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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON GEMARA AND RASHI

prepared by Rabbi Eliezer Chrysler
Kollel Iyun Hadaf, Jerusalem

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Nidah 25

1) Rebbi Yishmael b'Rebbi Yossi quotes his father as saying that a woman who miscarries an unformed Shefir full of blood is Temei'ah Nidah; a Shefir full of flesh, is Temei'ah Leidah.

(a) What was Rebbi's reaction to that statement?
According to Resh Lakish quoting Rebbi Oshayah, Rebbi Yehoshua is only Metamei by a Shefir full of Achur (dirty water), but if it is full of Tzalul (clear water), he agrees with the Chachamim that the woman remains Tehorah.
(b) How does the Gemara prove that they must be arguing by Tzalul, and not just by Achur (from the Beraisa in which Rebbi Yehoshua learns his Din from "va'Ya'as Hashem Elokim" etc.)
2) The Beraisa gives the sign of a baby of a species of small animal as Tinuf.
(a) What is Tinuf?

(b) What is the sign of a baby by a large species of animal and by a human being?

(c) What are the ramifications of these Halachos?

3)
(a) What proof does the Gemara bring from the above Beraisa that Rebbi Yehoshua, who considers a Shefir to be a baby, must be speaking by a Shefir which contains Tzalil, and not Achur?

(b) How does the Gemara refute this proof, and how does it explain Rebbi Yehoshua?

The Gemara concludes that Rav and Shmuel argue over an unformed Shefir. According to Rav, the woman remains Tehorah whether it contains Tzalul or Achur (and apparently, that includes flesh, too).
(c) What does Shmuel hold?

(d) On which occasion did Shmuel rule that the woman was Tehorah, and why?

4)
(a) How large is a formed Shefir at its inception (according to the note in the margin? (see Rashi, d.h. 've'Chituch', who retains the text - 'mei'Rosho'. See also Tosfos ha'Rosh d.h. 'Techilas')
What do ...
(b) ...its two nostrils
(c) ...its mouth
...resemble?
(d) What do the sexual organs of a male and a female respectively resemble?

(e) Does it have hands and feet?

Answers to questions

25b---------------------------------------25b

5)

(a) Why does one not examine a Shefir in water, and in what then does one examine (wash) him?

(b) How does one examine whether it is a male or a female (see Rashi, Amud a. d.h. 'Geviyaso')?

One can determine that it is a female, when it has a slit the size of a split barley.
(c) How do we know that that is not the Chut shel Beitzim?
6) What do the Shefir's ...
(a) ... thighs
(b) ... arms
... resemble?

Shmuel told Rav Yehudah that he should only consider a Shefir a baby if it had hair.

(c) What exactly did he mean?

(d) Why did Shmuel give a man Malkus?

(e) How do we reconcile that, with Shmuel's ruling that a Shefir is only a Safek baby?

7) According to some opinions, a Sandel which is a Safek Leidah, is equivalent to Panav Tuchos, where the mother is Tehorah.
(a) How do we reconcile this with the Din that the mother of a Sandel is Temei'ah, Safek for a male, Safek for a female.

(b) What are the two other opinions in Sandel?

(c) According to those who hold that a Sandel requires the shape of a face, must the shape of face be in front? What analogy do they draw in this regard?

8) We already established above that Sandel in our Mishnah speaks when a male was born together with it, and that our Mishnah is telling us that we contend with the possibility that the Sandel is a female.
(a) What is the Chidush?

(b) How can we learn the Mishnah even if the baby that was born together with the Sandel was a girl (according to Rashi's second explanation)?

Answers to questions

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