I found the discussion about the Ein Eitam spring leading to the mikveh that the Kohen Gadol used for his first tevilah on YK very interesting. We actually touched on it a week or two ago, referencing - different from the pictures that we're used to of the Makom Hamikdash being at the apex - that there was instead a stream higher up, presumably on a higher up hill nearby, in which the waters were diverted to the mikdash.
1. the gemara is very clear on today's daf that the Kohen Gadol was dipping in a mikveh, not a ma'ayan. And yet these waters were not coming from rain water, but from that diverted Ein Eitam stream. Since maayan water has to be "zochlim" and mikveh water has to be "kai'mu v'kaimi", shall I assume that they used zriah or hashaka heterim (which I know exist, even though I've never really studied them) to enable these waters to be used as a mikveh? Otherwise, how could such a mikveh be a kosher mikveh?
2. If they're going out of their way to get the Kohen Gadol a Mikveh - and it was clearly exposed, which is why they had to put a curtain in front of him for privacy, why not just rely on rainwater falling into that mikveh?
Avram Goldstein, Beit Shemesh, Israel
1)
(a) Tosfos Yeshanim DH Sh"M writes that even though the Mikveh here was a Mayan, it still required 40 sa'ah to be kosher for a person to immerse in. We learn from Tosfos Yeshanim that the mikveh used by the Cohen Gadol was in fact a Mayan, but the Halacha is that even a Mayan has to have 40 sa'ah for it to be effective for a person. This Halacha is paskened in Shulchan Aruch, at the beginning of Hilchos Mikvaos, Yoreh Deah 201:1, that a Nidah does not become tahor until she immerses here entire body in a Mikveh or Mayan of 40 sa'ah.
(b) Tosfos Bechoros 55b DH Shema writes that it is possible that in the Mikveh mentioned in our Gemara; that came from Ein Eitam, and that the Cohen Gadol immersed in; the water entered from one side and went out of the other side. Yad Binyamin there writes that because the water went in the Mikveh and then went out, it was considered zochlim. It was not water that stood in one place; rather it was flowing water.
2) It may be that they deliberately wanted to make sure that the Mikveh used by the Cohen Gadol was of Mayim Chayim; living water and not rain water; because this is the best way of doing the Mitzvah. See Teshuvat Torah LiShemah #314 (which I think is generally accepted to have been written by the Ben Ish Chai) who writes that whilst women immerse Lecatchilah in a Mikveh and this is certainly kosher, nevertheless someone who wants to do the Mitzvah the best way will use a Mayan of Mayim Chayim. See also Malbim on Vayikra 14:5 that Mayim Chayim are the choicest of all waters.
Chodesh Tov
Dovid Bloom
Thank you.
Does this therefore mean that a ma'ayan can even be a flow of water diverted from its natural route? Moreover, I assume there were (and BEH will be again) tubes of all sorts diverting the water to flow out of its natural direction and into this dipping area (and beyond) for the Kohen Gadol. Still a kosher ma'ayan? Sounds to me that the answer is yes, but if not please let me know. Thank you again.
Yes, as long as the Mayan does not go into a kli; which the first Mishnah in the 5th chapter of Maseches Mikvaos and Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 201:8 states is pasul. The Mikveh on the Parvah was not a kli, so it is in order [see also Rosh Bava Kama 7:3, what he brings from the Talmud Yerushalmi here in Yoma].
Good Shabbos and Good Yomtov
Dovid Bloom