The Water Has to Be Wanted

About This Talk

Chapter 13 catalogues the moments when water clings to people and things and asks in each whether it was uprooted willfully, holding that water in a drawing cylinder counts as willful for three days, that water rinsing muddy feet counts only if he was happy, that water on an animal's mouth is willful while water on its feet is not unless he wanted them rinsed, that the intent of a deaf mute, a compromised person or a minor does not register though their deeds do, that a second river or a friend's push nullifies the first water unless the push was a joke, and that measuring a cistern's depth or reaching in to learn how much water it holds uproots the water willfully while measuring its width or checking whether it holds any does not. Chapter 14 turns to produce, ruling that figs brought to a roof against worms are not made susceptible by dew even though everyone knows dew falls, that minors who turn the produce over do make it susceptible because their intent is evident from their action, that moisture from the water and moisture from the stone are distinguished, that a hot barley loaf absorbs wine where wheat does not, that breath blown on lentils is a derivative of water, and that a moist date dropped from the mouth is wetted willfully while a dry one is not. Chapter 15 sets water in a container, which contracts and imparts impurity regardless of intent, against water collected on the ground, which does so only through willful contact, presumes such pools pure in the rainy season and impure near towns once the rains stop, and then treats the moisture of the mouth as ground water, so that a terumah fig stays pure when an impure hand removes a pebble without turning the finger and becomes impure when a coin held there against thirst comes out with it.