Palgei Mayim

PORTO, MOSES COHEN BEN YECHIEL

J. Di Gara

Venice

1608

FIRST EDITION. Title within woodcut architectural arch

Vinograd, Venice 1042; Habermann, di Gara 257

A celebrated controversy concerning the Mikveh in Rovigo, a Province of Veneto in Northern Italy. The Ritual Bath received its water supply via a bucket with holes, the question at issue was whether the water was classified as drawn or flowing. The debate concerning ritual validity proved to be inexhaustible and was submitted to numerous Rabbis both in Italy and abroad. See A. Yaari, Mechkarei Sepher (1958) pp.420-29; Carmilly-Weinberger pp.160-1. The present work is a polemic against Mashbith Milchamoth, a work that presented rulings in favor of the arrangement in Rovigo. This work was published with variant paginations. It contains ruling against the use of the Mikva by major Italian authorities such as R. Menachem Azariah of Fano, R. Moshe Menachem Rapo, and R. Moshe Cohen Porto as well as the only known published halachic responum of R. Moshe Mordecai Margoliot of Cracow (the predecessor of thre Bach). This pagination , according to Yaari, is what is found in “most copies.”