Como assim? Se houver uma cova no pátio, e três troncos [de águas desenhadas] caírem nela, ela estará para sempre em seu estado inválido até que sua plenitude, mais algumas mais, se afaste dela, ou até que se ergue [outro micvê contendo] quarenta se'ah no pátio [e faz uma abertura para se conectar entre eles], e as [águas] superiores serão purificadas pelas inferiores. O rabino Elazar ben Azariah considera-o inválido, exceto se alguém ligar [todos os lados do poço que contém as águas inválidas, de modo que seja aberto apenas para o micvê válido ].
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
שיעמיד בחצר ארבעים סאה – a kosher Mikveh below from the invalid/unfit one, and he opens a channel to the Kosher one (i.e., Mikveh) so that they can combine and the upper unit/invalid one can be purified from the lower Kosher one (i.e., Mikveh), as we stated, we raise/stretch it (i.e., the partitions – adopting the legal fictions that the partitions around the stand are prolonged). And all the more so, if the kosher [Mikveh] is above and the unfit/invalid one is below, for we state that we stretch and bring the partitions down (i.e., adopt the fiction that the walls are prolonged so as to reach the bottom).
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
Introduction
Today's mishnah is a continuation of yesterday's. It explains how a mikveh that has been disqualified because three logs fell into it can again become valid.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Mikvaot
אא"כ פסק – that the waters spotted and went out from it to its fullness and a bit more, as we stated (in Mishnah 1). And there are those who have the reading [at the end of the Mishnah]: "אא"כ פקק"/unless he inserted a stop-gap/stopped it up, meaning to say, unless he closed off on the Mikveh that he had made until it will not make contact/touch any of the water. But the first reading appears to me to be the essential one. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
How so? If there was a cistern in a courtyard and three logs [of drawn water] fell into it, it will always remain invalid until the whole of it is removed and a little more, or until [another mikveh containing] forty se'ahs is placed in the courtyard, so that the higher mikveh is rendered valid by the lower. The mishnah provides two ways to revalidate a mikveh that has been declared invalid because of three logs of drawn water. The first is to remove all of the water and then allow new valid water to flow in. This is the solution we saw in yesterday's mishnah. The second way of validating the mikveh can work if there are two cisterns in the courtyard, one higher than the other. The higher one is the one that has been made invalid. He can add water to this cistern so that it overflows and the water will flow down into the lower cistern which also has less than forty seahs of water. The water flowing from the upper cistern will cause the lower one to have more than forty seahs and it will be pure. By virtue of its connection with the lower cistern which is valid, the higher cistern is also validated as a mikveh. We shall learn of this principle below in 6:8.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Mikvaot
Rabbi Elazer ben Azariah declares it invalid unless the [new mikveh] is stopped up. Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says he must stop up the upper mikveh, and then the bottom mikveh will fill up with forty seahs of valid water that he has allowed to flow into the courtyard and then he can attach the two mikvaot. But if he doesn't stop up the upper mikveh, then the invalid water will flow into the lower mikveh and it too will be invalid.
