Mikvaos 4:3 - 4:4

החוטט בצנור (if one makes a cavity in a water pipe – for the deposit of pebbles) – it is the manner of a water pipe to be open from two sides, and this does not invalidate the Mikveh/ritual bath unless he hollowed it out a small cavity in order to receive stones that prevent the passage of the water, and it (i.e., the Mishnah) is speaking of when he hallowed it out and at the end established it/made it permanent, for since, it had upon it the status of a utensil when it was detached, for the water passing through it was drawn [water] and invalidates the Mikveh.

ובשל חרס – it is not considered a utensil until it has a receptacle of one-quarter [of a LOG].

לא אמרו רביעית אלא בשברי החרס – specifically with an earthenware utensil after it was broken we require that he broken piece holds one-quarter [of a LOG], but from its outset, even a little bit/anything is considered a utensil, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.

מתחלחלים (thrown about) – [the stones/pebbles] are rolling about within the receptable, and they are not crushed/ground in it even though that it was filled with them, but rather they move about here and there. It is the language of (Esther 4:4) “And the queen was greatly agitated.”

פוסלין את המקוה – for its receiving was not invalidated.

ירד לתוכו – into the receptacle.

עפר ונכבש (dirt and it was pressed tight) – the dirt was settled and made nicely fastened and the water passes over it. The [Aramaic] Targum of (Numbers 20:19): “We will keep to the beaten track,” – we will go up on the paved path.

כשר – for there isn’t a receptacle here.

סילון (pipe/duct/tube) -and a water spout and tube/spout, are one.

שהוא צר מכאן ומכאן – from its two mouths, from the place where the water enters into it and from the place that it does down from it into the Mikveh.

ורחב באמצע – nevertheless, it is not considered for receiving all the while that he didn’t shape the receptacle to receive the stones.

מים שאובים – which are invalid for a Mikveh.

ומי גשמים – that are kosher.

שנתערבו בחצר או בעוקה – (that combined in a courtyard or a pit/trough) – in a hole that water gathered in there, or on the steps of the cave, and from there, they continued and descended to the Mikveh.

אם רוב מן הכשר – as for example that twenty-one Seah of them were rain water and nineteen of them were drawn water, it is kosher/fit.

היו מקלחין בתוך המים – that they didn’t descend to the Mikveh by conducting water through a channel through the path of the courtyard and the pit/trough and the ascent of the cave, but rather from the utensils themselves they would splash in an uninterrupted flow into the Mikveh.

ואם לאו פסול – that three LOGS of drawn water invalidate [the Mikveh] when they fell into the Mikveh not by the conducting of water through a channel. But the path of conducting of water through a channel did not invalidate until most of the water is drawn [water], even the drawn waters on their own that did not mix/combine with the kosher [waters], do not invalidate by the conducting of water through a channel other than with a majority. As for example, a Mikveh that has in it twenty-one Seah of rain water, fills with a carrier/porter and channels through it nineteen Seah of drawn waters and it is fit, for the majority are kosher waters. And such is the Halakha.