Eau puisée et eau de pluie qui se sont mélangées dans une cour, ou dans un trou, ou sur les marches supérieures d'une caverne [et de là se sont écoulées dans un mikvé ], si la majorité [de l'eau du mikvé ] provient des [eaux valides ], il est valide; si la majorité vient des invalides, elle est invalide; s'il est moitié-moitié, il est invalide. Quand est-ce le cas? A un moment où ils se mélangent avant d'arriver au mikvé . S'ils se jettent dans les eaux [du mikvé directement, plutôt que de se mélanger d'abord], si l'on sait que quarante se'ah [une unité spécifique de volume] d'eau valide y sont tombés avant trois log [une mesure spécifique de volume] d'eau puisée, il est valide; et sinon, il est invalide.
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
מים שאובים – which are invalid for a Mikveh.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
Drawn water and rain water which were mixed together in a courtyard or in a cavity or on the steps of a cave: If the greater part was valid, the whole is valid; And if the greater part is invalid, the whole is invalid. If they were equal in quantity, the whole is invalid. The "cavity" referred to here is a depression in the ground close to the mikveh, but not part of the mikveh. The steps of the cave are those that lead down into the mikveh (if you're ever in an archaeological site in Israel you will see those all over the place). Thus in all three of these cases the waters that are mixed together have not yet arrived at the mikveh. This is important because if the drawn water had flowed directly into the mikveh and there were not forty seahs of valid water in the mikveh, the mikveh would be invalid. In the cases listed here, as long as the majority is rain water, which is valid for use in the mikveh, the entire mikveh is valid.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
ומי גשמים – that are kosher.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
When [does this apply]? When they were mingled together before they arrived at the mikveh. The leniency in the above section applies only if they are mingling such that they cannot be recognized as coming from different sources before they get to the mikveh.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
שנתערבו בחצר או בעוקה – (that combined in a courtyard or a pit/trough) – in a hole that water gathered in there, or on the steps of the cave, and from there, they continued and descended to the Mikveh.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
If [the drawn water] flowed into the [rain] water: it was known that there fell in forty seahs of valid water before there came in three logs of drawn water, [the mikveh is] valid; otherwise it is invalid. However, if the drawn water is recognizable as it flows into the rain water (for instance the drawn water has a different color), then for the mikveh to be valid we must be sure that there were forty seahs of valid water in the mikveh before three logs of drawn water got in. As a reminder, once forty seahs of valid water (not drawn water) are in the mikveh, it is not invalidated by the addition of drawn water.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
אם רוב מן הכשר – as for example that twenty-one Seah of them were rain water and nineteen of them were drawn water, it is kosher/fit.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
היו מקלחין בתוך המים – that they didn’t descend to the Mikveh by conducting water through a channel through the path of the courtyard and the pit/trough and the ascent of the cave, but rather from the utensils themselves they would splash in an uninterrupted flow into the Mikveh.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
ואם לאו פסול – that three LOGS of drawn water invalidate [the Mikveh] when they fell into the Mikveh not by the conducting of water through a channel. But the path of conducting of water through a channel did not invalidate until most of the water is drawn [water], even the drawn waters on their own that did not mix/combine with the kosher [waters], do not invalidate by the conducting of water through a channel other than with a majority. As for example, a Mikveh that has in it twenty-one Seah of rain water, fills with a carrier/porter and channels through it nineteen Seah of drawn waters and it is fit, for the majority are kosher waters. And such is the Halakha.
