Commentary for Zevachim 50:6

רב יוסף מתני הכי רב כהנא מתני חבית בעא מיניה ופשט ליה חבית

- Said he to him, We have learnt it: If a barrel lies beneath a spout, the water inside it and outside it is unfit; if one joined its mout the spout, the water inside it is fit, and the water outside it is unfit.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This treats of the water which was mixed with the ashes of the red heifer for lustration:this had to be 'living' (i.e., running) water, v. Num. XIX, 17: And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the purification from sin, and running (lit., 'living') water shall be put thereto in a vessel. In the present case water is running down a spout or channel, and below that spout, and at some distance from it, lies a barrel, which was not placed there in order to receive the water. If one now takes a vessel and holds it within the air-space of the barrel, or above the mouth of the barrel ('outside') and catches that water, it is unfit. Because had it been permitted to come to rest in the barrel it would have ceased to be running water; and so now too it lacks that status. Again, if the mouth of the barrel is flush with the spout, and one holds the vessel inside its air-space, the water thus gathered is unfit. If however one holds the vessel immediately beneath the spout, the water thus collected is fit, because it never entered the air-space within the barrel. (In general, in order for the water to be fit it must be collected directly as it runs in a service vessel specially placed there for that purpose.) - From this passage we see that once an object enters the air-space it is regarded as at rest.');">⁴</span>

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