Study Megillah folio 8B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
שומרת יום כנגד יום תוכיח, שמטמאה משכב ומושב, ואינה טעונה ספירת שבעה.
A woman who observes a clean day for one day or two days that she experiences a discharge will prove that this is not the case. This refers to a woman who experienced one or two days of bleeding not during her menstrual period and is required to wait one day without any further discharge of blood before immersion in a mikveh. This is significant because she renders a surface designated for lying and a surface designated for sitting ritually impure, and nevertheless she does not require a count of 7 clean days to become purified.
ואף אתה אל תתמה על זה, שאף על פי שמטמא משכב ומושב לא יהא טעון ספירת שבעה, תלמוד לומר: ״מזובו וספר״, מקצת זובו וספר — לימד על זב בעל שתי ראיות שטעון ספירת שבעה.
And you too should not then be surprised that this zav, although he renders a surface designated for lying and a surface designated for sitting ritually impure, he does not require a count of 7 clean days to become purified. Therefore, the verse states: “From his emission, then he should count,” meaning that even a partial zav is obligated in the mitzva of: Then he should count. This teaches concerning a zav who experienced two emissions, that he too requires a count of 7 clean days.
אמר ליה רב פפא לאביי: מאי שנא האי ״מזובו״ דמרבי ביה זב בעל שתי ראיות, ומאי שנא האי ״מזובו״ דממעט ביה זב בעל שתי ראיות?
Rav Pappa said to Abaye: What is different about this verse that states: “From his emission,” which is interpreted to include a zav who experienced two emissions in the obligation to count 7 clean days; and what is different about that verse that states: “From his emission,” which is interpreted to exclude a zav who experienced two emissions from the obligation to bring an offering? Why is the identical term interpreted once as inclusionary and once as exclusionary?