Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Shabbath

Folio 86a

as a square board. Thus it is only permitted as a [square] board, but otherwise it is forbidden?¹  — There [it desires to] teach another leniency in respect thereof, [viz.,] to permit a triangular wedge that issues thence [into another plot or field].²

MISHNAH. HOW DO WE KNOW THAT IF ONE [A WOMAN] DISCHARGES SEMEN ON THE THIRD DAY SHE IS UNCLEAN? BECAUSE IT IS SAID, BE READY AGAINST THE THIRD DAY.⁴  HOW DO WE KNOW THAT A CIRCUMCISED CHILD⁵  MAY BE BATHED [EVEN] ON THE THIRD DAY [AFTER CIRCUMCISION] WHICH FALLS ON THE SABBATH? BECAUSE IT IS SAID, AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE THIRD DAY, WHEN THEY WERE SORE.⁶  HOW DO WE KNOW THAT A CRIMSON-COLOURED STRAP IS TIED TO THE HEAD OF THE GOAT THAT IS SENT [TO 'AZAZ'EL]?⁷  BECAUSE IT IS SAID, IF YOUR SINS BE AS SCARLET, THEY SHALL BE AS WHITE AS SNOW.⁸  HOW DO WE KNOW THAT ANOINTING IS THE SAME AS DRINKING ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT?⁹  THOUGH THERE IS NO PROOF OF THIS, YET THERE IS A SUGGESTION THEREOF, FOR IT IS SAID, AND IT CAME INTO HIS INWARD PARTS LIKE WATER, AND LIKE OIL INTO HIS BONES.¹⁰

GEMARA. The first clause does not agree with R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah, whilst the second clause does agree with R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah, for if it [the first clause] were according to R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah, we have heard from him that she is clean?¹¹  — He who does not [wish to] explain [a Mishnah] as [reflecting the views of two] Tannaim learns 'she is clean' in the first clause, and [thus] establishes the whole of it in accordance with R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah. Whilst he who does explain it as [the opinions of two] Tannaim¹²  [holds that] the first clause agrees with the Rabbis, while the second is according to R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah.

Our Rabbis taught: if one [a woman] discharges semen on the third day, she is clean; this is the view of R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah.¹³  R. Ishmael said: This [interval] sometimes comprises four periods,¹⁴  sometimes five, and sometimes six periods.¹⁵  R. Akiba maintained: It [the interval for uncleanness] is always [up to] five periods. And if part of the first period has gone,¹⁶  a part of the sixth period is given her.¹⁷  Now the Rabbis stated this [the following difficulty] before R. Papa-others say, R. Papa said to Raba: As for R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah, it is well: he holds with the Rabbis, who maintain, Abstention [from intimacy] was effected on Thursday.¹⁸  Again, R. Ishmael holds with R. Jose that abstention was effected on Wednesday. But with whom does R. Akiba agree?¹⁹  — After all, R. Akiba holds as R. Jose, [but it is] as R. Adda b. Ahabah said: Moses ascended early in the morning and descended early in the morning. 'He ascended early in the morning,' for it is written, and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai;²⁰  'he descended early in the morning', for it is written, Go, get thee down; and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee:²¹  this likens descent to the ascent: just as ascent was early in the morning, so was descent early in the morning.²²  But why did he [Moses] have to tell them [in the morning]? Surely R. Huna said: The Israelites are holy, and do not cohabit by day!²³  — But Raba said: If the house is in darkness, it is permitted. Raba also said others state, R. Papa: A scholar may cause darkness with his garment, and it is [then] permitted.

1. This excludes planting in a circle.
2. I.e., when it is planted in this shape the triangular wedge too is permitted. But the plot itself may contain a circle.
3. After cohabitation.
4. Ex. XIX, 15. Lit., 'three days'. The verse continues, 'come not near a woman'. The Tanna understands this to mean that intercourse was debarred to them for three whole days, including the first day of abstention, before the Giving of the Law, which took place on the fourth day. This proves that a discharge within this period would render her unclean for the day of the discharge, whereas all had to be clean at the Revelation.
5. Lit., 'the circumcised'.
6. Gen. XXXIV, 24. This shows that one is in danger until three days have elapsed, and therefore the Sabbath may be desecrated on its account by bathing the child.
7. V. Lev. XVI, 22-26.
8. Isa. I, 18. By a miracle this crimson coloured strap turned white, thus showing the people that they were forgiven of their sins; V. Buchler, Sin and Atonement, p. 327.
9. That the former is interdicted equally with the latter?
10. Ps. CIX, 19. The former is a simile from drinking, the latter from anointing, and the two similes are treated as parallel.
11. V. infra.
12. V. B.M. 41a.
13. Thus, if she cohabits on Thursday and discharges on the Sabbath, she is clean, no matter at which part of the two days intimacy and discharge took place.
14. 'Onah, pl, 'onoth, is the technical term of a day or a night when these are equal.
15. He holds that she is unclean. Now, if cohabitation took place at the very beginning of Thursday evening whilst the discharge occurred at the end of the Sabbath, we have six periods; if at the end of Thursday night, five; and if at the end of Thursday, four. In all cases she is unclean.
16. When intimacy takes place.
17. A discharge up to then defiles her.
18. Whilst the giving of the Law took place on the Sabbath, at the very beginning of which they performed their ritual ablutions to purify themselves, if they had discharged semen on the Friday. Now some may have cohabited at the end of Thursday, and yet they were fit for the Revelation on the Sabbath, which shows that a discharge of semen on the third day does not defile.
19. For the Torah speaks of days, which implies that whether intimacy took place at the beginning or at the end of the day, she would be clean on the third (or, the fourth, according to R. Jose) day, irrespective of the numbers of 'periods' that elapsed.
20. Ex. XXXIV, 4. Though this refers to his second ascent after the breaking of the first tables, it is held to show that he always went up early in the morning.
21. Ibid. XIX, 24.
22. Hence Moses' order to the Israelites to abstain from intimacy was given early Wednesday morning; this allows five full 'periods' until the beginning of the Sabbath, when they purified themselves. So Moses could have waited for the end of the day.

But they were tebul yom?¹  — Abaye b. Rabin and R. Hanina b. Abin both say: The Torah was given to tebul yom. Now Meremar sat and reported this discussion. Said Rabina to him: Do you say that it was given, or that it was fitting [that it should be given]? I mean that it was fitting, he replied.²  Yet they should have bathed at twilight and received the Torah at twilight?³  — R. Isaac quoted [as an answer], from the beginning I have not spoken in secret.⁴

Yet they could have bathed on the Sabbath morning and received the Torah on the Sabbath morning?⁵  — Said R. Isaac. It was unfitting that some should go to receive the Torah whilst others went to tebillah.⁶

R. Hiyya son of R. Abba said in R. Johanan's name: These are the views of R. Ishmael and R. Akiba; but the Sages maintain: We require six⁷  full periods.⁸

R. Hisda said: This controversy is [only] where it [the semen] issues from the woman; but if it issues from a man,⁹  it is unclean as long as it is moist. R. Shesheth objected: And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, [shall be washed with water and be unclean until the even]:¹⁰  this excludes semen that is foul.¹¹  Surely this refers [even] to that which issues from a man? — No: [only] to that which issues from a woman.

R. Papa asked: What of an Israelite's semen within a Cuthean woman?¹²  [Do we say,] Because Israelites are anxious about [the observance of] precepts, their bodies are heated,¹³  but not so Gentiles, who are not anxious about precepts; or perhaps, as they eat creeping crawling things, their bodies [too] are heated? Now should you say, as they eat creeping crawling things their bodies are heated, what of [semen] within an animal?¹⁴  [Do we say.] A woman, who has a fore-uterus, causes it to become foul, but not so an animal, who s no fore-uterus; or perhaps there is no difference? The questions stands over.

Our Rabbis taught: On the sixth day of the month [Siwan] were the Ten Commandments given to Israel. R. Jose maintained: On the seventh thereof. Said Raba: All agree that they arrived in the Wilderness of Sinai on the first of the month. [For] here it is written, on this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai;¹⁵  whilst elsewhere it is written, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months:¹⁶  just as there the first of the month,¹⁷  so here [too] the first of the month [is meant]. Again, all agree that the Torah was given to Israel on the Sabbath. [For] here it is written, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy;¹⁸  whilst elsewhere it is written, And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day:¹⁹  just as there, [he spoke] on that very day,²⁰  so here too it was on that very day.²¹  [Where] they differ is on the fixing of the New Moon. R. Jose holds that New Moon was fixed on the first day of the week [Sunday], and on that day he [Moses] said nothing to them on account of their exhaustion from the Journey. On Monday he said to them, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests;²²

1. V. Glos. tebul yom, pl. tebul yom. If they had their ritual bath on Friday evening, they would not be thoroughly clean until the following evening, as a tebul yom does not become clean until the evening after his ablutions. Hence we must assume that they cleansed themselves at the end of Friday, in which case there is one 'period' short on all views.
2. But actually none discharged semen on the Friday, so that they were completely clean.
3. Rashi: According to R. Akiba, if God desired exactly five periods to elapse, why did he postpone Revelation until the morning, which suggests that six periods are necessary? Tosaf. maintains that the difficulty arises on all views.
4. Isa. XLVIII, 16 — i.e., the Torah had to be given in broad daylight.
5. If discharge after five 'periods' leaves the woman clean, cohabitation could have been permitted until the very end of Wednesday, and ritual ablution performed on the Sabbath morning, for a subsequent discharge would not matter.
6. V. Glos.
7. Wilna Gaon quotes a reading 'three'.
8. To elapse before discharge shall have no effect.
9. E.g., on to a garment.
10. Lev. XV, 27.
11. Being unfit then to engender, it does not defile.
12. For Cuthean v. supra p. 69, n. 4. Here, however, 'Cuthean' is the censor's substitute for 'gentile', which word appears in this passage in Nid. 34b, and also in the present discussion.
13. Which makes the semen foul and unfit to engender in three days.
14. This is merely a theoretical question. Bestiality was forbidden on pain of death (Ex. XXII, 18), and Jews were not suspected of this crime (Sanh. 27b).
15. Ex. XIX, 1.
16. Ibid. XII, 2.
17. V. Pes. 6b and Tosaf. ibid. s.v. [H].
18. Ex. XX, 8.
19. Ibid. XIII, 3.
20. Of their exodus — implied by 'this'.
21. I.e., the command to keep the Sabbath, and hence all the Ten Commandments were promulgated on the Sabbath itself.
22. Ex. XIX, 6.