055b - מעשר בהמה פרק תשיעי בכורות דף נה, ע"ב

[But there are] springs that rise high!^[1]

עינתא דמדליין - Springs of water that well up on high mountains. These are higher than the Euphrates, so how can they come from the Euphrates?

Rav Mesharshiya said: Those are “ladders” of the Euphrates.^[2]

סולמי דפרת - They gush under the ground and rise up into the mountains, as on a ladder.

But it is written (Bereishis 2): “And the fourth river is the Euphrates”!^[3]

והנהר הרביעי - [The verse] counts it as one of them – and you say that they come from it?

Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak said, and some say it was Rav Acha bar Yaakov: It is the Euphrates of the beginning.^[4]

הוא פרת דמעיקרא - It is the Euphrates mentioned above, “And a river goes out of Eden” etc., from which the three branch off.

It was taught in a beraisa: Rabbi Meir says: Yuval is its name, as it is said (Yirmiyahu): “And he shall be like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the stream (yuval).”^[5]

יובל שמו - [That is the name] of the Euphrates. “And sends out its roots by the stream” etc. – the verse speaks of the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Life is in Gan Eden, and it is the Euphrates that waters Gan Eden.

And why is it called Peras?

Because its waters are fruitful and multiply (parim verabim).^[6]

פרין ורבין - For it grows and increases without any rain.

This supports Shmuel, for Shmuel said: A river is blessed from its own bed.^[7]

And it disagrees with Rav, for Rav Ami said in the name of Rav: Rain in the West – the great witness is the Euphrates.^[8]

סהדא רבה פרת - The Euphrates flows down from Eretz Yisrael to Bavel. When the rains fall in Eretz Yisrael, the Euphrates in Bavel is a great witness that rain has fallen in the West, because it grows on account of the rain.

Shmuel’s father made a mikveh for his daughters in the days of Nissan, and mats in the days of Tishrei.^[9]

מקוה ביומי ניסן - A mikveh of living, springing water in the house; he would not let them immerse in the rivers. For in the rainy season much rain has fallen, and he was concerned lest the water dripping from the clouds into the river exceed [the spring water] that flows; [rainwater] that is not fit for them, because they are possibly zavos, and of a zav it is written “living water.”^[10] Another version: “over the flowing water” refers to the [rain] that fell from the clouds to the ground, and from the ground crept and streamed into the river. For were it not dripping [rain]water, it would not be disqualified merely for flowing [over the ground], as we say in the first chapter of Temurah (12b): drawn water is purified by being drawn along – that is, one channels drawn water into the mikveh through conduits.^[11]

“A mikveh in the days of Nissan”^[12] – he holds like Rav, for Rav Ami said in the name of Rav: Rain in the West – the great witness is the Euphrates; lest the dripping [rain]water exceed the flowing [spring water], and the rainwater be the majority.^[13]

זוחלין - Springing [water].

“And mats in the days of Tishrei.”^[14]

ומפצי ביומי תשרי - When they immersed in the river in the days of Tishrei, he would make them mats of reeds, called claies [in Old French], and throw them into the water, and they would stand on them and immerse. For in the days of Tishrei there is soft mud in the rivers near their banks, and he feared lest mud come up onto their feet and form an intervention.^[15]

And his own [statement] disagrees with his own, for Shmuel said: Water does not purify while flowing, except the Euphrates in the days of Tishrei.^[16]

ה"ג ופליגא דידיה אדידיה - This is the reading: “And his own disagrees with his own” – that is, Shmuel’s [statement] disagrees with Shmuel’s.

אין המים מטהרין בזוחלין - For at all times the dripping [rain]water is more than they.

אלא פרת ביומי תשרי - For the waters of the Euphrates are fruitful and multiply, and the flowing water springing from its fountains is plentiful; and moreover Tishrei is the end of the summer, and no rain has fallen for a long time. Evidently rivers increase from rainwater – yet above he said “is blessed from its own bed.” Another version: Shmuel’s father made mikva’os for his daughter in the days of Nissan because it is the end of the winter, when much rain has fallen, but in the middle of the winter he did not; and he disagrees with Shmuel, who says that at all times we need mikva’os, except the Euphrates in the days of Tishrei.

MISHNAH

One who buys [an animal], or to whom it was given as a gift – it is exempt from maaser beheimah.^[17]

GEMARA

From where are these words [derived]?

Rav Kahana said: For the verse says (Shemos 22): “The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me; so shall you do with your ox and with your sheep”…^[18]

Tosfos

הוא פרת דמעיקרא - This means: it is not because it is small that [the verse] calls it the fourth; rather, it is the Euphrates of the beginning, whose name is Peras from before it begins to divide into four heads. When it begins to divide, the rivers go out, this one to one side [and that one to the other side], while the Euphrates goes straight on its course. And in Parashas Shekalim, Rabbi Elazar HaKalir^[19] composed in the silluk: “The Euphrates, whose strength is equal to two rivers.” So too it is implied in Bereishis Rabbah that it is great, for they say to the Euphrates: “Why is your voice not heard?” and it answers: “My fruits testify for me”; they say to the Chidekel: “Why is your voice heard?” and it answers: “If only I could make my voice heard and be seen!” – implying that the Chidekel is smaller than the Euphrates. And it is somewhat difficult, for it says in Perek Kol HaNishba’in (Shevuos 47b): “Unto the great river, the river Euphrates” – the servant of a king is like a king; which implies that it is called great only on account of Eretz Yisrael.

מסייע ליה לשמואל דאמר שמואל נהרא מכיפיה מיבריך - Although Shmuel speaks of all the rivers, while Rabbi Meir implies that he took the Euphrates specifically – that it is called Peras because its waters are fruitful and multiply – that is only because the Euphrates is blessed more, since it is more important than the others. Alternatively, because it is the head of them all it is called Peras, since all of them are blessed [from the bed of the Euphrates]. And so Rabbeinu Tam^[20] explained in a responsum: since the Euphrates is higher than all the rivers, and it is the height from which all the rivers drink, the verse ascribed fruitfulness and increase to it, for when it increases all the rivers increase.

מכיפיה מיבריך - From its rock, as [the Targum] translates sela (rock) as kifa.

מטרא במערבא סהדא רבה פרת - Here it is implied that the Euphrates flows from Eretz Yisrael to Bavel, as I explained above in Perek Mumin Elu (44b).^[21] It follows from this that Gan Eden is in the west of the world. For Bavel lies to the north-east of Eretz Yisrael – which is why the people of Bavel call Eretz Yisrael “the West” – and we say in [Perek] Lo Yachpor (Bava Basra 25b) that Bavel stands to the north of Eretz Yisrael, as it is written “Out of the north the evil shall break forth” etc. Evidently the Euphrates flows from west to east, and it is implied that so it is from the very start of its course, as we say “it is the Euphrates of the beginning”; evidently Gan Eden is in the west of the world. So too it is implied in Bereishis Rabbah, which says: everywhere we find that the east receives [those who are driven out]. It received Adam, as it is written “And He drove out the man, and He placed at the east of Gan Eden the cherubim”; it received Kayin, as it is written “And he dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden”; and regarding Moshe too, as it is written “Then Moshe set apart three cities toward the sunrise” – implying that this world, which Adam entered, is to the east of Gan Eden; we learn that it is in the west of the world. But it is puzzling, for in Perek HaMocher es HaSefinah (Bava Basra 84a) we say that the sun is red in the morning and in the evening: in the morning because it passes the roses of Gan Eden – implying that it stands in the east of the world, since in the morning the sun is in the east. And so Rabbeinu Shmuel^[22] explained there, from what is written “And He planted a garden in Eden, mikedem”: although we translate it “from the beginning,” nevertheless it also implies east; and likewise “east of Eden” and “at the east of Gan Eden” mean east, as Bereishis Rabbah implies, though [Onkelos] translates “from the beginning.” However, the verse can be deflected: [the world] is to the east of Eden, but Eden itself is in the west of the world. And that [passage] in Bava Basra can be explained as not meaning that [the sun] literally passes there; rather, in the morning, as the sun comes out, [it is red] from the force of the column of light upon the chambers of Gan Eden in the west, and in the evening from the force of the light of Gehinnom in the east. And there is nothing puzzling about this reason, for however we explain it, it must be said, since it says there: “And some say the reverse”; and it is not reasonable to say that they disagree in this, one holding Gan Eden is in the east and the other in the west.

ומפצי ביומי תשרי - The Kuntres [Rashi] explained that they put the mats under their feet in the water because of the mud, so that it should not intervene. And so it is implied in Perek Tinokes (Niddah 66b), where Shmuel bar Rav Yitzchak said: A woman should not immerse in a harbor^[23] – and although now there is no mud, say it fell in through didyuni, meaning through the treading with which she steps about. And after it [the Gemara] brings this [case] of Shmuel’s father here, and after that it brings what Rav Gidel said in the name of Rav: If she gave a cooked dish to her son and immersed, the immersion does not count for her – and although now there is none [on her hands], say it fell in through didyuni. And Rabbeinu Tam explains the mats as a matter of modesty: the rivers are small in the days of Tishrei, and he spread mats for them so that they would not be seen, lest they hurry to immerse out of embarrassment and not immerse properly. And that is also the reason she should not immerse in a harbor: because people are found there, and she hurries to immerse out of fear of people – similar to what it says there earlier: A woman should not stand on an earthenware vessel, and it explains there: because she is afraid lest she fall, and she does not immerse properly. And [on this view] we do not read in that [passage] of the harbor “and although now there is none.”

שמא ירבו מי נוטפין על הזוחלין והוו להו מי גשמים רובא - As the Kuntres explained; and rainwater does not purify while flowing, as taught in Toras Kohanim: A spring purifies while flowing, and a mikveh when collected (ashboren). And Rabbeinu Tam said: the “collected” of a mikveh is precise, to exclude flowing; but the “flowing” of a spring is not precise, to exclude collected. Rather, this is what it means: a spring purifies even when flowing, but a mikveh purifies only when collected.^[24] For it brings these there in Toras Kohanim, teaching: just as a spring is by the hand of Heaven, so a mikveh is by the hand of Heaven – excluding one who makes a mikveh from the outset [with drawn water]. Or: just as a spring purifies with any amount, so a mikveh purifies with any amount? The verse says “but a spring” – a spring with any amount, and a mikveh with forty se’ah. Or: just as a spring purifies when flowing, so a mikveh purifies when flowing? The verse says “but a spring” – a spring when flowing, and a mikveh when collected. And one may bring a proof from the Yam that Shlomo made,^[25] in which the kohanim immersed, although the water was collected there as in a mikveh. However, one can reject this, for the Yerushalmi says: “And it was for the kohanim to wash in” – but is it not a vessel? And it explains that the legs of the oxen were pierced like a spout; if so, it is possible that [the water] was flowing. And likewise the mikveh above the Water Gate in Perek Amar Lahem HaMemuneh (Yoma 31a), which was [fed] from the spring of Eitam, in which the Kohen Gadol immersed – it is possible that [the water] came in on one side and went out on the other. However, this much is simple: spring water that was cut off from the spring purifies when collected either way, for it has become a mikveh once it was cut off from the spring, and [a mikveh] purifies. And it is explicitly taught in Maseches Mikva’os (5:1): A spring that one passed over a pool and cut off – it is like a mikveh; if he again drew it along etc. And the water-trough of the slaughterhouse, of which it says in the first chapter of Pesachim (17b) that in the ground it is fit for immersing needles and tubes – which implies collected, like a vessel – and it says there that it came from the water channel in the Azarah. And it seems one can bring a proof even where it was not cut off, from what is taught in Maseches Mikva’os (8:8), brought in Perek Shemonah Sheratzim (Shabbos 109a): Rabbi Yose says: all seas purify while flowing, and are unfit for zavim etc. He disagrees with the Tanna Kamma, who said that all seas are like a mikveh, as it is said “and the gathering (mikveh) of the waters He called seas.” It is implied that Rabbi Yose comes to say that although they gather and stand, as it says at the beginning of Makkos (4a), they also purify while flowing, for the verse did not come to take from them the law of flowing [water]. So they disagree in this: according to the Tanna Kamma they do not purify while flowing, and according to Rabbi Yose they purify while flowing; but according to all, they purify when collected. Also, from what it says here, “Water does not purify while flowing, except the Euphrates in the days of Tishrei alone,” it is implied that it is [only] while flowing that it does not purify, but when collected [it does], even though the flowing [spring water] is not the majority.

אין המים מטהרין בזוחלין כו' - Rabbeinu Tam explained in the responsum beginning “Since the fallen slain have increased”: although Shmuel and his father, who made mikva’os in the days of Nissan, and Rav, who said “rain in the West” etc., stand in one line, we do not hold so; rather [we hold] like Shmuel’s other [statement], who said “a river is blessed from its own bed,” which is supported by the beraisa that said “Yuval is its name.” And even if the Rabbis disagree with him and hold that its name is Peras, nevertheless they support him from what Rabbi Meir says, that its waters are fruitful and multiply – for they do not disagree with him in this reasoning, that a river is blessed from its own bed, and they may hold that its name is Peras for this very reason. But one cannot say “why is it called Peras?” except according to Rabbi Meir, since according to Rabbi Meir it has another name; and Yuval, to the Rabbis, means as in “streams (yivlei) of water” (Yeshayahu 30). And in Bereishis Rabbah too it expounds like Rabbi Meir, saying: Chidekel – whose waters are sharp and light (chadim vekalim); Pishon – which grows flax (pishtan); Peras – whose waters are fruitful and multiply. And without rain, rivers and springs grow strong, as we say in Rosh Hashanah (11b): (on the first) of Iyar, when the constellation Kimah rises by day, the springs grow strong, and in Marcheshvan they diminish because of the withholding of rain, since it has not rained all summer; and as we say in Pesachim, in Perek Mi SheHayah Tamei (94b): in Tishrei, Marcheshvan and Kislev the sun travels through the [middle of the] sky to dry up the rivers. And at the end of Seder Taaniyos (Taanis 25b, see there) we also say that there is no handbreadth [of rain] that comes down without two handbreadths rising toward it from below; and just as the ground is moistened doubly from below when the rain falls, so too in the increase of rivers, the water increases and grows from below when the rain falls from above. And we also say there that the upper deep says to the lower deep: “Let your waters spring forth.” And if you ask: if so, from where do we know that Rav’s [statement], “rain in the West” etc., disagrees with him? Perhaps that is because the mikveh is blessed then [from below], as I explained. One can answer: because if it were so, that it is the natural way for [a river] to be blessed from its own bed, then all the rivers too would sometimes be blessed, and what testimony is there in the Euphrates river? That would be no testimony. And Rabbeinu Tam asked: for Shmuel, who said “water does not purify while flowing except the Euphrates in the days of Tishrei alone,” and for Rav and Shmuel’s father, there is a difficulty from what is taught in Maseches Parah (8:10), and brought at the beginning of the first chapter of Sanhedrin (5b): The waters of Karmiyon and the waters of Pigah are unfit for mei chatas, because they are [etc.] mixed waters^[26] – implying that otherwise they are fit, and we do not disqualify them lest the dripping [rain]water exceed the flowing and the rain be the majority. And one can answer that they hold that these four rivers are high, for Eretz Yisrael is higher than all the lands, and rainwater does not remain there. He further asked, for Rav, Shmuel’s father and Shmuel, who say that water does not purify while flowing except the Euphrates in the days of Tishrei alone: with what do they purify metzora’im, and with what do they sanctify mei chatas on Erev Pesach – for we say in Pesachim (90a) that there is immersion for a zav on Erev Pesach – and the sprinkling, how was it done on the men who made Pesach Sheni, and on all those impure through the dead of the wilderness, Mishael and Eltzafan?^[27] Were they not far from the Euphrates? However, according to what he explained, that these four rivers are high, there is no difficulty from the immersion of zavim and metzora’im on Erev Pesach; but from the sanctification of mei chatas there is a difficulty, for [mixed waters] are unfit for mei chatas, and from Mishael and Eltzafan. And he answered: perhaps the rivers and channels that are high – rain does not mix into them, for rainwater mixes and goes down into the low rivers, and is swept along and goes to the sea; it does not mix into high pools, nor into collected water, such as rivers that issue from caves, where rainwater does not mix and gather. Know this, from what is taught in Maseches Parah (8:11): The well of Achav and the cave of Pamyas are fit – and all the more so rivers and springs; as it teaches in the latter clause: A well into which earthenware or earth fell – he must wait until it clears, the words of Rabbi Yishmael; Rabbi Akiva says he need not wait. But the well of Achav and the cave of Pamyas had to be taught as fit, because the Jordan comes down from the cave of Pamyas, and the Jordan is unfit because it has [water of] mixture; it teaches us that the cave of Pamyas is not mixed water. But rivers are fit according to all. And Rabbeinu Tam further explained that one can say that by law each [drop] in turn is nullified,^[28] even according to Rav and Shmuel’s father, but they are stringent because of appearances, on account of the rain; and according to this last explanation, all those [cases] in the days of Moshe are no difficulty, for they had not yet decreed. And it seems that they are nullified in the majority, for all the rivers are joined to the Great Sea, more than the joining of mikva’os; and the beginning of the rivers is not a downward flow (katafras), for that is their living [source]; and it is not a downward flow that joins them but their living [source] that joins them. All this Rabbeinu Tam explained in the responsum. And that reason, that each [drop] in turn is nullified, is not tenable according to what I explained above in Perek HaLokeach Beheimah (22a, s.v. Yasiv),^[29] that every prohibition that was nullified revives when it again increases to the amount needed to forbid. However, that reason that they are joined to the Great Sea is tenable; as for what we say at the beginning of Makkos (4a), that one who immerses there, his immersion does not count – there [the drawn waters] are present in their own right, but here the dripping [rain]water is not recognisable or known [apart], with no mixture at all.

Notes

1. 1. Continued from the previous amud [Bechoros 55a]: Rav Yehudah said in Rav’s name that all rivers are lower than the Euphrates, so all water comes from it. The Gemara objected: but there are springs high in the mountains, above the Euphrates – how can they come from it?
2. 2. Rav Mesharshiya, a Babylonian Amora, a student of Rava. His answer: the water climbs up from the Euphrates through channels under the ground, as on a ladder, so even the springs high in the mountains come from it.
3. 3. Bereishis 2:10–14: a river goes out of Eden and from there divides into four heads – Pishon, Gichon, Chidekel, and the fourth river is the Euphrates. The question: the verse counts the Euphrates as one of four branches, which implies that the others do not come from it.
4. 4. That is: the Euphrates is the river that goes out of Eden itself, and the other three branch off from it – so all water does come from it. Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak was a fourth-generation Babylonian Amora.
5. 5. Rabbi Meir, a Tanna, a student of Rabbi Akiva. The verse is Yirmiyahu 17:8 (the reference in our text reads chapter 16). Yuval means a stream; according to Rashi the verse speaks of the Tree of Life in Gan Eden, which the Euphrates waters, so Yuval is the Euphrates’s own name.
6. 6. Peras is read as from pru urvu, “be fruitful and multiply”: its waters grow of themselves, without rain (Rashi). Hence the support for Shmuel that follows.
7. 7. Shmuel, a first-generation Babylonian Amora, head of the yeshivah in Nehardea. He means: a river grows from its own source in its bed, not from rainwater.
8. 8. Rav, a first-generation Amora, Shmuel’s colleague; Rav Ami reports in his name. “The West” is Eretz Yisrael, west of Bavel. When rain falls there, the Euphrates rises in Bavel and testifies to it – so rivers do grow from rainwater, against Shmuel.
9. 9. Shmuel’s father, Abba bar Abba, a sage of Nehardea. His daughters immersed in the river after niddah; in Nissan he made them a mikveh instead, and in Tishrei he spread mats for them in the river. The Gemara now explains each of the two.
10. 10. A zavah is a woman who saw blood on three consecutive days outside her regular period, and any woman might be one. A zav or zavah must immerse in “living water” – spring water (Vayikra 15:13) – so flowing rainwater cannot purify them.
11. 11. Drawn water disqualifies a mikveh, but if it is channelled along the ground into the mikveh it becomes valid. So flowing over the ground does not disqualify by itself; the problem is the rainwater itself.
12. 12. That is: Nissan is the end of the rainy season, when the rivers are full of rainwater; so he did not let his daughters immerse in the river, but made them a mikveh of spring water in the house (Rashi).
13. 13. A spring purifies even when its water flows (zochalin); a mikveh of rainwater purifies only when its water stands collected (ashboren) (Toras Kohanim). Notfin is rainwater. If most of a river is rainwater it has the law of a mikveh, and while it flows it does not purify.
14. 14. That is: Tishrei is the end of the summer, the river holds no rainwater, and immersing in it is valid; yet he spread mats for them. Rashi: because of the soft mud at the riverbank, lest it intervene; Rabbeinu Tam (Tosfos): for modesty.
15. 15. Chatzitzah: anything that comes between the body and the water during immersion invalidates the immersion.
16. 16. That is: Shmuel here contradicts his own words above, “a river is blessed from its own bed.” Here he implies that rivers swell from rainwater, so that only the Euphrates in Tishrei, when it holds no rain, purifies while flowing. This is Rashi’s reading.
17. 17. Maaser beheimah applies only to animals born in one’s own possession; an animal one bought, or received as a gift, is exempt. The Gemara asks for the source.
18. 18. Shemos 22:28–29. A hekesh derives a law from one subject to another written beside it. “So shall you do with your ox and your sheep” compares the animals to the sons. Continued on the next amud [Bechoros 56a]: as your sons are not acquired by purchase or gift, so too your animals.
19. 19. Rabbi Elazar HaKalir, one of the great early paytanim of Eretz Yisrael. The silluk is a section of the piyut said on Parashas Shekalim.
20. 20. Rabbeinu Tam: Rabbi Yaakov ben Meir, Rashi’s grandson, among the greatest of the Baalei HaTosfos (France, twelfth century).
21. 21. In Tosfos above [Bechoros 44b], s.v. Lo yashtin: they asked a man from Eretz Yisrael, who said that the Euphrates flows down from Eretz Yisrael to Bavel.
22. 22. Rabbeinu Shmuel: the Rashbam, Rashi’s grandson and Rabbeinu Tam’s brother, whose commentary is printed on Perek HaMocher es HaSefinah in Bava Basra.
23. 23. A harbor is where ships put in. For Rashi the reason is the mud; for Rabbeinu Tam, that people are about, so she hurries and does not immerse properly.
24. 24. That is, for Rabbeinu Tam: a spring purifies even when flowing, and all the more so when collected; a mikveh of rainwater purifies only when collected.
25. 25. The Yam that Shlomo made: a great copper basin in the Beis HaMikdash, standing on twelve oxen (Melachim I 7:23–25), in which the kohanim immersed.
26. 26. Mei chatas: living water into which the ashes of the red heifer are put, to be sprinkled on one impure from a corpse; it must be spring water.
27. 27. Mishael and Eltzafan carried out Nadav and Avihu (Vayikra 10:4); by one view they were the men impure from a corpse who kept Pesach Sheni (Bamidbar 9:6). They needed sprinkling in the wilderness, far from the Euphrates.
28. 28. Each drop in turn is nullified: every raindrop, as it falls into the river, is nullified in the majority of spring water, so the rainwater never becomes the majority.
29. 29. In Tosfos above, Bechoros 22a, s.v. Yasiv: a prohibition that was nullified revives when it grows back to the amount that forbids.