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Text Excerpt
משמשת וראתה נדה — אינה צריכה טבילה, אבל בעל קרי גרידא — מחייב. לא תימא ״מברך״, אלא מהרהר.
that a woman who had sex and saw menstrual blood is not required to immerse herself, but one who experienced a seminal emission alone, with no concurrent impurity, is required to do so? If so, we must interpret R' Yehuda’s statement in the Mishnah that one recites a blessing both beforehand and after that as follows: Do not say that one recites a blessing orally, but rather he means that one contemplates those blessings in his heart.
ומי אית ליה לרבי יהודה הרהור? והתניא: בעל קרי שאין לו מים לטבול — קורא קריאת שמע, ואינו מברך, לא לפניה ולא לאחריה. ואוכל פתו ומברך לאחריה, ואינו מברך לפניה. אבל מהרהר בלבו ואינו מוציא בשפתיו, דברי רבי מאיר. רבי יהודה אומר: בין כך ובין כך מוציא בשפתיו.
The Talmud challenges this explanation: And does R' Yehuda maintain that there is validity to contemplating in his heart? Wasn’t it taught in a baraita: One who experienced a seminal emission and who has no water to immerse and purify himself recites Shema and neither recites the blessings of Shema beforehand nor after that? And when he eats his bread, he recites the blessing after that, Grace after Meals, but does not recite the blessing: Who brings forth bread from the earth, beforehand. However, in the instances where he may not recite the blessing, he contemplates it in his heart rather than utter it with his lips, this is the statement of R' Meir. However R' Yehuda says: In either case, he utters all of the blessings with his lips. R' Yehuda does not consider contemplating the blessings in his heart a solution and permits them to be recited.
אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק: עשאן רבי יהודה כהלכות דרך ארץ.
Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: R' Yehuda’s statement in the Mishnah should be interpreted in another way. R' Yehuda rendered the blessings like Hilkhot Derekh Eretz, which according to some rabbis were not considered to be in the same category as all other matters of Torah and therefore, one is permitted to engage in their study even after having experienced a seminal emission.