We are told that a Gentile bowed to water and Jews drank from that water, which was subsequently forbidden. But can public water be forbidden? If the water was private, could it be forbidden? Was the water attached to the ground? How did the Gentile behave near the water? What if the Gentile put his hand into the water?
The rabbis ask whether or not a Gentile is permitted to help a Jew carry grapes. They also ask whether a Gentile who puts his hand into a Jew's wine to retrieve an etrog that fell into the vat. Rav Ashi teaches that his hand should be held still so that the wine does not move. He says that we should drain the wine from beneath the Gentile's hand, allowing that liquid that has not been touched to be permitted.
It's this kind of logic that encourages me to see the rabbis as full participants in the thinking of their time and place. The notion that water is still; that we could avoid water that has touched a person's immersed hand, seems almost ridiculous today. However, in that time, it was reasonable to assume that water was a "block".
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