Les Mikvaot sont [considérés] mélangés [lorsqu'ils sont reliés par une ouverture] de la taille du tube d'un flacon, pareil à lui dans sa largeur, et pareil à lui dans [la longueur de] son creux, de sorte que deux doigts peuvent être tourné sur place [c'est-à-dire que son diamètre doit être la longueur de deux doigts]. S'il y a une incertitude quant à savoir si [l'ouverture] était la taille du tube d'un flacon ou n'était pas la taille du tube d'un flacon, elle est invalide parce que c'est [une exigence] de la Torah [d'immerger dans un mikveh valide , et donc nous nous prononçons strictement sur la question]. De même [nous nous prononçons rigoureusement dans une situation d'incertitude] concernant la masse d'un cadavre d'une olive, la masse d'une olive d'une carcasse et la masse d'une lentille d'une vermine. Tout ce qui se tiendra dans [une ouverture] de la taille du tube d'un flacon, le réduit [d'être de cette taille, et donc de pouvoir être une connexion entre mikvaot ]. Le rabbin Shimon ben Gamliel dit: toute chose créée à partir de l'eau est pure [c'est-à-dire ne réduit pas la taille de l'ouverture].
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
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).
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
מפני שהיא מן התורה – the obligation of immersion in a Mikveh of water (see Genesis 1:10). It is from the Torah.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
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.
