the waters going out until the waters are standing in one place and become a collection of water, and the ritually defiled individual goes down and immerses [in the Mikveh].
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
כל דבר שהוא מקבל טומאה – we do not need a man with gonorrhea or a woman who experiences a flow of menstrual-type blood on three consecutive days during the time of the month when she is not due to experience menstrual bleeding whom are ritually impure, for they are not able to close up/stop up the place where the waters are leaving with their hands or with their feet in order to restore the waters and make of them a collection of waters, but rather even a completely pure individual, for he is susceptible to receiving ritual defilement.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
אין מזחילין בו – that is to say, we don’t restore with it the place of the flowing waters in order that it will become a collection of waters and he will be able to ritually immerse in it. And the reason of Rabbi Yossi is , that Scripture states (Leviticus 11:36): “[However, a spring or a cistern] in which water is collected shall be clean,” they will become such through purification. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yossi.
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