פירוש על מקואות 6:10

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.