Mikvaos 5:4 - 5:5

הים הגדול כמקוה – The Bible did not call a place a “Mikveh” other than the Great Sea (i.e., the Mediterranean Sea), for it is what Scripture refers to in the account of Creation (Genesis 1:10), for there all the waters of Creation were gathered.

ולא נאמר ימים – in the plural construction,. Other than because many kinds of seas were combined, that all of the streams go to it.

רבי יוסי אומר כל הימים – And the Great Sea (i.e., the Mediterranean Sea) also has the status of a spring on them in regards to the fact that they ritually purify with flowing waters, because the streams travel and flow upon them. But they are invalid regarding the status/Torah of “living waters,” that Scripture calls them a Mikveh. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yossi.

הזוחלין – as for example rivers that flow/are running waters, behold they are like a spring and ritually purify with running waters with a miniscule amount (see also Tractate Eduyot, Chapter 7, Mishnah 2).

והנוטפים – as for example, rainwater [that drips].

כמקוה – to ritually purify with forty Seah and with a collection of water found in one place [which does not flow].

שהם כשרים – like that which flows, for they drip a little, and even in a place where isn’t sufficient for ritual immersion in flowing waters, unless the dripping completes them.

והנוטפים שעשאן זוחלין (and dripping water which one made into flowing water) – as for example, a Mikveh that broke through its rim and its waters depart and flow.

סומך אפילו מקל – or a reed, either a person (i.e., a man) with gonorrhea or a woman who experiences a flow of menstrual-type blood on three consecutive days during the time of the month when she is not due to experience menstrual bleeding, we rely on the hand or the foot and close up/stop up the place of the waters going out until the waters are standing in one place and become a collection of water, and the ritually defiled individual goes down and immerses [in the Mikveh].

כל דבר שהוא מקבל טומאה – we do not need a man with gonorrhea or a woman who experiences a flow of menstrual-type blood on three consecutive days during the time of the month when she is not due to experience menstrual bleeding whom are ritually impure, for they are not able to close up/stop up the place where the waters are leaving with their hands or with their feet in order to restore the waters and make of them a collection of waters, but rather even a completely pure individual, for he is susceptible to receiving ritual defilement.

אין מזחילין בו – that is to say, we don’t restore with it the place of the flowing waters in order that it will become a collection of waters and he will be able to ritually immerse in it. And the reason of Rabbi Yossi is , that Scripture states (Leviticus 11:36): “[However, a spring or a cistern] in which water is collected shall be clean,” they will become such through purification. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yossi.