Immersing in a Hot Mikvah on Shabbos - Rabbi Yeshayahu Hertzel shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the “Lema’an Yishme’u” podcast of Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Hello to all our listeners. Among the questions I’ve been asked, I was also asked about a mikveh. The people who run the mikveh in our community prepare a cold mikveh for Shabbos morning. Others are upset about it and say they could get sick from it. What is the Torah and halachic solution? There are opinions that prohibit immersing in a hot mikveh, but there are also opinions that permit it. Some say that where the cold would cause discomfort or illness, a relatively warm mikveh should be arranged, so that those who will certainly come to immerse, who will not forgo the mikveh under any circumstances and are concerned about catching a chill, will not get cold. What should be done in practice? Let’s begin with the source of the law concerning hot water on Shabbos. In Tractate Shabbos, page 38b, the Mishnah says: The people of Tiberias once brought a pipe of cold water through a channel of hot water. They brought a pipe of cold water through a channel of the hot springs of Tiberias, thinking that this way they could heat water fit for drinking even on Shabbos. The Sages told them: If this was done on Shabbos, the water has the status of water heated on Shabbos and is forbidden for bathing and drinking. If it was done on Yom Tov, it has the status of water heated on Yom Tov: it is forbidden for bathing but permitted for drinking. That is the Mishnah. The Gemara continues on page 39b. Regarding the incident involving the people of Tiberias, the Mishnah taught that bathing was forbidden. The Gemara asks: What kind of bathing? If it means bathing the entire body, is it only water heated on Shabbos that is forbidden? Would water heated before Shabbos be permitted? That is what it seems to imply. But we learned in a baraisa: Water heated before Shabbos may be used the next day to wash one’s face, hands and feet, but not one’s entire body. So bathing the entire body is not permitted. Rather, “bathing” here means washing the face, hands and feet, not the entire body. Now the Gemara asks: But—

03:01 Speaker 2 From the latter clause: Regarding Yom Tov, we learned in the Mishnah that the water has the status of water heated on Yom Tov and is forbidden for bathing but permitted for drinking. Does that mean the Mishnah follows Beis Shammai? For we learned in a Mishnah: Beis Shammai say a person may not heat water for his feet unless it is also intended for drinking; Beis Hillel permit it. The Gemara says: Rav Ika bar Chanina said: No, we are dealing with water used to rinse the entire body, rather than just the face, hands and feet. But wasn’t it taught in a baraisa: A person may not rinse his entire body, whether with hot or cold water, according to Rabbi Meir; Rabbi Shimon permits it. And Rabbi Yehudah says: Hot water is forbidden, but cold water is permitted. So we have Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Yehudah. What are they disagreeing about? Is it water in a vessel or water in the ground? Rabbi Zeira says their disagreement concerns a vessel, but with water in the ground, everyone permits it. The Gemara asks: But the incident involving the people of Tiberias concerned water in the ground, not in vessels, and the Sages forbade it. Rather, if this distinction was stated, their disagreement concerns water in the ground; but in a vessel, everyone agrees it is forbidden. Rabbah bar bar Chanah said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: The halacha follows Rabbi Yehudah. The Gemara asks: Did he hear explicitly that the halacha follows Rabbi Yehudah, or did he infer it from a general rule? The Gemara concludes: He answered, “I heard it stated explicitly.” The Gemara then continues: It was stated concerning water heated before Shabbos: Rav said that the next day one may wash one’s entire body with it, limb by limb. Shmuel said that permission was given only to wash one’s face, hands and feet. The Gemara objects: Water heated before Shabbos may be used the next day to wash one’s face—

05:03 Speaker 2 Hands and feet, but not one’s entire body at once. Not one’s entire body at once. So this is a question against Rav. Rav says one may wash the entire body, while Shmuel says one may not. This is a refutation of Rav. Rav could answer: It says one may not wash the entire body at once; when I say “the entire body,” I mean limb by limb. The Gemara asks: But it says “his face, hands and feet.” The answer is: In the manner of washing his face, hands and feet—that is, washing separate parts of the body. That is what “limb by limb” means. That is the Gemara. Let’s mention another passage from the Gemara, on page 40a. The Sages taught: In a bathhouse whose openings were sealed before Shabbos—its openings were closed so the heat would remain inside—it is permitted to bathe immediately after Shabbos. If its openings were sealed before Yom Tov, then the next day, on Yom Tov itself, one may enter and perspire, then go out and rinse in the outer room. Rav Yehudah said: There was an incident involving a bathhouse—another story; we’re learning a lot of stories today. In a bathhouse in Bnei Brak whose openings were sealed before Yom Tov, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah and Rabbi Akiva entered the next day and perspired there, then went out and rinsed in the outer room. Its hot water, however, was covered with boards. When the matter came before the Sages, they said it was permitted even if the hot water was not covered with boards. In other words, they did not need to be concerned that the water had been heated on Yom Tov by the heat of the bathhouse. Then the Gemara continues: But when transgressors became numerous, they began to prohibit it. What were the transgressions? the Gemara asks. What was happening? Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, in the name of Rabbah bar bar Chanah: At first, people would bathe in water heated before Shabbos. Then—

07:14 Speaker 2 The bathhouse attendants became crafty. They began heating water on Shabbos and saying it had been heated before Shabbos. So the Sages prohibited bathing in hot water but permitted entering to perspire. People continued bathing in hot water, saying, “We’re only perspiring.” Since perspiring was permitted, they bathed in hot water and claimed that was all they were doing. The Sages then prohibited entering to perspire but permitted bathing in the hot springs of Tiberias. People still bathed in water heated by fire and said, “We bathed in the hot springs of Tiberias.” So the Sages prohibited the hot springs of Tiberias and permitted cold water. But eventually they saw that people could not abide by this decree. They went back and permitted the hot springs of Tiberias, while the prohibition on entering to perspire remained in place. That is in the Gemara. As for the practical halacha, Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim, section 326, paragraph 1, says: It is forbidden to bathe one’s entire body, even one limb at a time, even in hot water heated before Shabbos, whether the water is in a vessel or in the ground. The Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch rules the same way: The Sages prohibited bathing the entire body because bathhouse attendants would heat water on Shabbos and say, “We heated it before Shabbos.” We just learned that source in the Gemara. The Magen Avraham therefore writes that if cold water was directed into hot water before Shabbos and they mixed together, it is permitted. In addition, Rabbi Akiva Eiger wrote that bathing is permitted even if the water continued to flow in on Shabbos, because the process began in a permitted manner. As we learn from the Sages, there is a law about opening a channel of water to a garden: one may open it before Shabbos and let the water continue flowing on Shabbos, because the action began in a permitted manner. Even though bathing in water heated on Shabbos is forbidden even when it was heated in a permitted way, this case is different. Why? Because no action at all was performed on Shabbos. No action was performed—

09:51 Speaker 2 On Shabbos, it all depends on whether the water was heated before Shabbos. According to Rabbi Akiva Eiger, these later authorities write that a mikveh heated by a thermostat has the same status as hot water heated before Shabbos, which is permitted. Now let’s turn to another detail concerning immersion in a warm mikveh: women immersing in hot water on Friday night. The Chacham Tzvi does forbid it. He holds that a woman must immerse in cold water, or that the water may be warmed only enough to relieve the discomfort of the cold. Alternatively, she should immerse during bein hashmashos and not see her husband until nightfall. That is what the Chacham Tzvi says. But the Noda B’Yehudah, second edition, section 200, holds that, as a matter of law, there is no clear prohibition against immersing in hot water on Shabbos. He concludes: “I have already written all this in my responsum in section 24, permitting and allowing a woman to immerse in a warm mikveh on Friday night.” The Divrei Chaim wrote that it is forbidden to add hot water on Shabbos itself because of the decree concerning bathhouses. The Ben Ezra [unclear] wrote that it is permitted through a non-Jew. There is a responsum about this in Birkas Saba [unclear]. I have a holy grandfather, [unclear], who, in his responsa, Yoreh De’ah, section 11, also tends to permit immersion in a warm mikveh. I will quote what he writes there. At the end of the responsum he writes: “We see with our own eyes every day that women refrain from immersing many times in the winter because of the cold. They put off immersion a great deal because of the cold. This case is no less compelling,” he says, “than the case of drawing water from a mikveh to clean it. The Shach writes in section 201, subsection 87, in the name of the Maharik and the Levush, that if stringency would prevent immersion, one should not be stringent about drawing out the water.” What does drawing water out mean? What is the case there? This is what it says there. In section 40, the Rema writes, as cited in the Be’er Heitev: “One who wishes to draw water from a mikveh to clean it, but fears that three log of water might flow back into the mikveh from the vessel used to remove the water and invalidate the mikveh after a se’ah has been removed from it

11:58 Speaker 2 and invalidate the mikveh, should make a small hole in the bottom of the vessel. Then the water in it will not be considered drawn water. A spring, however, is not invalidated by drawn water.” If it is a spring, drawn water does not invalidate it. The Rema writes that the custom is to be stringent even with a spring, because some disagree and say that drawn water invalidates even a spring. If they do not take this precaution, they may draw water with an intact vessel, and three log of drawn water may remain there and invalidate the mikveh when they are trying to clean it and make it fit for use. So if it is easy to close off the spring-fed mikveh, one may be stringent and do that. But if there is a great need, or after the fact if they did not do so, one may rely on the lenient authorities who hold that drawn water does not invalidate a spring. And he concludes—the Shach writes as follows: If there is a need, some difficulty that could lead to a delay, so that the woman cannot immerse at the proper time and her immersion would be postponed, it is not at all right for her to delay immersing. Postponing immersion on Shabbos because of this, because the water is cold—that is not something one can do. The Divrei Yatziv writes that if cold water is already there, one may pour hot water into it. Likewise, immersion is not included in the decree. Why? This is considered a secondary action. There he discusses men immersing in a mikveh that begins to heat up on Shabbos by means of a timer. He writes that heating by a timer is like water that heated up on its own in a permitted manner. That is what he writes. Another point: a major source for the lenient ruling, on which most of the poskim rely, is the words of the Korban Nesanel, a commentary on the Rosh, Shabbos, chapter 2, section 22, subsection [unclear]. What does he write there? That immersion in a warm mikveh is not included in the decree concerning bathhouses. In Shevet Halevi, he explains the words about the decree, though the matter is not straightforward. We should not say that they imposed the decree even where it would prevent the fulfillment of a

14:12 Speaker 2 mitzvah. As other sefarim explain, this decree itself involves a relatively light prohibition, and they did not uphold their ruling where it would prevent immersion for a mitzvah or cause distress. Another point: a mikveh and a bathhouse are two different things. So even if you want to forbid something in a bathhouse, that does not mean forbidding it in a mikveh. Several other poskim likewise reinforced the words of the Korban Nesanel. There is also the sefer Dor Dorim on mikvaos. This applies not only to women’s immersion but to men’s as well. Anything that is not bathing for pleasure was never included in the decree. It stands to reason that when a person is acting for the sake of a mitzvah, there is no concern that he will come to heat the water. What is the concern behind the decree? That he might come to heat it. But when a person acts for the sake of a mitzvah, we do not worry that he might come to heat it. It is like what the Gemara says in Pesachim about checking for chametz: might he come to eat it? The Gemara says that if I am now going to check for chametz because eating chametz is forbidden, we do not worry that I will go and eat it. The same applies when he comes to burn it. In other words, he will not eat it. So too here: we do not have that concern about his coming to heat the water. And this applies not only to immersion after a seminal emission. Even immersion before davening, in accordance with the accepted custom, cannot be included in the decree concerning bathing. That is what the Korban Nesanel meant. It is important for me to note something about the Korban Nesanel’s lenient ruling itself. There is an interesting saying from the Chazon Ish: he said that the Korban Nesanel was written with ruach hakodesh. Regarding immersion and the importance of immersing on Shabbos morning, many poskim write about and discuss this. The Biur Halachah, though, says that someone who has had a seminal emission should not immerse on Shabbos morning. Why? Because it looks like he is making himself fit for use. The Ketzos Hashulchan, in section 133, at the end of subsection 6, raises a difficulty with the Biur Halachah. He writes that immersion on Shabbos morning is for added holiness, so it is not considered making oneself fit for use, even according to [unclear].

16:31 Speaker 2 And in fact, the Biur Halachah himself writes that if it is for added holiness, the concern of making oneself fit for use does not apply. The Ketzos Hashulchan goes on to write that, on the contrary, he is performing a mitzvah. There is added holiness here, and an element of mitzvah, since even on a weekday it is a mitzvah to immerse before davening. That is what he says. To summarize, immersion in a warm mikveh is not included in the decree concerning bathhouses. Therefore, the Sidrei Taharah, Divrei Chaim, Avnei Tzedek, [unclear] and Divrei Yoel wrote that it is permitted. The same is written in Mishneh Sachir. There is also a leniency for someone in discomfort: even if his whole body is not ill, he may wash in hot water. This is in the rulings of Rabbi Akiva Eiger. [Unclear]: since people have undertaken to immerse on Shabbos, they should immerse even for added purity; if the water is not heated, they will suffer from the cold. Especially nowadays, when everyone is susceptible to the cold, immersion in hot water on Shabbos morning should be permitted. There is also a concern that, if it is not permitted, a person will not immerse even when immersion is a mitzvah. It is also brought in many sefarim by the poskim. This was the practice of Rabbi Shlomo [unclear]. As written in the Avnei Nezer, immersion on Shabbos is a great mitzvah, specifically immersion on Shabbos morning. Likewise, the responsa of the Maharsha say that the Sages, in the Gemara and the Shulchan Aruch, forbade only bathing in hot water. Immersion is not called bathing at all; it is called immersion. Therefore it is not considered bathing, and immersion itself was not forbidden. Go out and see: in all the large towns, they heat their mikvaos. The holy rabbi of Kuzmir instructed the Tiferes Shlomo to make a warm mikveh on Shabbos, and said it was a great improvement. In the responsa Divrei Yatziv he writes: “We must not depart from the practice of righteous, G-d-fearing Jews and venerable rabbis, who had no concern at all and went to a warm mikveh on Shabbos.” In the responsa of Shevet Halevi he writes: “Although, strictly speaking, the immersion instituted by Ezra is no longer obligatory, nevertheless one who is careful about it lives a long life, as the saying goes...”

18:46 Speaker 2 As Chazal said, especially for someone accustomed to immersing, for whom it is a matter of mitzvah and holiness. He also wrote that those who immerse in warm water on Shabbos morning for added holiness are still immersing, not bathing; it falls within the scope of a mitzvah. In the responsa Be’er Moshe, the gaon Rabbi Moshe Stern writes that, in the view of the Divrei Chaim, it is forbidden to add hot water on Shabbos because of the decree concerning bathhouses. But he cites the Chesed LeAvraham, who wrote that when hot water is mixed with a great deal of cold water, the bathhouse decree does not apply. Therefore, people turn a blind eye when this is done close to nightfall, or when a non-Jew adds hot water to the pool at night. In those responsa he writes something else: In the time of the Gemara, the entire bathhouse decree concerned water heated in boilers, pots or kettles and then poured into a pool in various ways to heat the baths. But today there is no trace of that practice. Everyone heats the water with electric heating elements. The cold water flows into the pool and is heated there, in the pool itself. Chazal’s decree never applied to such a case. He cites a responsum of Rabbi Yehoshua of Kutna, who is quoted as saying that the mikveh may even be very hot. He clarifies that he was told that in the town of Brisk they did this on the rabbi’s instructions. He also heard that Rabbi Shalom of Belz did so, but concludes that one should nevertheless not permit the water to be extremely hot. So, in essence, he concludes in the Be’er Moshe responsa that even when immersion was permitted, sitting there—sitting in the mikveh—was not permitted. Sometimes people go into the mikveh and find it comfortable and pleasant to sit there. When we say that one may enter and immerse on Shabbos, we mean only to immerse and leave. Likewise, the water should not be so hot that one could be scalded. Although some say, as we mentioned, that one may immerse in a hot mikveh, even according to them, that does not mean going in

21:01 Speaker 2 From all this, what we have learned today from the entire discussion—from the Gemara, the Rishonim and the Acharonim—is that it is permitted, and indeed a mitzvah, to immerse on Shabbos morning. Immersion in a warm mikveh is also permitted, especially when there is concern that people will catch a chill in cold water and might therefore refrain from immersing. But one should try to ensure that the mikveh is not very hot, and one should not sit there for an extended time; one should immerse and leave. To conclude, I want to bring a little from the Rebbe’s Igros Kodesh. The Rebbe writes to someone: “It is completely untenable that you immerse only on Erev Yom Kippur, for this affects not only the study of Chassidus, but also the purity of the body and, more generally, an increase in the strength of one’s faith.” The claim that so-and-so’s going to the mikveh is of no benefit because it is done by rote is contrary to halachah. In practice, regarding our mikveh, many people immerse and want it warm. These many people have an additional claim to priority: they came before those who complain, and they began immersing long before those who want cold water. Nevertheless, there are people who want a cold mikveh. So, according to all opinions, everyone can immerse if it is handled differently from a weekday: it should not be heated especially for Shabbos, and on Shabbos it should be lukewarm, tending a little toward warm. That way, immersion will be permitted for everyone according to all opinions. Especially with winter approaching, when the days are cold, there can sometimes be a concern for people’s lives. We must also take into account people who are thin or weak. Yes, we have now brought all the quotations and all the points concerning a warm mikveh. There is a very great significance to this. Immersion is certainly a great thing, as is purity. It is something very great. Purity leads to holiness and makes it possible for us to feel, throughout the day, like people living in holiness and purity. And so, continuing with all these matters, as we have discussed, on Shabbos morning in warm water, also

23:42 Speaker 2 women may immerse, as we quoted earlier—especially since, G-d forbid, this could cause someone to postpone immersion. Immersion must not be postponed. From this we also learn, more generally, to avoid postponing immersion whenever possible, so that everything takes place at its proper time. And may Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in the merit of our purity here, purify us all. May we all be holy and pure, ready to greet our King, Moshiach, who will redeem us soon in our days; and may we have the third Beis Hamikdash soon in our days. Amen.