For the source text click/tap here: Chagigah 19
To download, click/tap here: PDF
Steinzaltz summarizes perfectly:
"Generally speaking, in order for a person to rid himself of his ritually impure status, he must immerse in a mikvah, a natural body of water that contains a quantity of at least 40 se’ah. The Gemara on our daf concerns itself with situations where it is not clear whether the required 40 se’ah are in one place. For example, if a wave containing 40 se’ah comes crashing down on someone, that person would become tahor. In the water, however, only the parts of that same wave that are connected to the ocean – called rashin – can be used as a mikvah; the kippin, or top of the wave, is considered to be air and is thus not a kosher mikvah.”
We explore the notion of Phariseic purity laws and the poetics of waves, oceans and mikvah purity through the eye of recent poets.