Siman 198, Seifim 28 -35
28. Her friend
should not hold her hand during the immersion unless she is holding loosely to
let water into the area that she is holding.
If she wet her hands first, it is permitted since the water that is on her
hands is joined with the water of the mikvah.
29. When
someone immerses in a mikvah of
barely 40 Se’ah, if she says to her
friend, “put your hands on me in the mikvah”,
it is considered gross.
30. She is not
required to lift her feet during the immersion if there is no mud there. Even though she is standing on the ground,
there is no barrier once the water got to her legs first.
31. One may not
immerse in a vessel. Therefore, if there
is some mud in the place where she is immersing, she may not stand on a wooden vessel
that can acquire impurity from its back, nor on planks that are fit for medras, nor on any vessel that is fit
for medras because of the decree
against bathing pools. If she did, her
immersion is invalid. She should place
straw under her feet to protect them from the mud. She should also not stand on a clay vessel
and not on a stump and immerse. Even
though a clay vessel is not susceptible to impurity from the outside and is not
fir for medras, the sages were afraid
that she might fear falling and will not immerse properly. If she did immerse while on these, her
immersion is valid. Therefore, a mikvah that has wooden steps, if she
immersed while on the steps, even if they are attached to the walls of the mikvah, her immersion is invalid, since
they are clearly wooden vessels. One
needs to make in their place steps of stone.
The step should be minimally 4 tefachim
wide in the place where she will step so that there will be adequate space for
her without being afraid of falling.
32. A wooden
pipe that is connected to the floor of the mikvah,
if it does not have a frame, she may stand on it and immerse.
33. She may not
immerse in a place where the ground is muddy because it would be a barrier
unless she puts straw or something similar that does not acquire impurity under
her feet. If she did immerse, there are
those who say that her immersion is invalid.
34. She may not
immerse in a place where she is afraid that people will see her since as a
result she will hasten her immersion and not be adequately careful. After the fact, however, her immersion is
valid.
35. She should
not immerse standing totally erect since that are places that will thereby
become hidden nor should she stoop excessively to the point that her hidden
places touch each other. Rather, she
should stoop slightly so that her vaginal area will be visible as when she
prepares dough. The bottoms of her
breasts should be visible in the manner that they are while nursing. Her armpits should be visible as they are
when she is weaving while standing. She
does not need to spread her thighs excessively nor hold her arms out from her
body, but rather keep them as they are when she is walking. If she deviated and stooped too much or stood
too erect, her immersion is valid and there are those who say that it is
invalid.
What's Going On – Where to Immerse and How to Stand while
Immersing
The halacha of Seif 28 is in many ways similar to that
of Seif 23, in that we make a
distinction between something that is on the woman’s body that is attached
loosely and something that is snug. This
halacha has relevance for women
afraid of the water, afraid to swim or who, because of disability, cannot go
into the water unassisted. The halacha is based on a Mishnah in Tractate Mikvaos that says:
If one holds on to a person…who immerses, the person retains
impurity…and if he (the assistant) wet his hands, the one who immerses is pure
since the liquid on his hands joins with the water of the mikvah and precludes the formation of a barrier. R. Shimon says that he should loosen his grip
so that water flows.
The poskim have 2 significantly
different understandings of the Mishnah
that have a bearing on the halacha that
the Shulchan Aruch ultimately
presents.
The first view is that of the Ramban
and others, who interpret the Mishnah as
meaning that the basic law is presented by R. Shimon and that the Tana Kama (the first, anonymous position
in the Mishnah) argues with him and
has a more strict view. The Tana Kama holds that holding loosely is
insufficient since the assistant might at some time hold on tightly, which is
obviously never the case with jewelry or some other inanimate item. Therefore, he holds that the assistant must
have his hands wet before grasping the person immersing and the fact of his
having wet hands will create a continuum with the water of the mikvah and will result in a valid
immersion. Therefore, according to this
understanding of the Mishnah, the
only way someone can assist another in immersing is by wetting his hands first
and holding on loosely does not suffice.
The second view is that of the Rashba. He maintains that it is R. Shimon who is
stricter than the Tana Kama. According to this view, R. Shimon rejects the
idea of wetting one’s hands as being a solution to the problem of grasping and
requires the assistant to have a loose hold.
The Rashba adds that even the Tana
Kama would agree that the assistant shouldn’t grip the person tightly. As in most circumstances when there is a Tana Kama and a dissenting view, the Halacha follows the Tana Kama.
The Shulchan Aruch follows the
view of the Rashba and tells us that
one can either wet one’s hands or hold loosely.
A further difficulty raised in the poskim
is about the water itself. The Taz holds that the assistant can use any
water while the Shach holds that it
must be mikvah water. In this instance, we follow the Taz and permit any water.
The Shulchan Aruch asserts that
someone who asks a friend to hold him down in a mikvah of barely 40 se’ah (1 se’ah
is approximately 1.86 gallons or 7.05 liters, so a mikvah requires a minimum of 74.4 gallons). The Taz
explains that the reason is that the assistant might withdraw his hand before
the person has a chance to properly immerse, so there is a fear that the person
might invalidate the mikvah. The Rambam
maintains that this behavior, or jumping into the mikvah like it is a pool, is forbidden regardless of the size of
the mikvah. The Kesef Mishnah
(another work by the Mechaber) points
out that this kind of behavior looks like one is jesting and not having the
proper intentions with the immersion.
Although, as we will learn, a Niddah
immersion does not necessarily need to be done with proper intentions,
immersion for eating sacred foods does.
Therefore, this Halacha is
part of a general decree to minimize the possibility of invalid immersions.
The general issue of having objects that can acquire impurity inside a mikvah is addressed today by the normal
construction standards that we use.
Indeed, in the past when there were mikvaos
that had wooden steps, some of the poskim
had difficulty validating those immersions and it appears that they did so
partly because of the social upheaval that would have occurred had they
announced that mikvaos that had been
in use for many years were in fact potentially invalid and that all immersions
done in them were suspect.