Niddah 38a

נדה ל״ח ע״א

Learn Niddah 38a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Labor-pain blood (דם קושי): when it keeps her from being a זבה, according to רב, לוי, רבי מאיר and רבי יהודה

Overview

This amud continues the argument between רב and לוי about bleeding that comes with labor pains (דם קושי). The question is when this blood stays טהורה instead of making her a זבה. The גמרא challenges both versions of their argument from רבי מאיר in our משנה, who says labor pains can last forty or fifty days. Each time it answers that the משנה never says she is טהורה the whole time: in ימי נדה she is a נדה, and only in ימי זיבה is she טהורה. Next come two ברייתות that count out long stretches of bleeding with no זיבה: רבי מאיר's 150 days and a shorter 100 days. The חכמים argue that רבי מאיר's count could repeat forever. He answers that the labor-pain rule does not apply to נפלים. The 100-day ברייתא is explained as teaching that a birth can happen without blood. Then the גמרא turns to רבי יהודה, who limits the rule to the final month. רב אדא בר אהבה concludes that the start of the ninth month is what counts. The גמרא challenges this from שמואל's 271 to 273 days and begins answering that שמואל was speaking of the חסידים הראשונים, an answer that continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (21)

1. Statementרב's ruling covers even the new count after a break
2. Challengeרבי מאיר's forty or fifty days challenges לוי
3. Resolutionלוי answers that the משנה never said she is pure the whole time
4. StatementSecond version: לוי limits the rule to days of a major זבה
5. Statementרב's view in the second version: even days of a minor זבה
6. ChallengeChallenge to both: רבי מאיר's 40–50 days of labor
7. ResolutionAnswer: she is not טהורה on all those days
8. Statementברייתא: labor of 150 days without becoming a זבה
9. StatementThe count before the birth: 61 days
10. StatementThe count after the birth: reaching 150 days
11. ChallengeThe חכמים: then she could have labor pains all her life
12. Resolutionרבי מאיר: labor pains do not count for a non-viable baby
13. StatementA woman can see blood for 100 days without becoming a זבה
14. QuestionWhat is this ברייתא teaching?
15. ResponseA birth can happen without blood
16. Statementרבי יהודה: labor pains protect only within her month
17. StatementThe strict side: bleeding that started in the eighth month
18. StatementThe lenient side: most of the bleeding falls in the ninth month
19. StatementThe start of the ninth month is what protects her
20. Challengeשמואל says birth comes only after 271 to 273 days
21. Resolutionשמואל was describing the early pious men