[Avodah] A Mikvah of Tal

[Micha Berger]

The Mishnah (Makhshirin 6:4) lists the 7 Mashkim: tal, mayim, wine,
[olive] oil, blood, milk, and bee honey.
<https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Makhshirin.6.4>

Notice tal and mayim are different liquids, even though we know both
are H20.

AhS just encountered YD 201:138-139
<https://www.sefaria.org/Arukh_HaShulchan%2C_Yoreh_De'ah.201.138-139>,
which are about miqva'os adulterated by white wine, and how it is hard
to know if the wine has diffused throughout the miqvah yet, or if one
is dunking in a concentration or wine.

That made me wonder -- is a miqvah full of tal kosher? Is tal still a
separate mashleh, like it is for heksheir leqbal tuma'ah? If so, why
discuss white wine? It is far harder to identify where tal would be in
a mixture with mayin, than identifying where wine is.

Also, it would be a diffusion in the other direction. Wine is water with
other things in it. Tal is distilled water, with fewer things in it than
sources of mayim would have. So with wine, it is the non H20 parts of the
grape infusing into the rest of the miqvah, until you have the normal
level of impurities for it all to be considered mayim. But with tal,
it would be the impurities in the kosher part of the miqvah diffusing
into the spot that is full of tal until it no longer has the purity of
distilled water.

Also relevent, the AhS is surprised about the white wine issue, since
it appears the issue is mar'eh mayim, looking like water -- not directly
whether or not it is water. And certainly, tal and mayim look alike.
But lemaaseh white wine is still an issue, despite RYME's surprise.

I also do not know if the distinction is chemistry or simply that the
source of water puts it in a different category. Nafqa mina: Is water
distilled by human beings tal, because it is as pure H20 as dew? Or is
it mayim because it did not "fall" as dew -- the more experiential /
less chemical approach to defining the difference?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 I always give much away,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   and so gather happiness instead of pleasure.
Author: Widen Your Tent              -  Rachel Levin Varnhagen
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF