Study Shabbat folio 111A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
הכל מודים במחמץ אחר מחמץ שהוא חייב, שנאמר: ״לא תאפה חמץ״, ״לא תעשה חמץ״. במסרס אחר מסרס שהוא חייב, שנאמר: ״ומעוך וכתות ונתוק וכרות״, אם על כרות חייב, על נתוק לא כל שכן! אלא, להביא נותק אחר כורת שהוא חייב. ואלא בזקן.
Everyone agrees that one who leavens a meal-offering after one who already leavened it is liable for the additional leavening, as it is stated: “It should not be baked leavened” (Leviticus 6:10), and it is also stated: “No offering that you sacrifice to God should be made with leaven” (Leviticus 2:11). The rabbis interpreted this to mean that one is liable for every act of leavening performed on a Temple offering. Similarly, everyone agrees that one who castrates after one who castrates is liable, as it is stated: “Those whose testicles are bruised, or crushed, or torn, or cut, should not be offered to YHWH, and you should not do this in your land” (Leviticus 22:24). Presumably, if one is liable when the seminal vesicles are cut, when the testicles are detached altogether all the more so one is liable. Rather, this comes to include that one who detaches after one who cuts is liable. Apparently, one is liable for sterilizing one who is already castrated. Rather, we must say that it is permitted to use a remedy that causes sterility in an old man who is no longer capable of procreating.
והאמר רבי יוחנן הן הן החזירוני לנערותי! אלא באשה. ולרבי יוחנן בן ברוקא דאמר על שניהם הוא אומר: ״ויברך אותם אלהים ויאמר להם פרו ורבו״ — מאי איכא למימר? בזקינה, אי נמי בעקרה.
The Talmud asks: Didn’t R' Yoḥanan say with regard to remedies that restore procreative ability: These have restored me to my youth? Apparently, even an elderly man can procreate with the proper remedy. Rather, the remedy for jaundice was discussed with regard to a woman, who is not commanded to reproduce. The Talmud asks: And according to R' Yoḥanan ben Beroka, who said: The mitzva is incumbent on both of them, the man and the woman, as it states: “And God blessed them and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it” (Genesis 1:28), what is there to say? How could a woman use this remedy? In his opinion a woman is also commanded to procreate. The Talmud answers: In his opinion, this remedy may be used for an elderly woman or, alternatively, for a barren woman. He would agree that there is no prohibition to cause infertility in a woman who cannot conceive.