Study Keritot folio 8A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
גמ׳ תניא: אמרו להן בית הלל לבית שמאי: הרי הוא אומר: ״לבת״ לרבות אור שמונים ואחד.
Talmud: In continuation of the discussion of the Mishnah, it is taught in a baraita that Beit Hillel said to Beit Shammai: The verse states: “And when the days of her purification are fulfilled, for a son or for a daughter” (Leviticus 12:6). The entire clause: “For a son or for a daughter,” is superfluous and serves to include the night preceding the 81st day, i.e., if she has a miscarriage at that point she is obligated to bring another offering.
רבי הושעיא הוה שכיח קמיה דבר קפרא, שבקיה ואתא קמיה דרבי חייא. יומא חד פגע ביה, בעא מיניה: זב שראה שלש ראיות בליל שמיני, מה בית הלל אומרים בדבר זה?
The Talmud relates: R' Hoshaya would regularly study before bar Kappara. He then left him and came to study before R' Ḥiyya. One day R' Hoshaya encountered bar Kappara and raised the following dilemma before him: With regard to a man who experiences a gonorrhea-like discharge [zav], who is obligated to bring an offering on the 8th day of his purification for 3 discharges, if he saw another 3 sightings, i.e., experienced an additional 3 discharges, on the night preceding the 8th day, what do Beit Hillel say about this matter? Must the zav bring a separate offering for this impurity as he would if he experienced the discharges on the 8th day?
טעמייהו דבית הלל במפלת בלילה משום דכתיב: ״לבת״, אבל זב שראה שלש ראיות בליל שמיני – פטרי, דלא מייתרי קראי, או דלמא לא שנא?
R' Hoshaya explains the sides of the dilemma: Is the reason for the ruling of Beit Hillel that a woman who miscarries on the night preceding the 81st day must bring an additional offering due to the derivation from the verse, as it is written: “For a son or for a daughter”? But with regard to a zav who saw 3 sightings on the night preceding the 8th day, they deem him exempt, as in this case there are no superfluous verses from which one could derive this obligation. Or perhaps there is no difference between these halakhot, and just as a woman who miscarried on the night preceding the 81st day after childbirth must bring another offering, as it is the night preceding the day upon which she can bring her offering, a zav must likewise bring another offering for this impurity.