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Can Water Flow Uphill?

 Yoma 31

In the context of the Kohen Gadol’s preparations for the avoda, we hear about his requirement to use the mikveh numerous times during Yom Kippur.  Abaye mentions that the water for the mikveh above Shaar haMayim comes from Ein Eitam עין עיתם . This spring must be 23 amot higher than the floor of the azara because  the gates in the azara are twenty amot high, plus another three amot for the depth of the mikveh.

I wanted to write a simple post about the identity of Ein Eitam and its connection to the water supply of Har haBayit. However, the more I researched, the more murky the topic became. But I will set out a few ideas and suggestions here, with further reading for those who are interested.

Our first question is where is Ein Eitam? It is mentioned as the source for the mikveh here and in the Yerushalmi (Yoma 3:8) as the source for the waters in the כיור, brought by an aqueduct.  Tanakh does not have a reference to a spring called Eitam but we do hear in Divrei HaYamim 2(11:6)  of an Eitam that is one of Rehobam’s fortress cities. There it is sandwiched between Bethehem and Tekoa, leading us to a location southeast of Jerusalem.

Rashi identifies Ein Eitam with Mei Naftoah מי נפתוח  mentioned in Yehoshua 15 as the border between Judah and Benjamin. Mei Naftoah is traditionally identified with Lifta, west of Jerusalem:



However, this is a problematic identification because Lifta is 30 meters lower than Har Habayit and as Rashi explains on our daf:
שאי אפשר למים לעלות להר שהוא גבוה ממקום שנובעין ב ו

So where else can we place Ein Eitam? The Maharam Habib (Rabbi Moshe ibn Habib 1654-1696, Jerusalem)  identifies Ein Eitam with a spring on the road from Hebron to Jerusalem:

הם מעין עיתם שהוא בדרך הבאים מחברון לירושלים . . . והמשיכו המים מזמן מלכי בית דוד על ידי צינור מתחת לארץ עד תוך ירושלים . . . (גט פשוט, מובא בארץ הצבי מאת הרב שרגא וייס)

This information fits nicely with what we know today: the lower aqueduct האמה התחתונה  that brought water to Jerusalem from the area of Solomon’s Pools near Bethlehem uses as one one of its sources the spring Ein al Etan עין אל עטן , a very close match to  עין עיטם



Moreover,  this spring near Bethlehem is 765 meters above sea level, a full thirty meters higher than Har HaBayit. That’s almost triple what Abaye suggests (twenty three amot = eleven and a half meters) but still far more plausible than thirty meters LOWER than Har haBayit.

The upper and lower aqueducts were amazing projects, begun by the Hasmoneans and continued by Herod and the Romans, to bring the abundant waters of Gush Etzion to Jerusalem. A great illustration of part of the lower aqueduct can be seen in a mosaic right above one of the shafts of the aqueduct, in Armon HaNetziv:



For a different angle on where the water for the mikveh came from, check out Arnon Segal’s article: http://the--temple.blogspot.co.il/2013/09/blog-post_13.html


Thanks to the resources brought in ארץ הצבי ואתריה במקורותינו  by Rav Shraga Weiss and thanks to Ruchama Alter for asking the question. 

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