Gemara Clarity

Chullin 70a

חולין ע׳ ע״א

Learn Chullin 70a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Chullin 70a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

How a בכור becomes holy: רב הונא's retroactive holiness, counting the majority of limbs, and what counts as the fetus 'opening the womb'.

Overview

The amud opens by finishing an explanation of why the argument between רב הונא and רבה, about whether a בכור becomes holy retroactively, had to be stated in two cases. The גמרא then challenges רב הונא from a משנה that lets a person cut up a stuck firstborn limb by limb and throw the pieces to dogs. It answers that the משנה means each limb is thrown away right away, and it reads the משנה's later clause as limiting the first case. Next, רבא asks whether we follow the majority within a limb when half the fetus is out. A proof from the משנה's words 'most of it came out' is pushed off. רבא then asks a series of questions about unusual births: a fetus wrapped in palm fiber, a robe, another animal's afterbirth, or a hand, a fetus swallowed by a weasel, and two wombs pressed together. All of these end in תיקו. Finally, רב אחא, מר בר רב אשי and רבי ירמיה ask about womb walls that were widened, uprooted, or thinned. רבי זירא shows from an earlier question that thinned walls clearly do not make the fetus holy.

Opening lines

וְאִי אִתְּמַר בְּהָא:

And if it had been stated only in that case:

בְּהָא קָאָמַר רַבָּה,

in that case Rabba says it becomes holy from now on,

אֲבָל בְּהָא –

but in this case,

אֵימָא מוֹדֵי לֵיהּ לְרַב הוּנָא,

I would say he agrees with Rav Huna;

The steps (32)

  1. ConclusionWhy the argument had to be stated in both cases
  2. ChallengeChallenge to רב הונא from cutting up a stuck firstborn
  3. ResolutionThe משנה means each limb is thrown away right after it is cut
  4. ChallengeThen the משנה should have taught the other case right there
  5. ResolutionThe later clause explains the first case
  6. Questionרבא asks whether majority applies to limbs
  7. QuestionTrying to define רבא's case
  8. RejectionThat case is too obvious
  9. ResponseThe real case of רבא's question: half out, with most of one limb
  10. ProofTrying to prove the answer from the משנה's words 'most of it came out'
  11. ProofSo the משנה must mean half out with most of a limb
  12. RejectionNo: the משנה means most out, with only a small part of a limb
  13. Questionרבא asks about a fetus wrapped in palm fiber or a robe
  14. Questionרבא asks about a fetus wrapped in its afterbirth
  15. ChallengeThe afterbirth is the normal way to be born
  16. ResolutionThe real question: another animal's afterbirth
  17. Questionרבא asks about a fetus pulled out by hand
  18. QuestionIf the head already came out, it is obviously holy
  19. ResponseThe case is a fetus born feet first
  20. Questionרבא asks about a weasel that swallowed the fetus
  21. ChallengeThe weasel brought it out, not the fetus
  22. ResolutionThe real weasel case: put back and born on its own
  23. QuestionTwo wombs joined together: does another animal's fetus open the womb?
  24. ConclusionThe question stays unresolved
  25. QuestionThe womb opening widened: is it the space or the touching that makes it holy?
  26. QuestionWhat if the womb walls were removed?
  27. ChallengeIf the walls are gone, there is nothing to ask
  28. ResolutionWalls moved out of place and lying on the fetus's neck
  29. QuestionWhat if the womb walls were thinned?
  30. Responseרבי זירא: you touched on a question we already asked
  31. QuestionThe earlier question: a womb opening partly broken away
  32. ResponseThe earlier question only applied when some wall was still standing