Study Beitzah folio 18A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
שמא יטלנו בידו, ויעבירנו ארבע אמות ברשות הרבים. אמר ליה אביי: יש לו בור בחצירו, מאי איכא למימר? אמר ליה: גזירה בור בחצרו אטו בור ברשות הרבים.
lest one come to pick up the vessel in his hand and carry it 4 cubits in the public domain to a mikveh. Abaye said to Rabba: If one has a pit full of water of a mikveh in his courtyard, so that this decree should not apply, what is there to say? Rabba said to him: The rabbis issued a decree against immersing vessels even in a pit of water in one’s own courtyard due to a pit situated in the public domain.
התינח שבת, ביום טוב מאי איכא למימר? גזרו יום טוב אטו שבת.
Abaye posed another challenge: This works out well with regard to Shabbat, but with regard to a Festival, when there is no prohibition against carrying from one domain to another, what is there to say? Rabba replied: The rabbis issued a decree that it is prohibited to immerse a vessel on a Festival, due to the prohibition against immersing it on Shabbat.
ומי גזרינן? והא תנן: ושוין שמשיקין את המים בכלי אבן לטהרן, אבל לא מטבילין. ואי איתא — נגזור השקה אטו הטבלה!
The Talmud asks: And do we issue a decree in such a case? But didn’t we learn in the Mishnah: And Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel both agree that one may bring ritually impure water into contact with ritually pure water in stone vessels in order to purify the water. However, one may not immerse the impure water in a ritually impure vessel in order to purify the vessel at the same time. And if it is so that such a decree was issued, let us also decree here that bringing ritually impure water into contact with ritually pure water is prohibited due to the prohibition against immersing a ritually impure vessel in a mikveh.