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Does a mikve purify a person when he/she is totally inside the water or when he/she emerges from the water?
please source and also provide a reason for why it is so. it would seem to me that the first option is correct. we find for example that yom kipur purifies (atones) every second when a person is in it.
The general opinion seems to be that only when leaving the mikva does one become tahor - see Kesef Mishna, Avos Hatumah 6:16 כסף משנה הל' שאר אבות הטומאה ספ"ו. See further in the Encyclopedia Talmudis under מקוה - column תט, footnote 93 for other sources.
I'm not immersed :-) in the topic now, so I can't venture reason.
