Study Bava Batra folio 66B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
והא קיימא לן: דרבנן! ועוד, האמר רבי יוסי בן רבי חנינא: בדף של מתכת מחלוקת!
But this is difficult, as we maintain that the halakha that drawn water invalidates a mikveh applies only by rabbinic decree. And furthermore, doesn’t R' Yosei ben R' Ḥanina say that the dispute between R' Eliezer and the Rabbis is with regard to a board of metal, and a metal vessel, even if it is flat and lacks a receptacle, is susceptible to ritual impurity by Torah law? This means that, according to R' Eliezer, even a vessel that is susceptible to ritual impurity by Torah law loses its status as a vessel when it is affixed to the ground. Consequently, the question returns: Whose opinion is cited in the baraita that states that if one first hollowed out a duct and afterward fixed it to the ground, it is still considered a vessel and water flowing through it invalidates a mikveh, but if he first fixed it to the ground and afterward hollowed it out, the water flowing through it does not invalidate a mikveh?
לעולם רבנן היא, ושאני שאיבה דרבנן.
The Talmud answers: Actually, one can explain that the baraita is in accordance with the opinion of the Rabbis, who deem the baker’s metal board susceptible to ritual impurity even when it is fixed to a wall, but the halakha governing drawn water added to a deficient mikveh is different, because drawn water invalidates a deficient mikveh only by rabbinic law, and therefore the Rabbis were lenient.
אי הכי, אפילו חקקו ולבסוף קבעו נמי! שאני התם, דאיכא תורת כלי עליו בתלוש.
The Talmud asks: If so, then even if one first hollowed out the duct and only afterward fixed it to the ground, water flowing through it should not invalidate the mikveh as well. The Talmud answers: It is different there, where the duct was hollowed out before being affixed to the ground, as the duct had the status of a vessel when it was still detached from the ground, and therefore the Rabbis were not willing to be lenient to such an extent and rule that water flowing through the duct does not invalidate a mikveh.