How to Build a Chabad Mikvah - Rabbi Menachem Mendel Wilschanski shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lemaan Yishme’u,” a podcast of Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Our goal in the coming classes is to give every rabbi—and especially shluchim in cities around the world—the tools to understand how to build a Chabad mikveh. Of course, a Chabad rabbi is needed for the pouring of the concrete. You also need guidance from people knowledgeable about mikvaos. We’ll talk about choosing an architect as well. But first, we want to give the overall picture: how a Chabad mikveh is built, what the halachos and customs are, and what the Shulchan Aruch requires for building Chabad mikvaos. Before we discuss what to build and how to build it, we need to state the most basic, clearest rule: questions about a Chabad mikveh should be asked only of Chabad rabbis. I’ll explain why, too. I’ve seen many cases where people building a Chabad mikveh went and asked all kinds of rabbis—rabbis who weren’t from Chabad, or rabbis from various organizations who said they specialized in Chabad mikvaos. Experience has shown that they never know the teachings of our Rebbeim thoroughly, and certainly not with the same approach and the same dedication as people connected to our Rebbeim, our nesi’im. There are also major details that, outside Chabad, I think only the author of Mikveh Mayim in Boro Park, who published a tremendous book, has touched on in full. He grasped those points. Everyone else isn’t even close to understanding what’s being discussed. Why? There is a halacha in the Shulchan Aruch, in section 201 of the laws of mikvaos, paragraph 7. It discusses making a mikveh, apparently, from a barrel. It speaks about someone who takes a barrel, makes a hole in it, then places it on the ground and seals it in place with lime, plaster, or various clay-like materials, to secure the barrel. When the Shulchan Aruch speaks of a barrel, it speaks of a vessel—it doesn’t say what material it’s made of. It could

02:38 Speaker 2 be earthenware, and it could also be metal. It doesn’t specify the material. And it says that once you make a hole in it, you render it fit. It then says: “One who takes a large vessel, such as a large barrel or a large trough, and makes in it a hole of the size that removes its susceptibility to impurity”—and the Rema adds, “and some say a hole the size of the spout of a waterskin”—“and fixes it into the ground and makes it a mikveh, it is valid.” Seemingly, that is an explicit halacha in the Shulchan Aruch. You take a vessel and make a hole in it of the size that removes its susceptibility to impurity; the Rema adds a larger hole, the size of the spout of a waterskin, and there you have a mikveh. That is how it appears on a plain reading, and that is how the Shach understands it too. Simply put, it is valid. The Shach adds the words “for immersion in it.” Right now we’re talking about a situation where a person didn’t build in the ground or pour concrete; he took a barrel. Now, when you take a vessel, we need to know that mikvaos are not made in vessels. There is an exclusion derived in the Sifrei: you do not place forty se’ah in a vessel. That is already stated in paragraph 6 of the Shulchan Aruch, section 201 of the laws of mikvaos in Yoreh De’ah. So we already have an explicit halacha that you do not place forty se’ah in a vessel. You cannot make a mikveh in a vessel. Another point: a vessel is something susceptible to impurity. You don’t make a mikveh with anything susceptible to impurity. Not only do you not make one in a vessel, whether or not it is susceptible to impurity; you also don’t make one with something susceptible to impurity even if it isn’t a vessel—how much more so if it is a vessel. Now, when we speak about the laws of impurity, this relates to various kinds of impurity. When the Beis Hamikdash stood, any vessel that became impure had to be purified. One way to do that was to make a hole in it, or for a hole to develop on its own. Here we need to distinguish between a hole that removes a vessel’s impurity, so that it can be used for the Beis Hamikdash and the like, or so that someone touching it will not cause water or other liquids that touch it to become impure,

04:52 Speaker 2 and a hole for a mikveh. The hole needed to remove a vessel’s impurity can be quite small—the size through which an olive could pass, a small olive. To remove the vessel’s status and make it fit for use as a mikveh, the Rema writes that the hole must be the size of the spout of a waterskin. The Shulchan Aruch also gives the measure of a waterskin’s spout later on, as the Shach notes. In other words, it is a larger hole. For example, when we’re speaking about a barrel, whether it’s earthenware or whatever it may be, once it has a hole large enough for an olive to pass through, it no longer has the status of a vessel with respect to the laws of impurity. Those laws concern various matters connected with the Beis Hamikdash. But to render it fit as a mikveh, the hole must be the size of the spout of a waterskin. That means two fingers that you can fit in and turn around together. In practice, they make it a little larger. Usually they make it five centimeters—an opening with a diameter of five centimeters. That is what is generally done. Now, on a plain reading of the Shulchan Aruch, you understand that a barrel can be used to make a mikveh. That’s how rabbis anywhere in the world would rule if you asked them: simply take a barrel, make a large hole in it, then fix it into the ground, right? Seal it with earth, lime, and plaster so the water doesn’t escape through the hole, right? And you have a mikveh, seemingly. The Rema adds another qualification and says: “It is permissible to make it on a roof, provided it is not inside a vessel or a single stone that was hollowed out and only afterward fixed in place; but a structure made of many stones is not considered a vessel.” The Rema adds this qualification: if someone wants to make a mikveh inside one large stone, like a boulder, he should not make it in a vessel; he should not hollow out a boulder and make a mikveh in it, even—although we are seemingly speaking about stone, which is not susceptible to impurity. Instead, he should join together many stones; a structure made of many stones is not considered a vessel. Yes. Fine. So if I took a barrel and made a hole

07:10 Speaker 2 in it, I removed its status as a vessel. Seemingly, I have a mikveh. One point worth discussing is that the Rema writes that it must not be made from a single stone, but from many stones. So if the barrel is made in one piece, perhaps the Rema would raise questions about that. In any event, on a plain reading of this halacha in the Shulchan Aruch, it would seem—from the Shulchan Aruch, from the Beis Yosef—that a barrel can be used to make a mikveh. The Shach writes this as well. Now let’s look at the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch. In the laws of niddah, under “Tikkunei Mikvaos,” he has a lengthy responsum, and there is something he emphasizes very strongly. The Alter Rebbe instituted improvements to mikvaos; he made a major improvement. People used to immerse in rivers, sometimes at night, when it was very cold. The Alter Rebbe instituted that they should make a box, a watertight enclosure, and place it in the water. They would fill it with forty se’ah of springwater or well water, then add hot water inside it. The enclosure, the box, would keep the water warm, so people could immerse in warm water, comfortably and properly, and so on. This is one of the things the Alter Rebbe said had helped him in all that he did, and in his release from imprisonment, and so on—among the improvements he instituted. So the Alter Rebbe already discusses the idea of making an enclosure, a box. What’s the difference between that and a barrel? It’s the same idea, and that was his improvement to mikvaos: putting in a box with a hole made in its bottom—we’ll soon see what size—and there you have a mikveh in which people immerse. But there is a major difference. Besides the practical difference that the Alter Rebbe is speaking about a box inside a river or a spring—which, as we’ll see later, also makes a difference in halacha—the Alter Rebbe qualified the construction of this enclosure with several clear, explicit instructions. First, he said that this enclosure must never have had the status of a vessel. Not that it

09:42 Speaker 2 It would become a vessel, and only afterward they would make a hole in it? No. The Alter Rebbe established that first, they should take planks and build four walls from them. They should not make a floor, because once you make a floor, it becomes a vessel that holds water. If you have four walls and pour water into them, it will escape from the bottom and soak into the earth; the ground will absorb it. Tip them onto their side—tip a box that has four walls but no cover or bottom onto its side—and the water will escape in every direction. It is like a pipe. It is not a vessel. So they build four sides out of planks. The Tzemach Tzedek adds in his responsum that no plank should be four tefachim wide; we will see that later. Then, the Alter Rebbe says, they should make a plank with a hole large enough for a pomegranate to pass through. And not just one pomegranate: the Alter Rebbe required, as a stringency, enough room for three pomegranates joined together. I’ll explain that shortly. They make a hole in the floor, and the Alter Rebbe calculated its size. As the Maharil attests, he was knowledgeable in mathematics and all the Torah’s measurements, and would discuss them at a depth and with a sharpness that even the Maharil could not fully grasp. The Alter Rebbe calculated it as a square tefach by tefach. Note what they do: they put planks on the ground, make a square hole in them at least a tefach by a tefach—eight centimeters by eight centimeters—fix them to the ground, and attach them to the earth. Now that they are attached to the earth, they are considered part of it. Why? Because the earth closes the hole. If you pour water there, it will soak into the earth. There is a hole that only the earth closes. Now you take the four walls and fasten them tightly to this floor. So you do not have a vessel that was later perforated. Instead, you made the walls separately and the floor

12:04 Speaker 2 separately, with a hole in it, and now you have joined the walls to the floor. What you have is a perforated structure attached to the ground. It was never considered a vessel, because even now that it is assembled, it is a box that does not have the halachic status of a vessel. More importantly, not only did it never acquire the status of a vessel, but we also gain the benefit of the Talmudic rule: if one hollows it out and then fixes it in place, it is invalid; if one fixes it in place and then hollows it out, it is valid. There are laws concerning someone who makes pipes to carry water—rainwater—to a mikveh, as well as various other details, or someone who makes a mikveh out of a vessel. The point is that you cannot do that. It is invalid when you have a vessel and then attach it to the ground, even though we know that, generally, something fixed to the ground has the status of land. That is how it works with the laws discussed in Tractate Bava Basra concerning monetary matters, and the same principle is applied to mikvaos. It is a long discussion in Tractate Bava Basra. So there is a concept called “hollowed out and then fixed in place.” Say you take a piece of wood and carve a large hollow into it. You create an interior space, but you do not carve all the way down; you leave some wood at the bottom to close it off. Now you have something like a vessel, a large bowl into which you can pour a drink or water. That is called a vessel. If you hollow it out and then fix it in place, it is invalid. You took a vessel and fixed it to the ground; it does not become part of the ground or acquire the status of land. It remains a vessel attached to the ground. But if you first take something that is not a vessel—a log—and fix it to the ground so that it becomes part of the ground, and only then make the hollows you want in it, sometimes it

14:14 Speaker 2 will be valid and sometimes not. It falls under the law of “fixed in place and then hollowed out”: first you made it part of the ground, and afterward you carved it out. The Alter Rebbe says that you take a wooden plank and attach it to the earth when it already has a hole in it, and afterward add four walls. That, too, is “hollowed out”—sorry, “fixed in place and then hollowed out.” So it does not have the status of a vessel, and it never had that status in the first place. As the Tzemach Tzedek explains, there was never a structure with four walls and a floor. There was a separate floor with a hole that the earth closed. In other words, it is the earth that closes the hole, not the wood. Only afterward did you fit the four walls onto it; you fitted four walls onto wood that had become like the ground. So first of all, this was “fixed in place and then hollowed out,” so that it would not become a vessel later. Second, it never had the status of a vessel either. The Alter Rebbe says—and I am condensing this—that these planks must never have had the status of a vessel. That is the rule: the laws of a vessel must never have applied to them. When the Alter Rebbe established how this box should be made, he said: I do not want it ever to have the status of a vessel, so I make the hole from the outset, so it will never be a vessel. That is why I attach the floor to the earth first. Now, if you fill this box with cold water, hot water, forty se’ah of spring water, and then hot water, the water will be absorbed into the earth, because there is a tefach-by-tefach opening to the earth. Now the Alter Rebbe says: you need to, and may, take another plank, place it over the hole—that is, put a second plank on the floor opposite the hole—and fasten it with nails. The Alter Rebbe established that the

16:18 Speaker 2 floor—the first plank, with its tefach-by-tefach hole—should be fastened with four nails, and then the plank above it. The Tzemach Tzedek says that the upper plank should be fastened with two nails. In any case, what we see here from the Alter Rebbe’s words and the Tzemach Tzedek’s explanation is that even when building a box within a spring or river, it must never acquire—must never have had—the status of a vessel. Notice three differences from how we have understood the Shulchan Aruch’s plain wording until now. First, the hole must be made in such a way that the structure never acquires the status of a vessel. You cannot take a barrel and turn it into a mikveh. Second, it has to be within the spring or the river. The Beis Yosef does not say that; he simply speaks of a barrel, at least as the law reads. Third, the size of the hole. The Shulchan Aruch says it should be “a hole that removes its status of a vessel,” meaning large enough for an olive to pass through. The Rema says it should be the size of the mouth of a waterskin. And the Alter Rebbe says that, so it should never acquire the status of a vessel—not even come to have that status—you should make an opening large enough for a pomegranate to pass through. Not only that, but for three pomegranates joined together. There are two opinions about what this means. One opinion says it is a way of determining the size of the pomegranate. The Mishnah says it should be neither a large pomegranate nor a small one, but a medium-sized one. So how do we know its size? According to one opinion, when you find a branch of a pomegranate tree with three pomegranates growing together, look at their size. That tells you the size of a medium pomegranate when they grow together. Others say that if we have a vessel with a hole large enough for a pomegranate to pass through, but the vessel can hold three pomegranates joined together, then the hole does not

18:23 Speaker 2 help. In other words, you make a pomegranate-sized hole, but if there are now three pomegranates joined together, the hole will not let them out. So they say it has to be large enough that even three pomegranates joined together cannot remain inside: at least one will slip out through the hole. The Alter Rebbe calculated a size slightly larger than what is needed for three joined pomegranates. He said: a little larger is a square tefach by tefach. So even without all the—even someone who did not understand the explanation of “three pomegranates joined together”—that is not really the point here. The point is to explain that the Alter Rebbe is speaking about the largest measure, and about planks that had never been made into a vessel. They were never a barrel, certainly not, nor were they a chest, box, or cabinet in the plain sense of the terms we read in the Mishnah or the Rambam. They were simply pieces of wood joined together when attached to the ground. Let us return to the matter at hand. When the Alter Rebbe says they must never have had the status of a vessel, can he agree that the Shulchan Aruch means, “One who takes a large vessel, such as a large barrel or a large trough, makes a hole in it large enough to remove its status as a vessel, fixes it in the ground, and makes a mikveh—it is valid”? And, as the Shach understands the plain meaning here, valid for immersing in it? That is why, in the responsa we read and in the pamphlets published in recent years—and during the coronavirus period too—there were many discussions. Someone wants to take some sort of container, a plastic barrel, or some kind of structure—I don’t know, today they make them from fiberglass or similar materials—all sorts of rectangular structures built on metal frames with strong sheets of material, and there you have a mikveh. Is it a kosher mikveh? Maybe for men, but perhaps for forty se’ah for a person who happens to

20:33 Speaker 2 Impurity that comes from a person’s own body—a man who has an emission that makes him impure—for that, even drawn water is sufficient according to the Mishnah. But is this a kosher mikveh to begin with for a Torah-level impurity? For women who are niddos, women after childbirth, and the like? Can you make a mikveh out of it and call it a kosher mikveh? After all, the Alter Rebbe wrote—and the Tzemach Tzedek emphasizes this in his responsa, Yoreh De’ah, section 176, as well as in several other responsa, section 164 and so on—that it must never have had the status of a vessel, but rather be water. So what is going on here? The Mechaber says what he says, and the Shach says what he says. The Tzemach Tzedek, in section 176 of his responsa, discusses this at length. He says we need to look at the Alter Rebbe’s source: What was the Alter Rebbe concerned about? How, in fact, does he understand this ruling in the Mechaber? The Alter Rebbe’s understanding in section 201, subsection 7, is not what the plain reading of the Mechaber seems to suggest, and certainly not what the Shach says. The Alter Rebbe permits a barrel with a hole in it not for immersion inside it, but only for collecting water—rainwater—so that it will not be considered drawn water. Apart from the problem of immersing inside a vessel, there is another problem. Any drawn water that enters a vessel—sorry, any rainwater, sorry, that enters a vessel becomes drawn water. Even before we get into the question of the vessel itself—whether it can contract impurity, whether it has contracted impurity—there is the issue of drawn water in a vessel. The Alter Rebbe tells us that if a barrel was pierced with an opening the size of a wineskin spout, as the Rema specifies here, the water inside it is not called drawn water. You take a barrel, make an opening the size of a wineskin spout, attach it to the ground with lime or something similar, and seal the opening—there is no problem. If rainwater enters it, if rainwater is channeled into it or falls into it, that water

22:50 Speaker 2 will be kosher afterward if you break the vessel or tip it so the water pours into a kosher mikveh. That water will be considered rainwater. Forty se’ah of water, rainwater—but the water is not—the vessel is not kosher for immersion, because it once had the status of a vessel, and there is also the question of impurity: whether the mikveh was formed through something susceptible to impurity. We already explained in our previous class that there is drawn water, and there is a concept called “its formation must be through purity.” In other words, a vessel can contract impurity. Some say the entire problem with a vessel is that it can contract impurity, so the water inside it is not kosher for immersion: the water is supposed to be in a state of purity, not inside a vessel that can contract impurity. Others say there are two disqualifications: the disqualification of a vessel and the disqualification of being formed through something susceptible to impurity. That is because the ruling derived from the Sifrei is that “its formation must be through purity.” The mikveh must be formed by means of something that is not susceptible to impurity. That ruling also applies to all the pipes that channel water to the mikveh. All the piping leading to the mikveh must be checked in this regard, even if it does not have the status of a vessel. Say you are bringing water down from a roof, or bringing rainwater from the ground toward the mikveh, channeling it through various pipes. Even if a pipe is not made like a vessel—if it has no bottom and no lid, but only four sides, or it is round—even if it does not have the status of a vessel, you still have to make sure it is made of a material that cannot contract impurity, so that the mikveh is formed through purity. But these are laws we will learn later; they are not relevant right now. I am emphasizing this only to explain and clarify that the Alter Rebbe means that a vessel pierced with such a small opening is not kosher for immersion inside it. The opening only ensures that the water collected in it is not called drawn

24:40 Speaker 2 water. Where did the Alter Rebbe get this from? And if that is how we understand the ruling, then when the Rema comes and says, “Don’t make me a mikveh out of one huge stone by hollowing it out and then fixing it in place”—one stone—and the Rema qualifies this by saying, “I want three stones joined together,” he is commenting on this ruling. If the ruling is only about collecting water so that it remains kosher, then when the Rema says he wants several stones joined together, that means that if people want to immerse inside it, it certainly cannot be made from one stone; it has to be made from several stones. So, too, when we build some sort of box for immersion, it will have to be assembled from several boards. It must not be a single board. And even if I do not—even if it would not be a vessel—if I cast four walls in one piece without a floor and then place it on the ground, there may still be a question about it being one stone, because the Rema writes in connection with this ruling that it must not be made from one stone. And we are saying that, from the outset, the Alter Rebbe understands this entire ruling as dealing with preserving the status of the water. As for the Rema, whether he is discussing preserving the water’s status or immersing in the water, he is already stringent that it not be made from one stone. Just so we understand how far this goes. This approach is, in fact, very stringent, but with mikvaos we follow all the stringent opinions. And who says it is so extreme? In his responsum in section 176, the Tzemach Tzedek goes to great lengths to show that this is the position of the Ritva, the Raavad, and several other early authorities. So the Alter Rebbe is, in fact, following an interpretation held by many early authorities. What do they say? They say this is not a vessel that is kosher for immersion; it is only for collecting water. And if you want to immerse in such a vessel, you have to place

26:36 Speaker 2 it in a river and pierce it so that it is like a pipe, and it must never have had the status of a vessel in the first place. What is the source for this? The Tzemach Tzedek tells us: it is the Raavad’s commentary on the Rambam. Yes, it is also the Ritva, and yes, he cites several other opinions of early authorities there, but primarily it is the Raavad; he quotes the Raavad. The Rambam discusses a person taking an earthenware vessel, such as a barrel or something similar, or a trough. The Rambam writes that if he makes a hole in it large enough to render it unable to contract impurity—the wording used by the Mechaber—then it is kosher. The Raavad immediately objects and says that Rabbi Yehudah holds otherwise. First, he says that an opening merely large enough to render it unable to contract impurity is not enough; it must be the size of a wineskin spout. Second, he says this applies specifically when it is inside a mikveh. In chapter 6 of Hilchos Mikvaos, the Raavad writes in his comments on the Rambam that the opening must be the size of a wineskin spout, and the vessel must be inside a mikveh or a spring. In other words, you must connect the barrel to the spring water or to the mikveh water through an opening the size of a wineskin spout, with forty se’ah still collected in a pit. Only then can you consider immersing inside it. So the Raavad’s starting point is that you cannot immerse inside a barrel even if you pierce it, unless it is surrounded by water, and even then only if you make a large opening in it. That is the position from which the Alter Rebbe derived that one cannot, to begin with, immerse in a barrel containing forty se’ah when it is not connected to any surrounding mikveh or to any spring or river. The Alter Rebbe took that from the Raavad, and he was more stringent still, saying that it must never have had the status of a vessel, because he is concerned about the requirement that the mikveh be formed through purity. He wants it to be formed through purity. The law says its formation must be through purity. Here, it was not formed through purity.

28:23 Speaker 2 In other words, as Chabad chassidim who follow the teachings of our Rebbeim, before I begin teaching all the Chabad laws of mikvaos, we have a fundamental starting point. We need to know that, at the very foundation of building a mikveh, our approach differs from that of everyone else. So how can you go and ask a rabbi who isn’t Chabad? To begin with, he doesn’t know this teaching of the Tzemach Tzedek. They don’t cite it, and even if he knows about it, he may not grasp its full depth, because his whole way of thinking about building mikvaos is different. You want to build a Chabad mikveh? First, ask a Chabad rabbi. That’s the first point. Now, the Tzemach Tzedek, whose guidance we follow, explains the Alter Rebbe’s position so beautifully and goes to great lengths to prove it. It’s true that the Alter Rebbe took into account the Raavad I mentioned earlier and followed his approach. Incidentally, in Chabad we consistently take the Raavad’s view into account. When the Rebbe Rashab instructed that one pool be built above another, it was because he took the Raavad’s position on another issue into account, as we’ll see later. A pool above a pool is also the Raavad’s approach in his book Baalei Hanefesh. But the main point, when we discuss this Rambam and the Raavad, is to know that the Alter Rebbe already answered all the questions. There are many questions about this Raavad. The Kesef Mishneh raises tremendous difficulties with his reading of the Mishnah. The Beis Yosef raises major difficulties too, and it appears that the commentators on the Shulchan Aruch agree with those questions, as the Shach notes there. So what about all those questions? The Alter Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek answered them all at length. This isn’t the place for an in-depth halachic discussion. The point is that the Raavad has an approach

30:39 Speaker 2 to the text; that’s how he understands it. It may be—I’ve also seen later authorities cited in the notes to the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch—some even read this idea into the Rambam: that the Rambam was never speaking about a barrel on its own. The Rambam writes: “One who takes a barrel, makes a hole in it, and collects forty se’ah in it.” Some say that the Rambam was speaking from the outset about a barrel placed in a river or a spring. It never occurred to the Rambam to consider it valid as it stood. And if the Rambam means that the water is valid as it stands, that is only in the sense that it is not considered drawn water. I’ve seen this point made by the Tzemach Tzedek, though in a somewhat different, more condensed form, in the writings of several authorities, including one later commentator on the Shulchan Aruch. In other words, this is a basic halachah. Notice that in section 50, the Shulchan Aruch discusses a vessel with a crack. He says: If the crack will cause the water to drain away over time until fewer than forty se’ah remain, the mikveh is invalid. If the crack will not cause the water to drain away until fewer than forty se’ah remain, it is valid. Then he asks: What if someone wants to seal the crack? He cites two opinions. One says it may be sealed with something susceptible to tumah, such as an iron implement, cloth, or a person’s finger, which is considered susceptible to tumah. You put your finger there and plug the hole. The second opinion says you cannot, and that is the halachic ruling: not to seal it with something susceptible to tumah. So when the Shulchan Aruch himself speaks about a barrel—or, likewise, a mikveh with a crack—he tells you: When you want to seal the crack, don’t seal it with something susceptible to tumah. And so you don’t seal the barrel

32:55 Speaker 2 with something susceptible to tumah either, but with lime and plaster. You don’t seal it with something susceptible to tumah. True, in section 50 he cites a dispute about whether one may do so, while here he doesn’t mention a dispute. He speaks from the outset about sealing it with earth, earthen materials, and the like. It seems he does that because he doesn’t want to get into the issue of something susceptible to tumah. In other words, here he says not to seal it with something susceptible to tumah, while in section 50 he cites a dispute. So there is indeed a contradiction in the Shulchan Aruch. But as we understand the words of the Shulchan Aruch—and certainly as we understand the Raavad’s position—the entire discussion concerns collecting the water so that it will not be disqualified by being considered drawn water. Now suppose a Chabad rabbi wants to build a mikveh. First, he needs to know that he cannot make it from a barrel, because it was once considered a vessel. Second, if he uses boards, he should take several pieces and join them together. He needs to know that the Tzemach Tzedek says that no individual board or piece should be more than four tefachim wide. Why? Because of the decree concerning bathhouses, mentioned in section 198 of Yoreh De’ah, in the laws of niddah. Then we have the Rema. The Rema says not to take one solid piece and hollow it out, even if it is stone, which is not susceptible to tumah. It is a material that is not susceptible to tumah. Don’t hollow out a single piece to make a mikveh; make it from several pieces. I’m talking about things that can be moved. The Rema also agrees that if a rock has been embedded in the ground from the time of Creation and you then hollow it out, there’s no problem. We’re talking about hollowing out a rock and lifting it,

34:53 Speaker 2 moving it onto a roof, or setting it or attaching it to the ground somewhere. In any case, when you bring boards and pieces of various kinds—a modular mikveh built from separate pieces—before even discussing whether it is valid, the first requirements are that none of it was ever considered a vessel, and that no individual piece be four tefachim wide. Right? Then there’s the size of the holes. Then it has to be in water, if you want to make a mikveh from it. From there we come to the question of what happens when I set out to build a mikveh from the start. If I want to build a mikveh now, from the beginning—well, if the Alter Rebbe was so concerned that it should never have been considered a vessel, meaning that it should never have acquired the status of drawn water, and that its formation must be in purity, with no question of its having been formed through something susceptible to tumah—then when I go to build the mikveh, do I need to ask questions? Yes. The Alter Rebbe says nails may be fastened in place. The Tzemach Tzedek says in his responsum that this refers to nails made for use in construction attached to the ground. The book Mikveh Mayim addresses this and says that when the nails support the structure but do not constitute the entire structure, and the nails were made for use in construction attached to the ground, they may be used according to the Alter Rebbe. If the nails were made for use in construction attached to the ground and they do not constitute the entire mikveh but only reinforce it, there is no problem according to the Alter Rebbe. A plain metal item—a plain metal utensil—or a nail, which may even have the status of something that can be attached to a utensil and made part of it: if it is movable, it is susceptible to tumah, whether by rabbinic law or Torah law. It is susceptible to tumah. You cannot fasten it into the mikveh. Nails that the Alter Rebbe

36:54 Speaker 2 The Alter Rebbe ruled that it is permissible to use iron nails of a certain kind. They are normally susceptible to tumah, but in this case they are not, because they are very large and are not used for movable things. That is how the Tzemach Tzedek explains it: they are used only for things attached to the ground. Today, when you set out to build a mikveh, you have to ask yourself: Are the iron rods I’m using to build the mikveh also used for things detached from the ground, or only for things attached to the ground? If they are used only for things attached to the ground, then anything attached to the ground is considered part of the ground and has its halachic status. If not, perhaps you cannot build a mikveh with them, and that is why there are discussions about this. When you build a mikveh today with poured concrete and iron, the iron is susceptible to tumah. If it is used only for things attached to the ground, that is one matter. But if it is also used for movable things—for machinery, all kinds of constructions, or movable utensils—say you build a pool that can be moved, or iron cabinets, or various displays and the like, that is different. After all, industry today uses iron in thousands upon thousands of variations, for every sort of object, for anything that moves or can be moved. It is not used only for things attached to the ground, but for all kinds of constructions and utensils. So it does not necessarily have the same status as the nail the Alter Rebbe is discussing. From the words of the Alter Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek, and the way they understand this matter, we can now begin to move forward. Having discussed the halachic basis and this fundamental ruling, we can begin to understand what we do when we want to build a Chabad mikveh. When we set out to build a Chabad mikveh, we have to ask: Where are the laws of mikvaos? After all, the Alter Rebbe did not write a systematic set of laws of mikvaos. There are instructions for the construction of mikvaos within Yoreh Deah.

38:49 Speaker 2 Right? There are matters relating to a mikveh, but they are not arranged systematically the way the laws of the recitation of Shema are. So we need to know: Before the First World War, before the Rebbe Rashab fled to Rostov, the mikveh he had in Lubavitch followed the Alter Rebbe’s instructions. They would place a vessel in the river, fill it with living water, and immerse in it. When he arrived in Rostov—and afterward he was also on the road a great deal—he gave Rabbi Yaakov Landau instructions for building the mikveh in Rostov. The one who supervised the mikveh and all the instructions was the Frierdiker Rebbe. That is what actually happened; it is important to remember. That is why the Rebbe asked Rabbi Yaakov Landau to prepare an account of what he remembered about how the mikveh in Rostov was built. The Rebbe gave that account to the Frierdiker Rebbe to review and approve. Later, when Rabbi Nissan Telushkin published his book Taharas Mayim, the Rebbe sent him the account to include in the book, in 5709. At the same time, the Rebbe instructed that Rabbi Landau’s account be printed at the end of the Yoreh Deah volume of the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch. It was placed after the laws of niddah, and from then on it has always been printed with the Shulchan Aruch. These, then, are Chabad’s laws of mikvaos: the instructions for mikvaos written by the Alter Rebbe, his explanations, and all the practical halachic conclusions that emerge from the detailed discussions and analysis of his words, as well as from the Tzemach Tzedek’s responsa—entire sections, 169, 162, 176, 170, and several more devoted to the subject. Then there is the halachah arranged for practical application: the Rebbe Rashab’s instructions for the construction of mikvaos. They call for building one mikveh above another, because he was concerned for the position of the Raavad, who set

41:02 Speaker 2 a measure and a restriction, as we will see later, along with various other requirements. A Chabad mikveh is not just one pool above another, as we have already said and explained in previous classes. It encompasses all the hiddurim, all the arrangements, and so on. So now we can learn how to build a mikveh. But let us not forget the foundation: the water must never have entered a vessel, it must not be drawn water, and it must not be subject to tumah. Now let’s get moving. First, when you set out to build a mikveh, you have to be very practical. Very, very practical. In other words, the final result must be thought through from the start. Everything needs a plan. So many mikvaos have had to be demolished, or did not turn out to meet the highest standard of hiddur in the end. You also have to know that forces hostile to holiness and to the Jewish people get involved here. So there are even more challenges when building mikvaos, and even more attempts to confuse and mislead both the person commissioning the work and the builder, and so on. Rabbi Boaz Lerner used to attest that the most bizarre things happen with mikvaos. I have also seen it in all the mikveh construction projects we have encountered: all sorts of things happen in the most inexplicable and unlikely ways. That is why the final result must be thought through from the start. You have to plan and specify everything, with full knowledge of the necessary halachos alongside the technical details and every other aspect. We have an architect. It is always preferable to have one who has already built a mikveh. If not, at least have an architect who is in touch with one. In my experience, whenever architects have a question, they try to bring in solutions they already have in mind. They try to understand what you are saying when they do not understand a word of the halachah. Sometimes they are not Jewish, and even if they are Jewish, they have not studied it. They keep coming up with

43:03 Speaker 2 solutions without understanding the issue, because they do not even realize there is a question here. And they make mistakes, time and again. So everything has to be clear from the outset—clear, clear, clear, down to the last screw. When you begin building, choose your architect as I said, and make sure he understands his responsibility in the matter and how much attention he needs to pay. Every two or three stages, stop and look: Have we done this properly, and what are we going to do next? How exactly will it be done? Everything has to be as carefully directed, precise, and focused as possible. I always tell rabbis and shluchim: Don’t build a mikveh while doing several other things. When you are involved in it, focus on this alone. There is no choice; otherwise it can be a source of regret for generations. You are building it because you want it to meet the highest standards. Our Rebbeim were meticulous about every hiddur. One small mistake, and afterward it will cost you a fortune to demolish what you built. If you do not demolish it, the hiddur has been compromised, and that is that. So stay focused. Clarify things with rabbis until you know the practical details yourself. If you have a question, call immediately and ask. Keep your finger on the pulse at all times. And contractors—oh, thank G-d, they are clever. They often try to show just how clever they are. For a mikveh, choose someone for whom the simpler the approach, the better—someone with a straightforward, sensible mind. Otherwise, watch them like a hawk. They will always introduce all kinds of solutions. That is what they are used to doing; they do not understand the problem, and they also like to show what they can do and come up with innovations. Once you have a good architect and a good contractor, sit down with the architect and draw up a proper plan. That means drawing it, having others review it rather than checking it alone, and making corrections. Look at mikvaos that have already been built, make comparisons, speak with architects and rabbis who have built them, and then begin construction. Now, in the plan,

45:06 Speaker 2 Now we know: the plans have to include the whole system. Where does the rainwater come from, where does it flow, how does it reach the mikveh—and then there is the mikveh itself. So here is how it works. I always say it is worth studying the measurements of a mikveh with diagrams. Are you building one mikveh above another? You need to know that there is one pool above another. Some build a bor zeriah, a pool through which the water passes, and a bor hashakah, a pool connected to the immersion pool, at the side. There must be hamshachah—a channel over absorbent ground. When the rainwater arrives, it has to come from the storage tank and flow. As it leaves the tank, it flows through a hamshachah channel. If you take a rainwater tank or a roof and run the water directly through a pipe into the lower pool, storing the rainwater there, you have left out what the Rebbe Rashab says is needed: after the rainwater comes out, there must be a hamshachah channel. That means a channel in which the water passes over at least three tefachim—about thirty centimeters. It is better to make it thirty centimeters to half a meter, to give it more length, over which the water passes across soft concrete. That means ten parts sand. Usually, when mixing the gray cement with sand—sea sand—you need to use that or something similar. So you take ten buckets of sand and one bucket of cement. You mix them together, and you get soft, absorbent concrete; then the water passes over the hamshachah. It is absorbent ground that can soak up the water, and the water thereby, so to speak, gains a renewed status even after it was stored in the reservoir, the reserve tank. There is a plug there holding it in. You open the plug and the water comes out. That is just one example of something you need to know in advance. You also know that when you build the lower pool, it needs to be—usually they make it seventy centimeters high, though eighty is better—so that it will not be a shallow mikveh. Not long ago, a mikveh was built in one of the largest Chabad communities, and the lower pool

47:09 Speaker 2 was built too low. They had to break it up and build it again. The lower pool needs to be seventy to eighty centimeters high, with enough capacity to hold at least 1,500 liters. You should always make it 1,600, because some water is always lost. The Rebbe wants not just 750 liters—the forty se’ah according to the accepted practice—but twice that. We already learned this in earlier sessions. Then there is the upper pool. The water is filled to a height of 1.25 to 1.35 meters. The opening through which water from the tap enters a bor zeriah in some mikvaos—or, if there is no bor zeriah, through which it falls onto the hashakah opening below; we have already learned about this—needs to be fifteen centimeters above the water level. And there is the height of the pool’s hashakah opening. Where there is hashakah at the side, that opening needs to be five to ten centimeters below the water level. One is above the water level; the other is below it. The one above the water level needs to be far enough above it that, when a broad-bodied person enters, the water will not rise and start moving back and forth between the opening, the bor zeriah behind it, and the pool in which people immerse. In the immersion pool, as I said earlier, the water level should be 125 to 135 centimeters—1.3... 1.25 to 1.35 meters. So the mikveh itself obviously has to be deeper. Usually it is made 1.5 meters or more, according to what each person wants and the height of the steps. There are standards for the steps leading down into the mikveh. There are also Health Ministry or government standards: how wide the tread on which you place your foot should be, and how high each step should be. Usually,

49:08 Speaker 2 they also do not want too many steps. The architect knows this, or should know it. These are ordinary standards. In the plans, you can have up to nine steps. But you have to remember carefully, when you draw the step for a short person, the step for a short person, forty centimeters is the minimum width, but that is not what is done; it is made fifty to sixty or seventy centimeters wide. In other words, this step is for a very short woman or man who needs a step to stand on, because they cannot go down into deep water and keep their mouth and nose above it to breathe. They cannot do that because they are short, so they stand on this step. The step has to be wide enough for them to lean their body over, or, as it were, lie across the step toward the other steps. That is why the step for a short person has to be planned from the outset. I have often seen mikvaos where it was not planned. After all, it is mentioned in the Shulchan Aruch. You do not even need to get to the Rebbe Rashab’s list for this. So this step, mentioned in the Shulchan Aruch, has to be made. As for pouring the concrete, mikvaos are generally built with steel reinforcement mesh and concrete over it. The Alter Rebbe discussed the matter and said that nails may be used to strengthen a mikveh. From that, the question arose whether steel mesh may also be used in building a mikveh. The steel mesh has been discussed for many years now—nearly a hundred years—in the responsa of the later halachic authorities. They discuss the concept of “this and that together provide support,” of “this and that together are the cause.” In other words, both the concrete and the steel provide the structural support for the mikveh. Now we have a question. The steel in the mesh is not fashioned into a vessel, but steel is a metal that can contract

51:09 Speaker 2 ritual impurity, and a mikveh may not be built with something that can contract ritual impurity. The later authorities therefore argue that both materials together provide the support—the steel and the concrete. Rabbi Wendel and my father-in-law, Rabbi Feigelstock, instituted the practice of placing the steel mesh at least ten centimeters away from the water’s edge, from where the water meets the wall: set the steel ten centimeters back into the thickness of the wall, leaving ten centimeters of concrete there. Then every man and woman who immerses in the water is, in fact, immersed in a space surrounded by concrete. The concrete should be able to stand on its own for the few moments of immersion. Even if there were no steel, it would hold for those few moments. This is not the place for a lengthy halachic discussion, but it is certainly proper, necessary, and worthwhile to be meticulous about this. The pouring itself is done with a rabbi and an architect involved. We pour the entire mikveh in one pour, so that, G-d forbid, we do not end up pouring it twice and creating a leak. Concrete generally does not bond well to concrete if it is not poured all at once. That is why we do it all in one pour—preferably all the pools. If you have several pools, though, it is not a serious problem if you poured the upper and lower pools together in one pour. There are methods for subsequently pouring the side pools, including the bor zeriah, and bonding them securely so there will be no leaks. The main thing is that you made the upper and lower pools in one pour. That includes deciding what the floor between them will be. Some make the floor separating the upper pool from the lower pool as part of that initial pour. I have seen cases where they put a support under the floor, and others where they used a steel support under the floor. That is not halachically acceptable. The moment

53:10 Speaker 2 If iron is what supports the floor, it is no longer kosher. You have to make sure it is supported by enough concrete to stand on its own, or find another method. I’m talking about a case where the lower mikveh is very, very wide and the floor might collapse, so the engineer instructs you to put a support column in the middle, extending down into the lower mikveh, into the lower pit where the water is stored. You have to make sure that the column supporting it is kosher. You cannot make it out of iron; you have to make it out of something that will not raise a question about its kashrus. In addition, when we pour the concrete for the mikveh, we also have to look at how the formwork was made. Some people put formwork on the inside. Let me explain what formwork means. Usually, you make an outer and an inner wooden box, put in steel reinforcement, and then pour the cement and concrete into the spaces between the inner box and the wooden walls on the outside. When it hardens, you remove the wood and have a standing wall, right? To make a wall stand, you need wood on this side and wood on that side, and then you pour the concrete between them. Now, usually, to keep the wood from moving during the pour, they connect the outer box to the inner box with iron wire, and especially at the bottom, they put in supports and nails. The problem is that afterward, when you remove the wood from both sides, the iron wire remains in the middle. In fact, at that spot, were it not for the iron, the water would escape. This is called something that holds the water in place. We also have a discussion of something that holds the water in place in the Rebbe Rashab’s notes. We know that the Rebbe Rashab prescribed in his notes—which are our Shulchan Aruch—that every mikveh should have a reserve reservoir where the water is stored. The Rebbe Rashab instructed that a rubber stopper not be used for this reserve reservoir. Why not

55:29 Speaker 2 use a rubber stopper? Because there is concern that the stopper can become ritually impure. So even though the water subsequently flows over the ground, he asked that rubber not be put on the wood because of that concern. All the more so when it is what holds the water in place—even though, as I said, the water subsequently flows over the ground. According to all opinions, at least in Shulchan Aruch, water flowing over absorbent ground—a channel made, as we explained earlier, with soft concrete and earth—generally purifies the water. That flow is supposed to remedy the earlier use of a stopper or seal made of something that can become ritually impure, or might be able to become ritually impure. Nevertheless, the Rebbe Rashab says he wants the water to flow over the ground after the stopper. How much more must we avoid building a mikveh with iron running from one side to the other and sealing the concrete through its full thickness, so that without the iron the water would escape. In that case, it is the iron that holds the water in place. And although the Alter Rebbe permitted making a support with nails, first of all, he said that the entire structure should not depend on them. Second, there is a big difference between putting a nail in a box within a spring and this case. The Tzemach Tzedek says that the Sea made by Shlomo was made of copper and was kosher because it was within a spring. There is a difference between that and what the Alter Rebbe discussed, and an even greater difference is that there, it was not holding the water in place as it is here, where the water would otherwise pass through from one side to the other. In other words, here we are putting iron there from the outset. Once the concrete has been poured, the iron remains from one side to the other and is, in effect, what holds the water in place. If

57:22 Speaker 2 the Rebbe Rashab disqualified a stopper that can become ritually impure from use in the reserve reservoir that stores the rainwater, then all the more so must we take care that in the immersion pool itself, the lower pit and the upper pit—and particularly in the lower pit—there is no iron wire left running from one side to the other. After the mikveh is poured, that wire remains inside. It is metal, and it is also made for use as a movable object. It is not something made solely to be fixed to the ground, with no other use. So it becomes something that holds the water in place, as with the stopper that disqualifies it. Therefore, of course, we can make the formwork so that it is held together from above. Architects, engineers and contractors know what that means. You can make all the formwork this way. It is harder for them, and it requires more expertise: all the boards and metal supports can be secured from above, leaving the rest clear. Then you pour the concrete and, after the pour, remove the boards. You may put nails in the boards themselves, from the inner side of the box toward the wall, because usually, when the boards are pulled out, the nails come out with them and nothing remains. Right? No iron remains inside the wall. That is different from iron wires, which are placed from the outset inside the area where the concrete is poured. It is always worth showing these things in diagrams. When you see the accompanying diagrams, you can see how it works in practice. So, as I said, we have discussed pouring the concrete for the mikveh, how it is built and what its height should be. Of course, leaving the openings in precisely the right places when you pour is a whole subject in itself. You put Styrofoam or wood or something there to leave an opening, making sure it can be pulled out afterward. You can put

59:26 Speaker 2 oil or something on it, or wrap it in paper, so you can pull it out afterward and be left with an opening. If it is the opening of a shfoferes hanod to the side pool for connecting the waters, that is one thing. If you are also pouring the floor, you need to leave openings a tefach by a tefach in the upper mikveh. For the lower Chabad mikveh, you need to leave two openings. The Rebbe Rashab was particular that they be far apart, and today the practice is to put them at opposite ends of the mikveh. This also avoids the problem of a person’s foot falling into an opening. And when the openings are far apart, they interfere less with filling the water and operating the mikveh. Indeed, this is a whole field of knowledge. The more experience, the better. So someone without experience should always bring in a rabbi or an architect who has experience, so that, G-d forbid, no mishap results from his work. When we talk about mikvehs, we also have to remember all the laws and arrangements discussed by the Rebbe Rashab. That includes the removable slab: when you make the floor, you also leave an opening of the appropriate size. Why? Because that is where you install a slab. The slab can be made of marble or concrete; the main thing is that it have no frame around it, neither iron nor anything else. The slab is made so that you can lift it for cleaning, and you also lift it when filling the mikveh with rainwater, once every year or two. When you fill it with rainwater, you lift this slab, as the Rebbe Rashab said. Since the Rebbe Rashab was concerned that a rubber stopper can become ritually impure, we certainly will not seal the mikvehs with rubber stoppers, and all the more so not with metal stoppers. The Rebbe himself writes in his letter

1:01:15 Speaker 2 He was alarmed to hear that there was a metal stopper in the floor of the mikveh. Besides what we mentioned earlier about se’if 50 in the Shulchan Aruch—the ruling that some say, and this is the practice, that one must not seal it with something susceptible to tumah—we also have what the Rebbe writes: “I was alarmed to hear that an iron stopper is fixed in the floor of the mikveh. They will certainly replace it,” the Rebbe says. As is well known, nowadays they do not make any hole at the bottom of a mikveh, because that can cause the water to flow out and escape. Instead, they drain it with pumps, drawing the water out from above rather than making a hole at the bottom. In general, we do not make holes in mikvaos, apart from those we have to make to bring the municipal water to the bor zeriya and for the hashakah opening to the bor hashakah on the side. Other than that, we do not make holes—certainly not in the mikveh floor, and absolutely not in the lower bor. If you make a hole there, the entire kashrus of the mikveh is in question. The water will certainly escape, seep away and not stay in place. And you cannot seal it properly with wood, so we avoid making holes. In the reserve cistern where rainwater is stored, there is a hole at the bottom; that is what it is for. What about the plug? The Rebbe Rashab says to make the plug out of wood. Today, it is advisable, when pouring the concrete, to form a round opening for the water outlet from the reserve cistern—the storage tank, as the Rebbe Rashab calls it. After the concrete has been poured, that round opening remains, so the valve can be placed there and the plug fitted into it. The plug is, of course, made of wood. The roofs: you must always make sure there are no vessels of any kind on them. The Mishnah already discusses jars left on a roof that collected water, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and this is also

1:03:11 Speaker 2 mentioned in the Gemara, in its discussions of the subject. The Torah says, “If water is placed upon seed”—ki yutan, not ki yiten. Ah, that means these things have to happen with intent, not when water simply falls there. What I mean is this: if we put jars on the roof, for example, then we want the jars to fill up. If they do fill up, that water becomes drawn water. But if I put them there without any such intention and they filled up, then, according to the Mishnah, the water is kosher—kosher for filling a mikveh with, yes? Not for immersing in the jars. So when we consider this whole issue, we have to remember that our roofs, too, must not have ventilators on them. Ventilators have all sorts of rims and iron or metal frames where water can enter and collect. Apart from the problem of contact with the iron, first of all there is a problem of a vessel here. We must make sure there is no vessel anywhere along the route the water takes—as the Rebbe Rashab warns—from where the rainwater flows to the reservoir and from the reservoir to the mikveh. There must be no vessels, nothing that might be susceptible to tumah or the like. The roof must be clear: no chairs, no tables, no plastic containers, no tools accidentally left there by the roofers or anyone else who went up there. Yes? Everything must be cleared away so that it is there solely for the rainwater. Sometimes you can set aside a section of the roof. Roofs are often made of corrugated metal sheets. If they are made of tiles, that presents a different problem, which we will see shortly. Clay tiles—but corrugated sheets are metal, and sometimes they are also shaped like vessels. You have to arrange them, seal them or fix them in place, and so on, and make sure the water passes over them without passing over the metal. There are ways to do this. For example, you fix

1:05:06 Speaker 2 it in place and coat it with tar, or put wood over it. After all, the water merely washes over it and runs along it toward the mikveh; it does not collect in it. So if there is iron underneath and something kosher, which is not susceptible to tumah, on top, and the water flows over that, it is perfectly fine. Let’s not forget that abroad, many houses have tiled roofs. Those tiles are made of clay and sometimes are not shaped like vessels. But from what I have seen and checked, both in Europe and in the United States, there is generally a stamped mark and an indentation on the other side. That makes it an earthenware vessel. When an earthenware vessel is upside down, water passing over it does not become susceptible to tumah. But ideally, we do not route water over anything that could receive it and could cause the water to become invalid. So we make sure mikveh roofs are not made of clay tiles, because they generally have a receptacle on the back. When building a mikveh, we also have to think about the cladding. The Rebbe says that, if it can easily be avoided, we should not bring in cladding made of materials that have indentations capable of holding water. As we said in an earlier class, ceramic tiles generally have ridges and various grooves, so we make sure not to have those in mikvaos. Similarly, the Rebbe Rashab rules out even using a rubber plug, although the water will subsequently pass over a hamshachah channel, and hamshachah remedies water that was brought in through something susceptible to tumah. That is the straightforward reading of the Shulchan Aruch and the poskim. Nevertheless, the Rebbe Rashab was concerned about it. That is why some Chabad rabbis have raised concerns about all plastic piping. It is true that the pipe is not shaped like a vessel, and it is true that the Rebbe Rashab strongly warns against elbows in the piping. We already

1:07:01 Speaker 2 learned in earlier classes that there should be no bends where the water enters an angled section before continuing onward. The Rebbe Rashab therefore wants the water to pass straight through the pipes. Some rabbis have expressed concern and said not to use plastic: if rubber is susceptible to tumah according to the Rebbe Rashab, and the Rebbe writes that there are many kinds of plastic and that plastic is similar to rubber, then it should not be used in mikvaos. Why? Because there is a concern that the water is brought in through something susceptible to tumah. So when we use plastic pipes to convey the rainwater to the storage tank or the mikveh, we create a serious problem—a concern that the water is brought in through something susceptible to tumah. Therefore, if possible, it is recommended to build the channel differently. There used to be asbestos, but later it was outlawed. If possible, it can be built from concrete by setting up a wide channel in advance, with reinforcement mesh, as we said earlier, so that the iron does not protrude, and then pouring the concrete. It does not necessarily need formwork, since the water only passes through there. But make sure it is properly built into the ground. Even if we are lenient about the formwork above and do not set the iron quite so far back, at least it will be part of the structure; the water will pass through it and there will be no concern. It can also be made of marble, as I said. In some places there is earthenware, provided it has no male-and-female joints. In other words, it should not be earthenware that narrows to a cone at the end and fits into a wider-mouthed piece that receives the cone. That is, they take sections of earthenware pipe and insert one into another. You can take an earthenware pipe, cut off what the Gemara in Tractate Sukkah calls the male-and-female joints, make the ends straight, and join the sections end to end rather than fitting one inside the other, and then

1:08:55 Speaker 2 It becomes a kosher pipe. In any case, whatever solutions are used, we have to remember that later, when we get to lining the mikveh itself, we must make sure the lining has no grooves on its other side and is not susceptible to tumah, but is smooth. At least, that is what the Rebbe writes: the materials attached as the mikveh lining should be smooth on both sides. Since the Rebbe Rashab gave his instructions to Rabbi Yaakov Landau, and the Rebbe printed them in the Shulchan Aruch, some people say, “I’ll build a mikveh without a spare reservoir.” But the very fact that it is written there means chassidim do it. It certainly helps the mikveh. What, you’ll make do without a spare reservoir? You’ll have to shut down the mikveh. Besides, it is written there. So you have to build a Chabad mikveh, and you build that along with it. The list doesn’t tell you which items are essential and which are secondary, so you follow the whole list without trying to be clever. As we said, we also have to arrange the plans in advance, at the construction stage, when it comes to the spare reservoir, the hamshachah channels, the piping, and so on. So the final result begins with careful planning. Draw it out and check it closely—check it very, very carefully. Make the plans so that afterward you can come and build the mikveh properly. Now, the shliach: what does the shliach need? First of all, money. With Hashem’s help, may people donate so he can build the mikveh. A Chabad mikveh throughout the country. With Hashem’s help, “as the waters cover the sea,” the waters of purity, the waters of pure knowledge, the waters of mikvaos purify the world like the forty se’ah—and all the more so the forty se’ah of the Flood, which were a mikveh. So, with Hashem’s help, first there should be the material means. Then, as we said, choose the right architect and make drawings down to the smallest detail, so you know everything you are going to build.

1:10:50 Speaker 2 After that, keep track of the work and consult someone whenever even the faintest shadow of a doubt arises. There are still a few details to discuss, but for now we’ll conclude the lesson on mikvaos in this format. As for the approach of our Rebbeim, we reached the Tzemach Tzedek. We’ll add a few details later. I’ll just finish with an insight of the Tzemach Tzedek. True, the Sea that Shlomo made was entirely of metal, of copper. But the Tzemach Tzedek says: First, perhaps this was permitted only in the Beis Hamikdash. Second, it was connected to a spring, the spring of Ein Eitam, so it had a different basis for being kosher. He also discusses there the fact that it had an opening the size of a pomegranate. For all these reasons, we would not disqualify it. The modular mikveh deserves a discussion of its own. Since the modular mikveh is made of a kind of plastic, and the Rebbe treats plastic as potentially susceptible to tumah, let’s ask: Is it permitted to build a mikveh whose walls are entirely iron or metal, or entirely plastic? Is it permitted or forbidden? We said earlier that it must never have had the status of a vessel, and there must also be no concern that it was formed by means of something susceptible to tumah. The whole discussion about nails is only because they assist in construction; they are not what forms the structure. Certainly not when the entire mikveh is made of that material. Making a mikveh entirely of plastic is like making one entirely of rubber. Making one entirely of rubber is like making one entirely of metal—flat metal utensils, which are susceptible to tumah. In his responsa, the Tzemach Tzedek writes that flat metal utensils are even more susceptible to tumah than metal utensils in which a hole has been made; that is the third reason for leniency regarding the Sea that Shlomo made. So are you going to build it that way? Now, the modular system also comes as one wall, then another wall, then another. They are certainly wider than four tefachim, so they are fit to be lain on. Something fit to be lain on,

1:12:56 Speaker 2 and all the more so if it is placed on the floor, is susceptible to tumah as something used for lying on. The only thing one might say in favor of the modular mikveh—but you certainly cannot build a mikveh out of something susceptible to tumah. Therefore, all the pools made from types of fiberglass, plastic on sand, all those kinds of pools, are certainly not kosher for immersion required by Torah law, for women’s immersion and the like. Besides, all those pools have holes, drainage openings, which are closed with various plugs and so on, and they are connected to pipes. So the pools certainly are not—we are not talking about them at all. We are talking about a modular mikveh built according to the Alter Rebbe’s method: they brought one modular wall, then another wall, then another. First they built four walls. Then they put in a floor with a hole, attached it, and fitted all four walls onto it, as I described the Alter Rebbe’s box. We must remember that the Alter Rebbe is talking about making a box inside a river, not making a mikveh out of it. The Rema says not to use one solid piece. The Tzemach Tzedek says not to use planks wider than four tefachim. So here you take one solid wall, then another, then another—each certainly wider than four tefachim—and make an entire mikveh out of them? How exactly does that fit with the approach of the Alter Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek that we have discussed until now? The entire mikveh is formed by means of something that is not free of tumah, and the entire mikveh is made from large planks that are susceptible to tumah from being lain on. Certainly the plank placed on the ground: even if you make an opening in it the size of a pomegranate, a person can lie on the remaining area. This is not wood—flat wooden utensils that are not susceptible to tumah. It is like flat pieces of plastic, rubber, or metal, which are susceptible to tumah, so it is fit to be lain on. Anything one can lie

1:14:49 Speaker 2 on is subject to the severe tumah of something used for lying on. In his responsa, the Tzemach Tzedek gives a full answer on this entire issue, saying that there should not be such planks. He is discussing the Lublin mikveh there, and says the planks should not be wider than four tefachim, because they are fit to be lain on and because of the decree concerning bathhouses. The only thing one might say in favor of such a mikveh is that some claim this modular plastic, this type of plastic, is cast solely for installation in the ground. First of all, modular components are manufactured in factories for all sorts of purposes, not only for installation in the ground, but for all kinds of vessels. Today it is a large industry; in China they send them all over the world for all sorts of purposes. But some claim, “We cast and built this only for the ground.” Now, the Alter Rebbe says in the laws of sukkah, regarding mats, that anything made for use on the ground—a mat made only to be placed on a sukkah and not for sitting—is kosher, provided that this is the local custom. The Alter Rebbe says a mat is invalid for schach because it is susceptible to tumah. Since a mat can be sat on, and is made for sitting, it is susceptible to tumah and invalid for schach. Schach must be made only from something that can be purified—only, uh, from something that is not susceptible to tumah, like waste from—the Torah teaches that schach must be made from the waste of the threshing floor and the winepress: discarded material, wood and things like that, which are not susceptible to tumah. Vegetation that is not susceptible to tumah. So how can you use a mat made to be stepped or sat on, which is like a vessel susceptible to tumah? The Alter Rebbe says that if the mat was made only for schach, it can be used, but he qualifies this by saying that it must be the custom. So is that the custom for modular construction? Can you say that the customary purpose for casting a modular mikveh is only for

1:16:42 Speaker 2 Ground? After all, they cast it for all kinds of purposes. So it is not necessarily all that similar to the case of a mat. That is not the usual practice. Suppose all the rabbis were to come and say: Yes, it was cast solely for this purpose, and it is like a mat; it cannot become ritually impure. Even though it is plastic and was made for attachment to the ground, anything made for the ground is considered like the ground and has the halachic status of ground, so it cannot become ritually impure. In the end, you have built something like the Alter Rebbe’s box, which never acquired the status of a vessel. But you have not placed it in a river. You have made it like a barrel, to put water in it and immerse in it. And we said that the Tzemach Tzedek and the Alter Rebbe wanted it specifically to be in a river. When the Rebbe Rashab introduced a mikveh that was not in a river, he did so by building it out of concrete, in the ground. Concrete has the status of earth, the status of ground; it is poured into the ground and becomes a concrete vessel only after it is poured. That is a case of fixing it in place and then hollowing it out. It is not even close to the same thing; it is not like a modular mikveh. So, as a matter of approach, when you study the reasoning of the Alter Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek in their method of building a mikveh, the burden of proof falls on anyone who wants to permit this. They have to prove that here it does not need to be entirely contained within the mikveh; that it may be made of boards wider than four tefachim; that it may be made from several pieces—large pieces, yes, despite the... And in light of the Rema’s words about making it from several stones rather than a single stone, one has to examine the similarity and the comparison. The person proposing something new, the person departing from what we have learned until now, bears the burden of proof. We do not have to prove why it is not acceptable. Whoever wants to prove why it is acceptable

1:18:35 Speaker 2 has to prove it. So we can certainly build a modular mikveh along these lines for men, all right, at home, as something private. Incidentally, if you build one, you do not necessarily have to make a hole in it. As I understand it, you do not even need a hole, though perhaps you do. But to make this into a mikveh from the outset and call it a kosher mikveh for immersion, a mikveh... A great many Chabad rabbis would need to sit down, thoroughly study the Alter Rebbe’s and the Tzemach Tzedek’s treatment of the subject, and show why it is exempt from all the rules we have mentioned. And, of course, see Mikveh Mayim, which writes that all the nails the Alter Rebbe permitted were permitted only when they serve as a support. There is also evidence for this in a responsum of the Tzemach Tzedek, similarly concerning a gutter, I think toward the end of section 170. There, too, the implication is that metal is permitted—all flat metal items made for attachment to the ground are permitted—but only when the metal serves as a support. It does not follow from there that it is permitted when the entire barrel, the whole thing, is made from a material that can become ritually impure. And let us recall the first rule we mentioned at the beginning. We said that the Shulchan Aruch rules that if you have built a kosher mikveh in the ground and it develops a crack through which the water seeps, you must not seal it with something that can become ritually impure—that is, you must not seal it with metal. All the more so, you must not build an entire mikveh out of metal. So if I say that plastic is also subject to concern that it can become ritually impure, like metal, as the Rebbe Rashab establishes in his well-known letter, then in this case we need to see proof and strong reasoning, together with a halachic ruling from several rabbis, to make an exception here. In other words, to come and say: All right, but a modular mikveh, a Gidul mikveh, a Malchus mikveh, is kosher from the outset, in the most ideal way, because it was made for attachment to the ground. These points seem straightforward, but the matter still

1:20:33 Speaker 2 requires further study. Purity leads to Eliyahu, and Eliyahu to the resurrection of the dead, immediately, right now. And when we build many Chabad mikvaos, everyone will run to those mikvaos so that we can run to greet the Rebbe, King Moshiach. And every day, when people need purification and an added measure of purity, they will want only Chabad mikvaos in order to ascend to the Beis Hamikdash. How important it is that we build Chabad mikvaos. Everyone will rule as the Rebbe did and decide to come, certainly in a matter as important as purity. Although both views are the words of the living G-d, when it comes to mikvaos, our Rebbeim devoted themselves, among all areas of halachah, to investigating and refining this subject. They weighed and established the rules—as the expression about the Rebbe Rashab goes, “weighed and established”—and the Alter Rebbe weighed and established them as well. They devoted so much to this, and the Rebbe added further points, all sorts of precise details of hiddurim. Certainly, it is fitting to build Chabad mikvaos without any hesitation or question. I have even seen Chabad mikvaos where they dug into the ground and made thick cement walls, fifty centimeters thick. In South America and in Russia, too, there are mikvaos made entirely of concrete, with very thick walls. They have held up for years, and there is no iron reinforcement inside them. This is truly a mikveh in the ground, and it does not even have any leakage. Not merely no imperceptible leakage, nor visible leakage—which is obviously forbidden—but not even imperceptible leakage, which the Shulchan Aruch says is kosher and regarding which the Tzemach Tzedek is very lenient. Nowadays, though, the practice is to avoid any leakage at all. That is why we spoke about pouring the concrete all at once, so there would be no questions. These mikvaos have no leakage whatsoever, and they are mikvaos of the highest standard.