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So I saw this article online about how a mikvah was discovered during a dig somewhere in Israel and it got me thinking about how many of these discoveries have been made. It seems that having your own private mikvah was common in ancient Israel as these seem to be located in peoples residences. Do you think that could be done in our times? I can’t think of anything that would disallow you from having your own private mikvah in your home. Though it would probably be a very extravagant expense I would imagine. Also, of course I haven’t measured them but they seem to be very small in the pictures. Should/could we reevaluate the current following of the Chazon Ish (I think) who defines a seah as 14.3 liters? Of course these mikvaot may have degraded over time so who knows how deep or wide they really were. Any thoughts?
people i know who have the money have private mikva’os. it was prevalent because of the halachos for eating certain matanos, or even chullin b’tahra. these things dont apply today.
Taking your questions in order:
1- They were very common among kohanim and in Yerushalayim.
2- Nothing would stop you from having a mikvah in your home. My local rebbe has not only a mikvah, but a whole shul, in his home. Using one would be a different story as shulchan aruch requires a balanit for the only tvila d’oraisa we still do.
3- AFAIK most of the mikvaos found were larger than the chazon ish’s shiur. Even using the larger seah, 40 is still minimal.
Also, a lot of the Mikva’os that we found were actually used by sectarian groups (e.g. the Essenes) who tried to show how they were better than everyone else by being much more “Machmir” on Tumah V’taharah (among other things) against the Mesorah of Chazal.
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