Niddah 57a

נדה נ״ז ע״א

Learn Niddah 57a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

When the כותים can be trusted about burial, בכור, graves and other matters they are careless about

Overview

This amud finishes this פרק's discussion of the כותים and closes the פרק of דם הנדה. First the גמרא explains why the כותים don't bury נפלים: they read 'לא תסיג גבול' as teaching that only someone with a נחלה gets a burial plot. Then it asks how we can trust the כותים at all, since they don't accept לפני עור. The answer is that we rely on their own actions: a כותי כהן eating pure תרומה on the spot, or a כותי shearing and working an animal that would be forbidden if it were a בכור. Each time the גמרא adds that the כותים are knowledgeable enough to be right. They are also trusted about grave-markings, because that practice is written in a פסוק. They are not trusted about doubtful places like סככות, פרעות and a בית הפרס, unless the כותי walked over the whole area himself. The משנה's rule 'זה הכלל' adds that they are not believed about תחומין or יין נסך, and the פרק of דם הנדה closes with הדרן.

Opening lines

The steps (27)

1. QuestionWhich verse did the כותים expound?
2. ResponseThe boundary verse: no inheritance means no burial plot
3. ChallengeHow can we trust the כותים if they ignore לפני עור?
4. Resolutionרבי אבהו: a כותי כהן is standing on the spot
5. ChallengeMaybe the כהן is already impure
6. ResolutionHe is holding תרומה in his hand
7. ChallengeMaybe the תרומה itself is impure
8. ResolutionHe is eating the תרומה
9. ChallengeIf the case is that obvious, why teach it?
10. ResolutionWe might have thought they don't know how a fetus forms
11. ChallengeHow can we trust them about a firstborn animal?
12. ResolutionThe כותי himself is shearing and working the offspring
13. ChallengeAgain: if so, why teach it?
14. ResolutionWe might have thought they don't recognize a murky discharge
15. StatementTrusted on grave-markings because it appears in a פסוק
16. StatementDefining overhanging boughs and protruding stones
17. StatementYou may blow on a בית הפרס and walk through
18. StatementA trampled בית הפרס is pure
19. StatementHow large an area becomes a בית הפרס
20. ChallengeBut a ברייתא trusts a כותי about a lost grave
21. ChallengeThe ברייתא's reason, and the overhanging tree
22. Resolutionרבי יוחנן: the כותי walked over the whole area
23. ChallengeIf so, why say it at all?
24. ResolutionWe might have worried about a narrow strip
25. QuestionWhat does 'this is the rule' add?
26. ResponseIt includes תחומין and יין נסך
27. ConclusionHadran — Closing the perek of דם הנדה