Study Zevachim folio 22A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
or they cannot hold 1/4th-log of water, provided that they are service vessels. Apparently, the Basin need not hold so much water.
Rav Adda bar Aḥa says: The baraita is referring to a case where one drills a hole in the Basin and places a much smaller vessel at the hole as a conduit for the water. Even if that vessel is very small, the priest may sanctify his hands and feet from it, provided that there is enough water in the B
The Talmud asks: But doesn’t God state that the priests must wash their hands and feet “from it,” i.e., from the Basin and not from another vessel? The Talmud responds: The following verse repeats the phrase “they should wash,” to include any service vessel.
The Talmud challenges: If so, then it should be permitted for a priest to use a non-sacred vessel as well. Abaye says: You cannot say that a priest may sanctify his hands and feet from a non-sacred vessel, since the matter may be derived by a fortiori inference from the halakha concerning the base
The Talmud clarifies: And from where do we derive that water from the base of the Basin is unfit? As it is taught in a baraita that R' Yehuda says: One might have thought that water from its base should be fit for priests to sanctify their hands and feet just as water from the Basin itself is fit t