Niddah 47b

נדה מ״ז ע״ב

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Topic

Signs of maturity and רבי's 'strict like all' ruling, the age at which a person becomes an אילונית or סריס, and whether ages are counted as full years

Overview

The amud opens with רבי שמעון's three signs of a girl's maturity 'above' that match three signs 'below', using the stages of a fig. רב הונא explains that the כף is a raised area that softens as a girl grows. רבי rules that we are strict according to all the opinions, and רב פפא and רב חיננא disagree whether he said this about signs of maturity or about a חצר צורית, the courtyard that obligates produce in מעשר. A new משנה then teaches that a woman or man who reaches twenty without two hairs is an אילונית or סריס and is left out of יבום. בית שמאי say the age is eighteen, and רבי אליעזר splits between the two views. The גמרא answers a contradiction by limiting the משנה to someone who shows signs of a סריס. Otherwise we wait until most of his years, and רבי חייא would first try fattening or thinning the person. Finally רב and עולא argue whether the ages in the פרק are full years. רב is defended as following תנאים who count years in the תורה from date to date, and the גמרא begins listing the פסוקים for this, a discussion that continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (38)

1. Statementרבי שמעון's three matching signs, above and below
2. QuestionWhat is the protuberance?
3. Responseרב הונא explains the protuberance
4. Questionרבי is asked which opinion is the הלכה
5. ConclusionBe strict according to all the opinions
6. StatementDispute over where רבי's ruling was said
7. StatementThe משנה about a Tyrian courtyard
8. QuestionWhat does 'Tyrian courtyard' mean?
9. ResponseIn Tyre they posted a guard at the courtyard entrance
10. Statementרבי עקיבא: a courtyard anyone can open and lock is exempt
11. Statementרבי נחמיה: a courtyard where one is not embarrassed to eat obligates
12. Statementרבי יוסי: a courtyard strangers enter without being questioned is exempt
13. Statementרבי יהודה: of two courtyards one inside the other, the inner obligates
14. QuestionThe students ask רבי which opinion about the courtyard is the הלכה
15. Conclusionרבי: follow all the opinions, whichever is stricter
16. StatementA twenty-year-old woman without two hairs is an אילונית
17. StatementA twenty-year-old man without two hairs is a סריס
18. Statementבית שמאי set the age at eighteen for both
19. Statementרבי אליעזר: twenty for a man, eighteen for a woman
20. ChallengeAnother source puts a twenty-year-old without hairs inside the laws of יבום
21. ResolutionOur משנה is about someone who shows signs of a סריס
22. ProofThe משנה's wording supports רב
23. QuestionHow long do we wait if no signs of a סריס appear?
24. ResponseUntil most of his years
25. Statementרבי חייא's practice: fatten the thin, thin the heavy
26. Statementרב: every age in this chapter is counted from day to day
27. Statementעולא: only where the משנה says it
28. ChallengeThe wording of the משנה fits עולא but not רב
29. ChallengeA ברייתא counts a partly passed year as the full year
30. ChallengeWhy the ברייתא fits עולא but troubles רב
31. ResolutionIt is a dispute of תנאים, and רב follows the view that requires full years
32. ProofThe six years of a Hebrew slave are also counted as full years
33. QuestionWhere do we learn that the year for sacrifices is a full year?
34. Response'A lamb in its year' means the animal's own year
35. QuestionWhere do we learn that the year for a house in a walled city is a full year?
36. Response'The year of its sale' means counted from the sale itself
37. QuestionWhere do we learn that the two years for an ancestral field are full years?
38. ResponseThe answer begins with the words 'according to the number'