Commentaire sur Mikvaot 6:12

כל המעורב. חורי המערה – holes that are within the Mikveh/ritual bath. But because most of their immersions are in caves, they call the Mikveh a cave.

Anything which is joined with [the water of] a mikveh is like a mikveh. A small body of water which is joined with a valid mikveh takes on the properties of the mikveh and can be used as such, even if it doesn't contain forty seahs.

כמה שהן – even though they are not they are not perforated like the tube (mouth-piece) of a leather bottle.

One may immerse in holes of a cavern and in crevices of a cavern just as they are. This is an example of the principle in section one. One may use the holes in the sides of a cavern in which a mikveh is found, even if they are not connected to the mikveh itsel by a hole the size of the tube of a water-skin.

עוקת המערה – a hole/indentation that is in the rim/bottom of the cave, its waters are not considered with the waters of the Mikveh that are above them to be kosher/fit to immerse in them, unless there is between them like the tube (mouth-piece) of a leather bottle.

The pit of a cavern, one may not immerse in it unless it had a hole as big as the tube of a water-skin. This pit is dug out next to the mikveh in the cavern and is not part of the cavern itself. For this pit to be used as part of the mikveh it must be attached to the mikveh by a hole at least as wide as the tube of a water-skin. This same measure was mentioned in 4:5 concerning attaching a trough to a mikveh.

אמר ר' יהודה – Rabi Yehuda does not come to argue but rather to explain.

Rabbi Judah said: when [is this the case]? When it stands by itself; but if it does not stand by itself, one may immerse in it just as it is. Rabbi Judah limits this to a case when the pit stands on its own. If the pit does not stand on its own, but rather is leaning on the walls of the mikveh, then it is considered part of the mikveh and one can immerse in it even if it is not attached by a hole the size of the tube of a water-skin.

בזמן שהיא מעמדת את עצמה – when he comes to immerse in the hole/indentation, the hole stands on its own, and the roof that forms a partition/makes a dam between it and the cave does not fall on its own.

אבל אם אינה מעמדת את עצמה – and at the time that the comes to immerse, the roof of the hole/indentation which is at the bottom of the Mikveh falls and the waters of the Mikveh combine with the waters of the hole/indentation.

מטבילין בה כמו שהיא – and even if the incision is not like the tube (mouth-piece) of a leather bottle.

והטבילן הרי אלו טהורים – and even if the moth of the bucket is not wide as the tube (mouth-piece) of a leather bottle. As for example, that the bucket itself is ritually impure and requires ritual immersion, for since that immersion occurs to the bucket, it occurs also for what is inside it.

If a bucket was full of utensils and they were immersed, they become clean; If one fully immerses a bucket into a mikveh, and in the bucket there are vessels that he wishes to purify, the vessels become clean. The waters of the mikveh enter the bucket and therefore even if the mouth of the bucket is narrower than the tube of a water-skin, all of the vessels count as being in the bucket.

ואם לא טבל – we have this reading. That is to say, if the bucket is ritually pure and he does not immerse it, that it doesn’t require ritual immersion.

But if [the bucket] was not immersed, the water in the bucket is not considered as joined [with the water of the mikveh] unless it be joined [by means of a hole in the bucket which is as big] as the tube of a water-skin. If he didn't put the entire bucket into the vessel, just part of it, and the waters of the mikveh entered the vessel through a hole in the vessel, then that hole must be as big as the tube of a water-skin. As we have seen, this is the size that allows the waters of the mikveh to be joined with another container.

עד שיהו מעורבין כשפופרת הנוד – the utensils that are within it (i.e., the bucket) are not ritually pure until the mouth of the bucket is like the tube (mouth-piece) of a leather bottle.

בזה עשרים ובזה עשרים – kosher water [in the first two Mikvaot]. But in the third [Mikveh] twenty Seah of drawn water.

Three mikvehs, two of which held twenty seahs [of valid water] and the third held twenty seahs of drawn water, and that holding drawn water was at the side: If three persons went down and immersed themselves in them and [the water of the three mikvehs] joined, the mikvehs are clean and they that immersed themselves become clean. When the three people go down into the three mikvaot the water level rises and the water from each mikveh is mixed with the others. Since the mikveh with the invalid drawn water is at the side, this is a case where the two mikvaot with the valid water are mixed together first and then they together validate the drawn water from the third mikveh.

וטבלו ונתערבו – through their immersions, the water floated/came to the surface and restored a liquid to cleanness by contact or levelling with a clean well and all three joined with each other.

If the one holding the drawn water was in the middle and three persons went down and immersed themselves in them and [the water of the three mikvehs] joined, the mikvehs continue as they were before and they that immersed themselves are as they were before. If the mikveh with the invalid water is in the middle, then none of the mikvaot are rendered valid because the drawn water invalidates them both. However, the water is not invalidated because we don't know for sure that three logs of drawn water have gone in to the other mikvaot. If he were to subsequently fill one of these mikvaot, it would become valid. The people that immersed remain impure.

המקואות טהורים – that that which is drawn water. For behold that the two kosher [Mikvaot] combine together and there is here the measure of a Mikveh of forty kosher Seah, and when the drawn water joins with them, that the waters float on top of them on account of those who are immersing, their waters become fit for immersion.

היה השאוב באמצע – on account of that the drawn water interrupts between the two outer kosher waters, the kosher waters do not mix with each other.

המקואות כמו שהיו – that the kosher waters are kosher to conduct water courses into a common bed/to add to the capacity of the ritual bath to complete the forty kosher Seah [of water], but the drawn water are not kosher to add to the capacity of the ritual bath. But even though that the drawn water combines with all of them, they don’t invalidate from adding to the capacity of the ritual bath, for the manner of the conducting of water through a channel that they combined, and did not fall from the utensil to the kosher waters, but what fell from it to each of them was voided in the majority before they fell into the Mikveh.

שהיו בהן שלשה לוגין מים – absorbed and attached to them (i.e., the sponge and/or the bucket), but they are not apparent to the eye, therefore, the Rabbis did not decree that this is not called “that they fell.”

If a sponge or a bucket containing three logs of water fell into a mikveh, they do not make it invalid, because they have only said: "if three logs fell in." This mishnah is a great example of how some later rabbis read and expound upon statements made by earlier sages. The earlier sages said that if three logs of drawn water fall into a mikveh that doesn't have forty logs of water, they render it invalid. The rabbis of our mishnah say that there must be three actual logs of water that fall into the mikveh, not a sponge or a bucket containing three logs of water. Note that the mouth of the bucket must be thinner than the tube of a water-skin. If not, we are in the situation in mishnah two of this chapter and we consider the two sources to be joined.

השידה והתיבה (the safe/box and the chest) – large utensils made of wood and they are placed within a Kosher mikveh.

A chest or a box which is in the sea: one may not immerse in them unless they have a hole as large as the tube of a water-skin. Rabbi Judah says: in the case of a large vessel [the hole should be] four handbreadths, and in a small one [the hole should be as large as] the greater part of it. The chest or box is floating on the water and water is entering through cracks. The question is whether the water in the box counts as if it was in the sea, in which case there is certainly sufficient water to immerse in it. The first opinion rules that a hole in the box the size of the tube of a water-skin is sufficient for the water in the box to count as mixed in with the waters of the sea. Rabbi Judah rules more stringently. He says that if the box is large, meaning that the majority of the box is more than four handbreadths, then the hole must be at least four handbreadths for the water to be considered mingled. If the box is smaller than that, than the hole must be at least the greater part of the size of the box. Basically, the box must have a pretty big hole relative to its size.

אלא אם כן היו נקובים כשפופרת הנוד – it is similar to a cavity/pit that we stated above (see Tractate Mikvaot, Chapter 6, Mishnah 1) that it needs to be perforated like the tube (mouth-piece) of a leather bottle (i.e., stopper of a waterskin).

If there was a sack or a basket [in the sea], one may immerse in them as they are, since the water is mixed together. If they are placed under a water-spout, they do not make the mikveh invalid. And they may be immersed and brought up in the ordinary way. The sack and the basket are not at all water-proof, therefore their rules are different from those governing the box or chest. If they are in the sea, they count as being part of the sea and they don't need a hole in order to be able to immerse in them. If they are placed under a water-spout they don't cause the water to be considered "drawn water" as would vessels that are made to hold water. Finally, since the water in them doesn't count as "drawn water" one could immerse them in a mikveh containing exactly forty seahs of water and then pick them up again. The water that will gather in the basket and then fall back into the mikveh does not count as "drawn water" which would disqualify the mikveh.

בכלי גדול – as for example, where the surface is nine handbreadths or more, for its minority is for four handbreadths, it is sufficient with a perforation of four handbreadths. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

שק או קופה (sack or a basket) – a basket made from sprouts/offshoots of a peeled willows.

מטבילין בהן כמו שהן – if they are in the ocean. But they don’t require a perforation like the tube (mouthpiece) of a leather bottle (i.e., stopper of a waterskin), for all of them are filled with holes and the water in them is voided as regards the water of the Mikveh.

אינן פוסלין את המקוה – because of drawn water.

ומעלין אותן כדרכן (and bring them out in the ordinary way) – as for example, in a Mikveh that has in it forty Seah defined exactly as we state further on (see Tractate Mikvaot, Chapter 7, Mishnah 6) regarding a cushion or mattress of leather, since he lifted up their rims/lips from the water, the water within them is [considered] drawn [water]. How should he do it? Immerse them and raise them through their rims at the bottom of the vessel, for we are not concerned about a sack or a basket, for the water that is within them is not considered drawn water to invalidate the Mikveh.

Introduction Today's mishnah brings up some interesting cases in which a person can become pure and be made impure at virtually the same time.

If there was a broken [earthenware] vessel in the mikveh and utensils were immersed in it, they become clean from their [former] uncleanness but are again rendered unclean because of the earthenware vessel. But if water flowed above it in any quantity, they are clean. An impure broken earthenware vessel is floating on top of a mikveh or the sea. Water is entering it from its sides. If one immerses vessels in this broken vessel they are clean. This means that the water in the vessel does not count as "drawn water" because the vessel is broken. However, there is a problem (isn't there always?). An earthenware vessel cannot become pure by virtue of immersing it in a mikveh. [Earthenware vessels must be broken to become pure]. Therefore, this broken vessel is still impure. When one pulls out the vessel he is immersing, the water that comes up with it will immediately become impure by being in the airspace of the impure earthenware vessel. That water will then defile the vessel being immersed, as liquids always do. However, if the earthenware vessel is fully immersed in the water of the mikveh, then the water above it is pure because it is part of the mikveh. Thus if he immerses the vessel on top of the earthenware vessel, when he takes it out, it will be pure.

If [water of] a spring flowed forth from an oven and a man went down and immersed himself in it, he is clean but his hands become unclean. But if [the water was as] high above the oven as the height of his hands, his hands also are clean. An impure earthenware oven is set or even attached to the ground, as was the custom with ovens. Suddenly, a spring bursts forth from the ground through the oven (thereby ruining the pot roast, but that's another issue.) One can immerse in the spring inside the oven. However, his hands which will be inside the oven's airspace when he comes out, will be defiled. But if the water flows over the oven by at least the height of his hands, then when he comes out, his hands will be immersed in this water. If this is the case, they will remain pure.

עירוב מקואות – a Mikveh that is lacking [a certain amount of kosher water] that is at the side of a complete (i.e., full) Mikveh. Or alternatively, in this one (i.e, Mikveh) are twenty Seah and in that one are twenty Seah and the water intermingles through an incision or a perforation, its measure to combine them and to make them fit/kosher is as if each one has forty Seah.

Introduction Our mishnah talks about how two mikvaot can be joined together such that if each has less than forty seahs of water, we can consider them both together so that they have forty seahs.

כשפופרת הנוד כעוביה וכחללה (like the mouth-piece of a leather bottle in its thickness and its empty space/capacity) – of a reed that they place in the mouth of the tube. And that is like two fingers that return to their place, turning themselves around in the space in the cavity of the incision. And the two fingers that they mentioned are the two fingers adjacent to the thumb, the first ones that are in the palm of the hand, and that is a finger (i.e., index finger) and a cubit (i.e., middle finger -used to measure the cubit from the person’s elbow).

Mikvaot can be joined together [if their connection is as big] as the tube of a water-skin in thickness and in space, in which two fingers can be fully turned round. The hole connecting the two mikvaot must be the size the tube of a water-skin, which is two fingerbreadths in width. As the mishnah explains, one must be able to put one's fingers in the tube and fully turn them around.

If there is a doubt [whether it is as big] as the tube of a water skin or not, it is invalid, because [this is a mitzvah] from the Torah. If someone immerses in one of these mikvaot, and it alone has less than forty handbreadths and he is not sure whether the connection with the other mikveh is as big as the tube of a water-skin, he remains impure. This is because the mitzvah to immerse in the mikveh is from the Torah and in cases of doubt concerning toraitic impurity, the law is strict.

מפני שהיא מן התורה – the obligation of immersion in a Mikveh of water (see Genesis 1:10). It is from the Torah.

The same applies also to the olive's bulk of a corpse and the olive's bulk of carrion and the lentil's bulk of a sheretz. If there is a doubt whether a piece of corpse is the bulk of an olive, which is the size required to defile, or a piece of carrion (of an impure animal) is the size of an olive or a dead sheretz (creepy-crawly thing) is the size of a lentil, in all of these cases the law is stringent and that which it touched is considered impure. Again, this type of defilement is from the Torah.

וכן כזית מן המת – there is doubt if they have according to the measurement and doubt if they don’t have according to the measurement, their doubtfulness makes it impure. And especially in the private domain, but in the public domain, their doubtfulness makes it pure. But even though that even according to the rabbis a doubtful of [ritual] impurity in the private domain, its doubt [makes it] impure, nevertheless, here, if these were the measurements of the Rabbis, we would purify it.

Anything which remains in [the space measuring] the tube of a water-skin lessens [its measure]. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel says: if it is any water creature whatsoever, [the mikvaot] remain clean. If something remains in the hole that connects the two mikvaot, it reduces the size of the hole. If it is less than the size of a water-tube, the two mikvaot are not considered connected. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel says that if there is some sort of water-creature, perhaps a water-worm of some sorts, in the hole, it does not reduce the size of the hole. If someone immerses, he will be clean.

כל שיעמוד – whether dust whether stones whether red insects found in liquids (i.e., gnats) that grow in the water, if they stand on the mouth of the incision, it diminishes the mouthpiece of the leather bottle, and the Mikvaot/ritual baths do not mix/combine.

כל שהוא מבריית המים – as for example red insects found in liquids (i.e., gnats). But the Halakha is not according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel.

העליון מן התחתון – as for example, that the upper [Mikveh] had drawn water and the bottom [Mikveh] had kosher/fit water.

Introduction Today's mishnah teaches how one can use one valid mikveh to make valid another mikveh valid.

והרחוק מן הקרוב – but we ae not concerned lest a person come and he stopped/interrupted the contact between liquids [so that the water of the ritual bath comes in contact with the impure water], and has immersion did not have any effect for him.

Mikvaot may be made clean [by joining drawn water from] a higher [mikveh to valid water] from a lower [mikveh or drawn water from] a distant [mikveh to valid water] in a [mikveh] near at hand. If there are two mikvaot on the sides of sloped ground, one can make the higher mikveh valid by having it touch (literally, kiss) the lower mikveh. If the two mikvaot are on equal ground, one can similarly make the one valid by having it touch the other mikveh. The mishnah will now demonstrate how.

מביא סילון של חרס או של אבר (brings a pipe of earthenware or lead) – and the same law applies of wood or of bone or of glass. אבר – lead.

How so? One brings a pipe of earthenware or of lead and puts his hand beneath it till it is filled with water; then he draws it along till [the two waters] touch even if it be by a hair's breadth it is sufficient. He takes some pipe made of either earthenware or lead and puts one end in the higher (invalid) mikveh. Then he closes up the other end of the pipe with his hand and draws it along until the water in the pipe touches the lower mikveh. Even if only a little bit of water touches the lower mikveh, the waters of the upper mikveh are validated.

ומניח ידו תחתיו – of the pipe in order that the water does not go outside when he fills it until the time when the waters come in contact and combine with the other [pure] Mikveh.

If in the higher [mikveh] there were forty seahs and nothing in the lower, one may draw water and carry it on the shoulder and place it in the higher [mikveh] till forty seahs have flowed down into the lower [mikveh]. In this case there are forty seahs of valid water in the upper mikveh but nothing in the lower mikveh. He can draw more water and carry it to fill up the upper mikveh because once it has forty valid seahs, no amount of drawn water renders it invalid. Then he can use a pipe to let water flow from the upper mikveh to the lower mikveh. In this way he can essentially use drawn water to fill the lower mikveh. Pretty neat!

אפילו כשערה – and they (i.e., the Rabbis) were lenient regarding drawn water which is Rabbinical. But if the upper [Mikveh] was lacking from its measure and he comes to make it fit through contact with the waters [of the lower Mikveh] to complete it to its appropriate measure, it is not enough with contact as much as a hair’s breadth, for even Rabbi Yehuda who is more lenient in the second chapter of [Tractate] Gittin [16a] as he requires moist enough to moisten other objects.

ממלא בכתף – that since after there are forty Seah of fit/kosher water in the Mikveh, even all of the drawn water in the world does not invalidate it.

לשתי – from above to below.

If a wall between two mikvaot had a perpendicular crack, [their waters] may be reckoned together; [If it was cracked] horizontally, they cannot be reckoned together, unless there is at one place [a hole as big] as the tube of a water-skin. Rabbi Judah says: the rule is reversed. According to the first opinion, perpendicular cracks between the walls that runs add up together, such that if all of the cracks add up to the size of the tube of a water-skin, then the two mikvaot can be reckoned together to reach the requisite 40 seahs. However, if the crack runs horizontally, then there must be at least the size of the tube of a water-skin at one single point for the two mikvaot to be joined. Rabbi Judah says the reverse horizontal cracks do join together to add up the requisite size of a whole, but perpendicular cracks do not join together.

לערב – from right to left.

If there is a breach from one [mikveh] to the other, [they can be reckoned together] if the height is as [the thickness of] the skin of garlic and the breadth like the tube of a water-skin. For a breach to serve to connect two mikvaot that have a wall separating them, the breach must have a very minimum height, only as high as the skin of a piece of garlic. However, it must be as wide as the tube of a water-skin.

חלוף הדברים – from above to below, it doesn’t combine, from right to left, it does combine. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

נפרצו זה בתוך זה – that is from above at the top of the wall. And specifically when the wall is split/chipped off or perforated but above at its top it is whole, is where we require like the mouth-piece of the leather bottle, but when the wall is broken through at its top and the waters combine there, it is sufficient like the thickness of a garlic peel or like the width of the mouth-piece of a leather bottle.

האביק שבמרחץ (a pot in the bath-tub to which a waste-pipe is attached) – a sunken metal utensil in the bath-tub/bathing reservoir and it has in it a perforation/hole, that when the waters of the bath-tub/bathing reservoir become detestable on account of the immersions, they open the incision/hole that is in the pot and the water that is in the bath-tub/bathing reservoir goes out ,and channels to it other clean water and they stop up the hole so that the waters won’t go out, and the waters are channeled/flow into the bath-tub/bathing reservoir are kosher/fit for ritual immersion, for after they washed in warm waters, they enter into the bathing reservoir and immerse there.

Introduction Today's mishnah deals with a bathtub that has a pipe leading out of it for drainage. The bathtub itself seems to have been filled up with collected rainwater, such that the water in it could be valid as a mikveh. However, the pipe has a stopper on the outside and putting the stopper into the end of the pipe causes the water in the stopper to be considered drawn water. The question is: does this drawn water invalidate the valid water in the tub?

בזמן שהוא באמצע פסול – because all the dragged along waters are upon it, and there aren’t drawn waters here but rather what is within it. But the rest of the waters are a kosher/fit Mikveh adjacent to the drawn waters,

The outlet of a bath-basin: if it is in the center, it renders [the bath] invalid [as a mikveh]; but if it is at the side, it does not render it invalid, because then it is like one mikveh adjoining another mikveh, the words of Rabbi Meir. According to Rabbi Meir, if the outlet is in the middle of the bathtub, the drawn water in it causes the entire bathtub to be invalid. However, if the outlet is at the end of the tub then the mikveh remains valid because this is considered like a mikveh of drawn water which is invalid, which is next to a mikveh of valid water. As we learned in 2:5, such a mikveh is not invalidated.

but drawn waters at the side of kosher/fit waters do not invalidate, and even though they come in contact one with the other.

But the sages say: if the bath- basin can contain a quarter-log of [water] before it reaches the outlet, it is valid; but if not, it is not valid. According to the sages, if there is a quarter-log of water in the basin before any water drains out the outlet, then the mikveh is valid for this is the minimum measure from the Torah (as determined by the sages) for a valid mikveh. In such a case, we would have a valid mikveh next to an invalid mikveh. But if not, then the water in the bath-basin cannot count as a mikveh.

אם מקבלת האמבטי רביעית – kosher/fit waters prior to their reaching the pot in the bath-tub to which the waste pipe is attached, it is as if it received forty Seah, for the one-quarter of a LOG measurement of Mikveh is according to the Torah to immerse in it needles and water pipes/ducts.

Rabbi Elazar bar Zadok says: if the outlet can contain any amount of [water], it is invalid. Rabbi Eliezer considers the water in the outlet to be water in a vessel that is in a mikveh, which means that there is drawn water in the mikveh. No matter the size or position of the outlet, the mikveh is invalid.

אם מקבל האביק – meaning to say, that since the pot in the bath-tub to which a waste-pipe is attached is made to receive anything, it is ritually impure in any matter that will be, whether in the middle or whether from the side, whether the bath-tub receives a quarter-Log prior to it coming to the pot in the bath-tube to which a waste-pipe is attached or whether it doesn’t receive anything.

המטהרת שבמרחץ (the water pipe/filter of a bath/gutter) – the troughs/gutters (i.e., grooved stones to receive and carry off the overflow of a well/sink) that are made in a bath that channel to them cold water to rinse them off in order to purify themselves after they washed in hot water, and sometimes they are two troughs one on the side of the other, that the one is higher than its neighbor. And there is a hole in the wall that is between both of them that water goes out from this one to that one.

Introduction Today's mishnah deals with a pool of cool water that people were accustomed to immerse in after bathing in the hot waters of the bathhouse. The waters in the bathhouse were definitely drawn water, so one would need to purify after emerging from the hot bath.

אם יש כנגד הנקב שלשה לוגין – that the hole/perforation is wide and long like the measurement that three LOGS will enter into it, the upper [Mikveh] is invalidated on account of the drawn water that is in the lower one, for it is considered as if the water that corresponds the cavity of the hole are drawn in the middle of the upper [Mikveh], not from the side, and three LOG of drawn water invalidate when they are in the middle, even though they do not invalidate from the side. And the remarkable thing is what it (i.e., the Tanna/teacher of our Mishnah) took that the bottom one is drawn water, and the upper one is fit/kosher water, for it is the manner of water to descend and it is not the manner of water to ascend, but nevertheless, the upper [Mikveh] is invalidated. And all the more so, that it (i.e., the Mikveh) is invalidated when the kosher/fit is to side of the lower one.

The ‘purifier' in the bathhouse: the bottom was full of drawn [water] and the top full of valid [water], if [the space] in front of the hole can contain three logs it is invalid [as a mikveh]. How large must the hole be to contain three logs? 1/320th of the pool, the words of Rabbi Yose. There are two pools next to each other, one elevated above the other. The bottom one contains drawn water and the top is full of valid water. The two pools are connected by a hole. If the hole can contain three logs (the amount of drawn water that invalidates a mikveh) then we look at it as if the water from the lower pool has gone into the upper pool and its waters are invalid to use as a mikveh. If a normal pool has forty seahs, which is equivalent to 960 logs of water (1 seah=24 logs) then three logs are 1/320th of the size of a normal mikveh.

כמה יהא בנקב – now it comes to teach us what is the measurement of the hole/incision that three LOG [of water[ came out from it at one time.

But Rabbi Elazar says: even if the bottom [pipe] was full of valid [water] and the top [pipe] full of drawn [water] and by the hole's side were three logs, [the bath is] valid, for they have only said: "if three logs fell in." Rabbi Elazar says that three logs invalidate a mikveh only if they fall in. They do not invalidate a mikveh in a case such as we have here, because in this case there was invalid water standing next to valid water and connected by a hole. This same literal reading of the older tradition was found above in mishnah four.

אחד משלש מאות ועשרים בבריכה – that three LOG are 1/320th [it needs to say from forty Seah]. How so? The Seah is six KAB, and the KAB is four LOG, it is found that forty SEAH are nine hundred and sixty LOG. Thus three LOG are 1/320th part of a pool, meaning to say, that in a kosher Mikveh of forty Seah, and the Sages estimated the measurement of a Mikveh that holds forty Seah, a cubit by a cubit at the height of three cubits, for the measurement of the hole/incision that holds three LOG is 1/320th from a cubit by a cubit at the height of three cubits that hold forty Seah. And Maimonides wrote, that if the pool was less or more than forty Sea, we calculate the hole/incision at less or more according to this calculation, as for example, if the pool had twenty Seah [of water], the hole must be 1/160th in size.

אפילו התחתון מלאה כשרים והעליונה מלאה שאובין – that it is the manner of water to descend, nevertheless, three LOGS of drawn water that are in the hole do not invalidate the lower [Mikveh].

שלא אמרו אלא שלשה לוגין שנפלו – for the drawn water does not invalidate the Mikveh until it falls itno it. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yossi.