Study Eruvin folio 104B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
they were soaking flax in the water, he prohibited them from drawing water by means of a wheel, so that they should not draw water for prohibited purposes.
We learned in the Mishnah that water may be drawn on a Festival from the Heker Well. The Talmud asks: What is the Heker Well? Shmuel said: It is a cistern with regard to which they advanced [hikru] arguments and permitted drawing water from it on a Festival, by proving that the Torah permits doing
The Talmud raises an objection from a baraita: They did not permit all Heker wells, but only this one. And if you say it was named because it is a cistern with regard to which they put forward arguments and permitted it, what is the meaning of Heker wells in the plural, and what does only this one m
Rather, Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: The term Heker well denotes a well of living water, as it is stated: “As a well keeps its water fresh [hakir], so she keeps fresh her wickedness” (Jeremiah 6:7), i.e., it is a well of spring water.
Returning to the matter itself, the Talmud cites the above baraita in full: They did not permit all Heker wells, but only this one. And when the exiles ascended from Babylonia, they encamped by it, and the prophets among them, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, permitted it to them. And it was not re