In my house we have a water butt connected to the gutter from the roof that fills when it rains. Could we use it as a keli mikvah if we connected two of them by a hose pipe so that the total water exceeded 40 seah?
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1Welcome to Judaism.SE, and thanks very much for the interesting question! I hope you'll consult your rabbi before implementing this idea, possibly using information from here as background material. Please consider registering your account, to help the site keep track of your contributions.– Isaac Moses ♦Jun 22, 2011 at 18:42
1 Answer
It depends on if the receptacle was originally made specifically to be attached to the ground or another structure that was attached to the ground (Shulchan Aruch Y.D 201:48; Pischei Teshuvah 33).
An interesting book is "The Secret of the Jew" by Rabbi Dovid Miller (A 2nd volume here.) Chapter 19 describes how to build a mikvah with various plans and costs. R' Miller learned in Slobodka, then moved to Oakland to become a banker. He focused on getting women to use a mikvah in the 30's when conditions were not as sanitary (and before antibiotics).
Edit: I found a case similar to yours in "The Secret", page 336. Howver, he requires both original intent to connect and a hole in the bottom (the tank is being used to regulate supply, not collect it). I don't know his source. To me it looks like either or would do, based on Shulchan Aruch above, and 204:7.
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And Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky famously commented that you need to know Hebrew grammar. There was a place that Rabbi Miller miscalculated the required volume of a mikva because he confused "arba amot" with "arba'ah tefachim" (which would be like measuring in yards instead of feet).– ShalomJun 23, 2011 at 0:16
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3I'm not aware of an arba amos, just shalosh. The story that I heard in R' Yaakov's name is that while he was basing an amah on 6 tefachim, a tefach on 4 etzbaos and an etzba on a 'gudal, he based the 'gudal on his middle finger because the Rambam defines a 'gudal as an etzba beinuni. Because of a mistake in dikduk (etzba is female so should be beinunis- etzba beinuni means the 'gudal of an average man), one can be machshil a community in issur kares!– YDKJun 23, 2011 at 0:45
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In any case, R' Miller requires 24 cubic feet+ (pg. 400 in my copy). According to a conversion calculator, that is about 680 liters. I don't know all the shittos, but that sounds like it over-does it.– YDKJun 23, 2011 at 0:55
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@YDK, that's interesting. I also saw this book (years and years ago), and I thought I recalled him putting 40 se'ah = about 80 gallons.– AlexJun 24, 2011 at 6:17