Alguien que santifica en un comedero, y un tefi [una vasija con una abertura muy estrecha] está dentro de él, incluso si la abertura [del tefi ] es de un ancho [muy pequeño], el agua en su interior está santificada. Si había una esponja [en el comedero cuando se agregaron las cenizas], el agua en su interior no es válida [ya que el agua no está contenida en un recipiente]. ¿Qué debe hacer? Él vacía [el recipiente] hasta que alcanza la esponja [y el agua recolectada es válida]. [Pero] si toca la esponja, incluso si el agua está flotando sobre ella en cualquier cantidad, [el agua] no es válida [ya que el agua no válida salió de la esponja y se mezcló con el agua válida].
Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
טפי (vessel with a narrow neck/dripper) – a small flask/jar (with a narrow neck) whose mouth is narrow and the water that descends from it goes down drop by drop.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
One who mixes the water in a trough while a bucket was in it, even though its neck was narrow as can be, the waters in it are prepared. If there is a bucket in the trough when he adds in the hatat ashes, the water in the bucket is also prepared for the sake of sprinkling. The bucket is a vessel and the water in it is considered to be connected to the rest of the water in the trough.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
אע"פ שפיו צר – less than the tube (i.e., mouthpiece) of the leather bottle.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
If there was a sponge in the trough, the water in it is invalid. However, if there is a sponge in the trough, the water in the sponge is not valid for use because the sponge is not a vessel. Furthermore, the water in it is not considered to be connected to the water in the trough. This prevents the rest of the water in the trough from being immediately invalidated.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
המים שבתוכו מקודשים – and are appropriate/fit to sprinkle even though nothing came in there from the ashes of the cow/heifer at all, for they were as if they were attached to the water in the trough.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
What should he do? He should empty out the water until he gets to the sponge. This section explains how he should avoid the problem of invalid water from the sponge spilling into the valid water that remains in the trough. What he should do is pour all of the water into another container, thereby preserving its validity. He can then remove the sponge.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
היה ספוג – if at the time of the filling the sponge was in the trough, the water that was absorbed in the sponge are invalid, for we require “fresh water shall be added to them in a vessel” (Numbers 19:17), but the sponge is not a vessel.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Parah
If one touched the sponge, however much the water that washes over it, the water becomes invalid. However, if he touches the sponge at all, we must be concerned lest some got squeezed out into the other water and therefore all of the water would be invalid.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
יזלף עד שהוא מגיע לספוג – when he comes to take the water and to put them into a bottle with a wide belly and a narrow neck/flash, he pours all the water until it reaches the sponge, but he should not pour from the water that is in the sponge at all, in order that the waters that are in the sponge don’t mix which are invalid with the waters that are in the trough that are fit/appropriate and all of them will become invalid.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Parah
נגע בספוג – the waters of the sponge were wrung out into the trough and the invalid ones were mixed up with the fit/appropriate ones, and all of them were invalidated.
