Palgei Mayim [“Waves of Water”: Halachic controversy concerning the Mikveh in Rovigo].

PORTO, MOSES COHEN.

Giovanni di Gara

Venice

1608

FIRST EDITION. Title within wreathed architectural arch.

Vinograd, Venice 1042.

A celebrated controversy concerning the Mikveh in Rovigo, a Province of Veneto, 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. Palgei Mayim is a polemic against Mashbith Milchamoth, an earlier text that presented rulings in favor of the arrangement in Rovigo. The present work contains ruling against the use of the Mikveh 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 the Ba’ch). Palgei Mayim was published with variant paginations. The pagination found here, is, according to Yaari, found in “most copies.” See A. Yaari, Mechkarei Sepher (1958) pp. 420-29; Carmilly-Weinberger, Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Jewish History (1977) pp. 160-1.