Rather, [when] one kind [is mixed] with a different kind, [its status is determined] by taste; [when] one kind [is mixed] with the same kind, [its status is determined] by the greater part. (1) Yet, [where] one kind [is mixed] with its own kind, let us determine [its status] as though it were one kind with a different kind. (2) For we learnt: IF IT WAS MIXED WITH WINE, WE REGARD IT AS THOUGH IT WERE WATER. Does that not mean [that] we regard the wine as though it were water? (3) — No: [it means that] we regard the blood as though it were water. (4) If so, he should state, [The blood] is nullified? Moreover, it was taught, R. Judah said: We regard it as though it were red wine if its appearance goes faint, it is valid; if not, it is invalid! (5) — It is a controversy of Tannaim. (6) For it was taught: If one immerses a pail containing white wine or milk, we decide by the excess. R. Judah said: We regard it as though it were red wine: if its appearance goes faint, it is valid; if not, it is invalid. (7) But the following contradicts this: If one immersed a pail full of saliva, it is as though he had not immersed it.8 [If it was full of] (9) urine, we regard it as though it were water. (10) If it was filled with water of lustration, (11) the water [of the Mikweh] must exceed the water of lustration. (12) Now, whom do you know to hold [that] we regard’? R. Judah; (13) yet he teaches that an excess is sufficient? (14) — Said Abaye: There is no difficulty:

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(1). ↑ Resh Lakish referred to the latter case. Hence inference [ii] is incorrect.
(2). ↑ Since an article cannot be nullified where its taste is distinguishable, even though it is the smaller part of the mixture, let us rule likewise even where its taste is not distinguishable because it is of the same kind.
(3). ↑ And if it would then still look like blood, it is fit. Now, in respect to appearance wine and blood may he regarded as of the same kind: this shows that the lesser is not nullified by the greater, but we regard the mixture as of two different kinds,
(4). ↑ And it is unfit, because it is nullified by the greater quantity of water.
(5). ↑ The passage is quoted in full anon. — This proves definitely that we consider it as a mixture of two different kinds.
(6). ↑ The Sages disagree with R. Judah, and Resh Lakish accepts their view,
(7). ↑ An unclean pail containing white wine or milk was immersed in a Mikweh (ritual bath) for purification, and the water of the Mikweh naturally filled it, The Sages maintain that if this exceeded the wine or milk (which is not readily distinguishable from the water), the latter is nullified, the whole is regarded as water, and the pail becomes clean. This is similar to the ruling of Resh Lakish. But R. Judah maintains that we regard it as though it were red wine: if there is so little of it that the water of the Mikweh would make it go faint and lose the appearance of wine, the immersion is valid, and the pail becomes clean; otherwise it is invalid, and the pail remains unclean,
(8). ↑ The saliva is thick and interposes between the water of the Mikweh and the pail. Hence the immersion is invalid, for there must not be any interposition.
(9). ↑ The bracketed words are absent from cur. edd., but were apparently contained in Rashi's edition.
(10). ↑ For it is in fact a kind of water, and immediately it makes contact with the water of the Mikweh, it becomes part of the Mikweh itself. For that reason it is not necessary for the water of the Mikweh to exceed it.
(11). ↑ Running water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer, used for lustration (v. Num, XIX). Although it cleansed the unclean person upon whom it was sprinkled, it defiled a clean person with its touch.
(12). ↑ He must first pour out some of the water of lustration, so that when the pail is filled with the water of the Mikweh, the latter exceeds what is left of the former. For although the latter too is water, owing to its sanctity and to its high degree of uncleanness it does not simply become part of the Mikweh, but must be nullified by an excess.
(13). ↑ Only he rules that you regard a thing as though it were something else.
(14). ↑ If the Mikweh water exceeds the water of lustration, the immersion is valid, and we do not regard the latter as though it were wine, as above.