Beitzah 7a

ביצה ז׳ ע״א

Learn Beitzah 7a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Beitzah 7a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Mistaken egg sales, when an egg counts as laid, attached eggs as meat, and eggs found on יום טוב

Overview

The amud opens by finishing two stories in which רבי אמי rules that selling eggs that cannot hatch to a buyer who wanted eggs that can hatch is a מקח טעות, and the sale is cancelled. Then the גמרא offers two readings of רב's phrase 'עם יציאתה נגמרה': either the egg counts as finished once most of it is out, like רבי יוחנן, or only once all of it is out. Next, with 'גופא', it examines a ברייתא: fully formed eggs found in a slaughtered hen may be eaten with milk, but רבי יעקב forbids them if they are still attached by sinews. The גמרא asks whether another ברייתא, about which parts of a dead kosher bird make the eater טמא, follows רבי יעקב. רב יוסף links it to רבי יעקב, and in both versions אביי shows the link is not proven. A ברייתא then teaches that a chicken mates and lays only by day. That supports רב מרי's ruling that an egg found at dawn on יום טוב, in a nest that was empty the evening before, is permitted. רב's opposite ruling is explained as speaking of an egg 'from the earth', which a hen does not form when a rooster is present. The amud ends as רב גמדא begins to say how close the rooster must be, and his answer continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (38)

1. StatementEggs of a live hen: רבי אמי voids the sale
2. ChallengeIsn't this obvious?
3. ResolutionWe might have thought he only wanted eating eggs
4. StatementEggs of a rooster: רבי אמי voids the sale again
5. ChallengeIsn't this obvious too?
6. ResolutionWe might have thought he wanted fatter eggs to eat
7. ResolutionA second reading: the egg is finished once most of it comes out
8. Statementרבי יוחנן's ruling about an egg that mostly came out and went back in
9. StatementAnother version: the egg is finished only once all of it comes out
10. ConclusionThis version rejects רבי יוחנן's 'most of it' rule
11. StatementFully formed eggs found in a slaughtered hen may be eaten with milk
12. Statementרבי יעקב: eggs still attached by sinews are forbidden with milk
13. QuestionWhich תנא holds that eating attached eggs from a bird's carcass leaves one pure?
14. StatementThe second half of the list: parts that do make the eater impure
15. QuestionWhich תנא says the cluster of eggs is pure?
16. Responseרב יוסף: Not רבי יעקב
17. Rejectionאביי: רבי יעקב may have spoken only about milk
18. ChallengeAnticipated objection: Let us decree impurity too
19. ResolutionWe do not add rabbinic impurity
20. QuestionA second version asks who taught that the egg cluster makes one impure
21. Responseרב יוסף says it follows רבי יעקב
22. Rejectionאביי says the cluster may mean the ovary itself
23. ChallengeWhy would the ברייתא need to say the ovary is meat
24. ResolutionLike the gizzard and intestines, some people do not eat it
25. StatementA ברייתא: animals give birth at the time of day they mate
26. StatementWhich creatures fit each group
27. QuestionWhat difference does it make that chickens lay by day
28. ResponseAn egg found at dawn on יום טוב is permitted
29. ChallengeBut he checked the nest
30. ResolutionHe did not check well, or the egg came partly out and went back in
31. Challengeרב rules that such an egg is forbidden
32. Resolutionרב is speaking of an egg absorbed from the earth
33. ChallengeMaybe רב מרי's hen also absorbed from the earth
34. ResolutionIn רב מרי's case a rooster is with the hen
35. ChallengeEven with a rooster, maybe she absorbed from the earth
36. ResolutionA tradition: with a rooster nearby, a hen does not absorb from the earth
37. QuestionHow near must the rooster be?
38. Responseרב גמדא begins to give the measure