For the source text click/tap here: Beitzah 18
To download, click/tap here: PDF
During Temple times, those who were fulfilling the mitzvah of aliyah la-regel – pilgrimage to the Temple on the holidays of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot – needed to immerse themselves in a mikvah in order to ensure a high level of ritual purity. What happened when Yom Tov fell out on Sunday? Could the immersion be done on Shabbat in preparation for the holiday?
Much of the daf wonders whether we can immerse items in ritual baths - including women ending their menstrual cycles - on Yom Tovim or Shabbatot. The rabbis question different items and their degrees of ritual impurity. They are careful to evaluate whether or not an action might be violating a halacha related to Shabbat. For example, we are not allowed to bathe on Shabbat. Is immersing a form of bathing?
The Beraisa states that one who is obligated to immerse in a Mikvah may immerse in the usual manner even on Tish'ah b'Av and on Yom Kippur.
We trace how that became forbidden and some modern retooling of the ritual of immersion for spiritual seekers of non orthodox traditions.