Mikvaos 2:7 - 2:8

לנגבן – The Aramaic translation of (Genesis 9:13): “the waters began to dry [from the earth],” for they had certainly dried, and specifically to dry them, that we did not intend for them to receive the water, therefore, they (i.e., the water) would not be made “drawn,” as it is written (Leviticus 11:36): “However, a spring or cistern [in which water is collected shall be pure,]” just as a spring does not have the grasp of the hand by a human, even a well/cistern that does not have the grasp of the hand by a human.

אם עונת גשמים היא – that the heavens did not become knotted with clouds and that rain fell.

אם יש בו כמעט מים בבור – we have this reading [of "אם"/if], and we do not have the reading of "או"/or.

ישבר – the jars/cannisters [should be broken] and the water that is in them will fall to the cistern/pit. That this is the conducting of the water through a channel, since that within broken utensils, they (i.e., the water) fall to the cistern/pit.

ואם לאו – that it is not the rainy season, alternatively, that there is no water in the pit/cistern.

לא ישבר – for if it is not the rainy season, he would not be able to make a Mikveh/ritual bath from the water that is in the jars/cannisters alone, for Rabbi Eliezer holds that drawn waters, all of which or most of which were conducted through a channel is invalids. But when it is the rainy season, he would break it to channel these waters, and most of the Mikveh would be filled up from rain water. But when there isn’t any water in it (i.e., the Mikveh) at all, he should not break it, even though it is the rainy season, lest there fall from the water a quarter of a LOG into the pit/cistern prior to breaking it. But Rabbi Eliezer, according to his reasoning, who stated above (see Tractate Mikvaot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 4), that a quarter of a LOG of water ab initio invalidates the Mikveh/ritual bath.

ר' יהושע אומר בין כך ובין כך ישבר – that he (i.e., Rabbi Yehoshua) holds that three LOGS [of drawn water] invalidate the Mikveh/ritual bath whether at the beginning or whether at the end, and not one-quarter of a LOG, and we do not suspect that perhaps three LOGS [of drawn water] will fall into the Mikveh/ritual bath prior to breaking [of the jar/cannister]. But even though it is not the rainy season, he should break it, for it is able to continue until [it reaches] the measurement of the Mikveh, for he holds that drawn [water] that continues throughout, is ritually pure. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.

או יכפה (or turn it upside down) – that he turns the jars/cannisters that are on the roof upside down so that that the water doesn’t fall from inside them [directly] into the cistern/pit, but rather, that they should fall to one side, and from there continue to the pit/cistern.

אבל לא יערה – that if he raised/lifted up the jars/cannister and emptied them, they (i.e., the waters) would become like drawn water, for they have the grasp of the hand of a human.

הסייד – an artisan who plasters the pit/cistern with plaster/lime in order that it hold its waters, and his practice was to bring the lime/plaster in a common earthen vessel/pot , and that pit/cistern had kosher water in it but when the common earthen vessel/pot was sunk in the water and became filled up.

אם היו המים צפים על גביו כל שהוא ישבר – so that the water not become drawn, for all the while that they are combined/mixed. But if he would raise the common earthen vessel/pot in his hand, they would stop and would become detached.

ואם לאו – that the waters did not float on top of it.

לא ישבר – and we are speaking of when it is not the rainy season. For if it was the rainy season, since there is water in the pit/cistern, he should break it.

רבי יהושע אומר בין כך ובין כך ישבר – for it is able to continue, as we explained above [in Mishnah 7].