5. [If] a chest or box was in the sea, one may not immerse [anything] in it unless it has a hole the size of a waterskin tube. R’ Yehudah says: In [the case of] a large vessel — four tefachim; in [the case of] a small vessel — the greater part. If it was a sack or a basket, one may immerse [things] in it however it is, because its water is mingled. [If] they were placed under a pipe, they do not disqualify a mikveh. One may even immerse them and lift them out the usual way.

6. [If] there is a broken earthenware vessel in a mikveh, and one immersed therein utensils, they become purified from their tumah, but they are [still] tamei on account of the earthenware vessel. If the water flowed over it [even] a little, they are tahor. [If] a spring issues forth into an oven, and one went down and immersed himself therein, he becomes tahor, [but] his hands are tamei. If there was [water] above it the height of his hands, [then] his hands too are tahor.

7. The mingling of mikvaos [must be as much] as the size of a waterskin tube, as its thickness and its hole, which is [the area in which] two fingers can rotate. [If] there is a doubt whether there was [as much] as a waterskin tube or whether there was not [as much] as a waterskin tube, it is invalid because it is [required] by Torah law. Similarly, an olive-size of a corpse, and an olive-size of a carcass, and a lentil-size of creeping things. Anything that settles in [the opening that is] the size of a waterskin tube reduces it. R’ Shimon ben Gamliel says: Any [organism] that develops from the water is tahor.

8. One can cause mikvaos to become tahor, an upper one from a lower one and a distant one from a close one. How so? He should bring a pipe of earthenware or of lead, and he should place his hand beneath it until it fills with water, and he should cause it to flow and be connected; even as a hairbreadth is sufficient. [If] the upper one contained forty se’ah and the lower one was empty, one can draw [water, carry it] on his shoulder and place it into the upper one until forty se’ah goes down into the lower one.