intended to increase the knowledge, interest, and anticipation of the reader, thereby hastening the realization of our hopes and prayers for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash.

Mikdash Mikva'ot - "Ritual Baths" (I)
"R. Akiva said, 'Happy are you, O Israel. Before Whom are you made clean and Who makes you clean? Your Father in Heaven; as it is written, "I will sprinkle pure water upon you and you shall be pure (Yechezkel 36:25). And again it says, 'O Lord, the Hope (Mikvah) of Israel (Yirmeyahu 17:13) - as the Mikvah purifies the impure, so does the Holy One Blessed be He purify Israel."

The literal meaning of the term Mikvah (pl. Mikva’ot) is "collection". The term is used in the Torah particularly when reference is made to 'collected' water (Bereishit 1:10, Shemot 7:19, Vayikra 11:36 et al). Today the term usually signifies “ritual immersion bath”. Vayikra 11:36 states that only bodies of water which are connected to the ground, "…a spring, or a cistern – a gathering of waters" ("Mikvei Mayim") are not receptive to ritual impurity (note Rashi). These bodies of water, when correctly utilized, can purify those who have become ritually impure (Note Hullin 84a, and Rashi). This ruling was derived from Vayikra 15:16 where it refers to a man in a state of impurity immersing "his entire flesh in THE water (BAmayim)." The sages interpreted this to mean that the water must either "gather together of its own accord" i.e. the natural waters of seas, lakes, and rivers – or be contained within artificially constructed Mikva'ot which meet certain Halachic requirements.

Immersion in a valid Mikvah removes ritual impurity from men, women and vessels (Yoma 8:9). If an Israelite came into contact with a human corpse, a portion of a corpse, or a grave, he contracts Tum'at Meit ("corpse impurity"). This more virulent form of impurity required sprinkling with the ashes of a Para Aduma mixed with spring water twice in a 7-day period in addition to immersion in a Mikvah.

The Mishna refers specifically to four Mikva'ot in the Mikdash. One Mikvah was constructed high above the Sha'ar HaMayim ("Water Gate") for the use of the Kohein Gadol, and it was the site of his first Yom Kippur immersion. Located in the northern side of the Azara, a subterranean Mikvah constructed for the use of the other Kohanim was accessible by tunnel from the Beit HaMokeid. Another Mikvah was located above the Beit HaParva, the Azara chamber where the hides of the sacrificial animals were salted.

This Mikvah "was made artistically - similar to an ornamental fountain - and it was not obvious from whence came the water since it was located so far from the aqueduct. The appearance of water in that place almost seemed like magic" (Tif'eret Yisrael, diagram, 31). The Kohein Gadol immersed there four times during the course of the Avoda of Yom Kippur. There was a fourth Mikvah (and probably several) located in Lishkat HaMetzora'im (Chamber of Lepers) in the NW corner of Ezrat Nashim for the use of Olei Regel. No Kohein or Yisrael could enter the Azara, even if he was pure, without prior immersion (Yoma 3:3).

It is likely that the water source of the various Mikva'ot in the Mikdash and Har HaBayit came from both aqueducts and rainwater. Water pipes led directly from the aqueducts to the Borot HaMayim - Otzrot HaMayim reservoirs connected to the Mikva'ot of the Mikdash (and environs) thereby circumventing storage tanks. It was crucial that the water entering Mikvah reservoirs pass through pipes having no receptacles, impediments, encumbrances or traps where water might collect and thereby invalidate the Mikvah. This way, the directly channeled water was considered halachically "natural water" and therefore was deemed valid for the 40 Se'ah (minimum) of "natural water" which was required to be stored in the Bor HaMayim- Otzrar HaMayim reservoir of each and every Mikvah. But the initial source of the first 40 Se'ah of natural water for most Mikva'ot constructed over the millennia, comes from rainwater which falls on the roof of the building which houses the Mikvah. The same principle – although on a much larger scale – was also operative in the Mikdash. The roofs of the two floors of the Bayit (and probably the roof of the previously mentioned Sha'ar HaMayim as well ) were slanted in such a way as to cause the rainwater to be directed to underground cisterns and Mikva'ot. The internal construction on the southern side of the first floor of the Bayit included a 3-Ama wide conduit, the Beit Horadat HaMayim, which channeled the water (Midot 4:7, Tif'eret Yisrael 68).

Immensely ancient, the intricate laws of Mikvah construction are considered "Halachot L'Moshe MiSinai – laws orally revealed to Moses on Sinai. In 1963 a major archeological excavation headed by Professor Yigael Yadin, was launched to uncover the secrets of Masada. In the course of the excavations, they found “a system of three adjacent pools – one large, one medium and one small. Steps had been built in the two larger pools so one could reach the bottom, and in the wall between them there was a connecting hole through which water could flow between one and the other.

Moreover… there was an open, plastered, water conduit leading into the first – the largest pool, and this conduit no doubt served to collect and channel rainwater from the roof of the room and its surroundings... This find immediately suggested that what we had discovered was a ritual immersion bath – (ibid. p164). This announcement caused a good deal of excitement. While ancient Mikva’ot had been unearthed, none had been (yet!) discovered from Temple days which, after all, predated the Mishna by over three generations. Specialists in the complex … laws of Mikvah construction came to inspect the newly discovered Mikvah… Rabbi Muntzberg immediately went into one of the pools, a tape measure in his hand, to examine whether in fact the volume of this Mikvah was the ‘40 measures’ required by ritual law… when he completed his meticulous study, he announced with a beaming face and to the delight of us all, that this Mikvah was indeed a ritual bath ‘among the finest of the finest, seven times seven’” (ibid. p166) … Here, too, may be seen the carefully installed communicating pipe between the ‘pure’ water pool (Mikvah reservoir) and the immersion pool... the defenders of Masada were devout Jews so even here, on dry Masada, they had gone to the arduous lengths of building these ritual baths in scrupulous conformity with the injunctions of traditional Jewish law.” (Yigael Yadin, Masada; Herod’s Fortress and the Zealot’s Last Stand, Random House, NY, '66)

That these ancient Mikva'ot built by survivors of the fall of Jerusalem, were constructed exactly according to halachot which generations later would be codified in the Mishna, and are identical to the Mikva’ot found in every observant Jewish community around the world today, serve as a monumental illustration of the authenticity and faithfulness of Jewish traditional law. The sages, when they recorded Hilchot Mikvah (and the other Halachot of Torah Sheb'al Peh, the Oral Law) did not invent anything. They "merely" collected ancient, living traditions in a composition which, after redaction by R. Yehuda Nanasi, became "our (written) Mishna". <to be continued>

Catriel is in the process of writing a book: The Temple of Jerusalem, A Pilgrims Prospective; A Guided Tour through the Temple and the Divine Service