044b - מומין אלו פרק שביעי בכורות דף מד, ע"ב

MISHNAH: [Also blemished is a kohen] whose breasts hang down like a woman's; whose belly is swollen; whose navel protrudes; one who is epileptic – even once in a long while; one who is seized by a spirit of melancholy; one with abnormally large testicles, or one with an abnormally large organ.^[1]

מתני' דדין שוכבין - large [breasts].

נכפה - one who falls because of illness.

אחת לימים - he falls only once in a while, when it comes at a fixed time.

רוח קצרה - a spirit of a demon.

מאושבן - his testicles are large.

בעל גבר - his organ is large.

GEMARA: Rabbi Abba the son of Rabbi Chiya bar Abba said: One may pass water in front of many people, but one may not drink water in front of many people.

גמ' ואין שותין מים - for it is the way of a Torah scholar to be modest in eating and drinking; but in passing water he should not be modest, lest he wait and endanger himself.

And so it was taught in a beraisa: One may pass water in front of many people, but one may not drink water in front of many people. And it once happened that a man needed to pass water and did not, and his belly became swollen.

Shmuel needed [to relieve himself] during the festival lecture; they spread a cloak around him [as a screen].

איצטריכא ליה - to pass water.

בשבתא דריגלא - thirty days before the festival,^[2] when they ask and expound the laws of the festival, as we say in Megillah (4a).

נגדו ליה גלימא - they spread a sheet between him and the people.

He came before his father, [who] said to him: I will give you four hundred zuz – go and repeat the deed [publicly].

אהדר עובדא - expound [publicly] that it is forbidden to delay passing water until one has privacy.

You – it is possible for you [to have a screen spread]; [but someone] for whom it is not possible – should he endanger himself?!

את דאפשר לך - to spread a sheet, because you are important.

ואי ליצטרך אינש אחרינא דלא אפשר ליה - and if another person needs to and has no such possibility – he will wait until the people leave, endanger himself and become sterile.

Mar bar Rav Ashi needed [to relieve himself] on the bank of a canal, and he passed water.

They said to him: Your mother-in-law is coming!

חמתך - your mother-in-law.

He said to them: [I would do it even] in her ear.

באודנה - even into her ear I would pass water if I had no other place, rather than wait – all the more so in front of her.

But let me derive [the swelling in the beraisa's story] from a leech [he swallowed]!

ותיפוק לי משום עלקא - for the beraisa above taught that he needed to pass water and did not, and his belly became swollen – how do we know it was because of waiting? Perhaps he drank [water with] a leech,^[3] which is called sanguisuga, and that is why his belly swelled.

[The beraisa speaks of one whose urine] trickles out.

בשותת - he cannot pass water properly afterwards, but it trickles out drop by drop – so certainly it came from holding back urine.

The Rabbis taught: A person has two passages, one that expels urine and one that expels semen, and between them there is only the thickness of a garlic peel. If, when a person needs to relieve himself [and holds back], the one bursts into the other, he becomes sterile.

Reish Lakish said: What is meant by the verse (Devarim 7) “There shall be no barren male or female among you, or among your animals”?^[4]

When will there be no barren man among you?

When you are “like your animals”.

בזמן שבבהמתך - that you make yourself like an animal, not being modest in passing water.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: “There shall be no barren male among you” – [you shall not be barren] of disciples; “or female” – your prayer shall not be barren before the Omnipresent.

שלא תהא תפלתך עקורה כו' - and when you pray [for children] your prayer will be heard.

When?

When you make yourself like an animal.

כבהמה - that you do not delay passing water.

Rav Pappa said: A person should not pass water onto earthenware nor onto hard ground,

לא על (גב) כלי חרס - into a chamber-pot of urine, for they throw it into the river nearby, and the rivers of Bavel flow and gather into the spring of Eitam, as [the Gemara] explains.

ולא על מקום קשה - for it does not absorb, and [the urine] floats on the ground until it is washed down a slope and falls into the river.

for Rav said: These slopes of Bavel carry the water back to the spring of Eitam.

ואמר רב הנך מדורי דבבל - sloping places in Bavel.

מהדרי לעין עיטם - in which the Kohen Gadol immersed on Yom Kippur,^[5] as we say in Yoma, chapter three (31a).

Abaye said: A woman should not stand directly facing a child [while she passes water];

לא תיקום להדיא באפי ינוקא - when she passes water she should not stand directly facing the children, for it is brazen.

to the side – we have no problem with it.

[אגיסא] - if [she stands] to the side, so that she is not passing water in front of the child, we have no problem with it.

It was taught in a beraisa: Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: A column [of excrement] held back brings a person to hidrokan; a stream [of urine] held back brings a person to yerakon.^[6]

עמוד - [a column of excrement] large.

הדרוקן - a disease of the intestines.

סילון - [a stream of urine] small.

Rabbah bar Rav Huna said in the name of Rav Ketina in the name of Reish Lakish: Much blood – much boils; much semen – much tzaraas; much excrement – much hidrokan; much urine – much yerakon.

דם רבה שחין רבה - one who has much blood and does not let blood has many boils.

שכבת זרע רבה - one who has a wife and does not live with her has much tzaraas.

“A spirit of melancholy comes upon him”:^[7] What is this?

It was taught: A spirit of madness comes upon him.

(Nalas) a spirit of madness through a demon – this is ben nefilim, nuiton [in Old French].

“One with abnormally large testicles, or one with an abnormally large organ”:^[8]

It was taught: Meushban – in the testicles; baal gever – in the organ.

It was taught: Meushban is the kayan; the garbatan is the baal kik; kayan – in the testicles; garbata – in the organ.

הקיין - this is meushban.

הגרבתן - this is the kind called baal gever.

בביצים - his testicles are large.

בגיד - his organ is large.

And how far [must the organ hang to be a blemish]?

ועד כמה - [how large] must the organ grow to be disqualified.

Rav Yehudah showed: Down to the knee.^[9]

It was taught in a beraisa: Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: Down to the knee – disqualified; above the knee – fit.

Some say: Down to the knee – fit; below the knee – disqualified.

MISHNAH: One who has no testicles, or has only one testicle – this is (Vayikra 21) “mero'ach eshech”^[10] spoken of in the Torah.

Rabbi Yishmael says: Any whose testicles are crushed.

מתני' שנמרחו אשכיו - his testicles are crushed.

Rabbi Akiva says: Any who has wind in his testicles.

שהרוח באשכיו - his testicles are swollen.

Rabbi Chanina ben Antigonus says: Any whose complexion is dark.

שמראיו חשוכים - he is black like a kushi, and [this opinion] is not speaking of the testicles at all.

GEMARA: Rabbi Yishmael found it difficult: [If it means one with no testicles, the verse] should have said “lacking a testicle”!

גמ' קשיא ליה לר' ישמעאל - that is, this is why Rabbi Yishmael disagrees with the Tanna Kamma: because it was difficult for him – if the verse speaks of one who has no testicles, it should have said “lacking a testicle”.

Read [in the Mishnah]: Whose testicles are crushed.

תני שנמרחו אשכיו - this is why Rabbi Yishmael teaches whose testicles are crushed.

Rabbi Akiva found it difficult: It should have said “mimero'ach eshech”!

ממרוח אשך מיבעי ליה - for the mem of mero'ach is [then] a prefix.

Read: Who has wind in his testicles.

Rabbi Chanina ben Antigonus found it difficult: It should have said “ruach eshech”!

Read: Whose complexion is dark,

for he holds that one may take away and add [letters] and expound.^[11]

גורעין ומוסיפין - take away the ches from mero'ach and the alef from eshech, and add a ches in place of the alef in eshech and an alef in place of the ches in mero'ach, and it reads mar'av chashuch [his appearance is dark].

That is the same as a kushi [a very dark-skinned person, listed separately in the Mishnah]!

היינו כושי - and kushi is taught explicitly in the Mishnah (below, 45a): the kushi and the gichor.

Rabbi Chanina ben Antigonus does not teach “kushi” [separately].^[12]

MISHNAH: One whose ankles knock together, or whose knees [knock together]...

מתני' המקיש בקרסוליים - his knees are bent outward and his ankles inward, and they knock against each other as he walks. “And his knees” is the reverse: his legs are bent outward and far apart, until his knees above, which bend inward, knock against each other.

Tosfos

ואין שותין מים בפני רבים - Rashi explained that it is the way of a Torah scholar to be modest in eating and drinking. And as for what is said at the end of Keitzad Tzolin (Pesachim 86b), that Rav Huna the son of Rav Nasan drank a cup in two draughts and did not turn his face away, and it is said there “we learned [this of] a bride” – implying that the way there is to drink in front of many people without turning one's face – that is at a meal, like a bride. And in Hilchos Derech Eretz we say that in front of many people one turns his face to another side and drinks. It seems that [the Gemara] says “water” because not everyone usually drinks water, only one who is thirsty, but other drinks they usually drink together. And Rabbeinu Tam says this is the meaning: even those modest people who do not drink water in front of many people should not be modest in passing water, lest they wait and endanger themselves.

אימתי לא יהיה בך עקר ועקרה בזמן שבבהמתך - This is difficult: how could they make themselves like an animal in passing water, when they had to go outside the camp and distance themselves three parsaos, as we say in the last chapter of Yoma (75b), that they did not relieve themselves to the sides or in front but only behind; and this was even for passing water, for in the chapter Mi Shemeiso (Berachos 25a) [the Gemara] sets “And you shall have a peg… outside the camp, and you shall go out” etc. as referring to passing water.

שלא תהא תפלתך עקורה לפני המקום בזמן שאתה משים עצמך כבהמה - Rashi explained: [your prayer] will not be barren when you pray for children. But it seems that it is said about every prayer, as it is said that the world endures only through one who makes himself like an animal, as it is written: “Man and animal You save, Hashem”, and through one who makes himself as if he does not exist, as it is written (Iyov 26:7): “He suspends the earth upon nothingness” (Chullin 89a).

לא ישתין אדם מים לא על (גבי) [כלי] חרס ולא על גבי מקום קשה - These stringencies apply only in Bavel, since the reason given is that these slopes of Bavel carry the water back to Eitam on the river Euphrates, for the water flows along its course to the spring of Eitam; for the Euphrates mixes with all the waters in the world, as is said below in chapter nine (Bechoros 55a): One who vows [not to benefit] from the waters of the Euphrates is forbidden all the waters in the world. And even springs that rise up – we say below that these are “ladders of the Euphrates”,^[13] and in Sukkah (53a) we also say: we dig a little and want water – those are the ladders of the Euphrates. And although the ladders of the Euphrates mix with all the waters of the world, it is forbidden only in Bavel, as I explained, since along the course of the Euphrates it mixes into the spring of Eitam. This would imply that the Euphrates flows from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael; but I asked someone from Eretz Yisrael and he told me that it flows down from Eretz Yisrael to Bavel. And so it is proven below in chapter nine (Bechoros 55b), where we say: rain in the West [Eretz Yisrael] – the great witness is the Euphrates, and so Rashi explained there. And it is forced to say that even though it flows from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael, it is noticeable when the river rises from much rain and the river swells backward from the abundance of water.

האי איתתא לא תיקום להדיא באפי ינוקא - Even though she does not uncover herself, it is brazen when she passes water and the child stands facing her; for it is not the way of a woman to uncover herself in front of either young or old, as is proven in the chapter Mi Shemeiso (Berachos 23b).

לידי הדרוקן כו' לידי ירקון - This implies that hidrokan and yerakon are two things. But it seems that they are one matter, for we say in Yevamos (60b): They passed them before the tzitz – every one fit for relations, her face turned green, and it says the sign of sin is hidrokan.

Notes

1. 1. The chapter Mumin Elu lists the bodily blemishes (mumim) that disqualify a kohen from serving in the Beis Hamikdash (Vayikra 21:17–23). This Mishnah continues the list with deformities of the chest, belly and private parts, and with recurring illnesses such as epilepsy.
2. 2. From thirty days before each festival its laws were studied and taught in public. Shmuel was in the midst of the great public lecture before the festival, with the crowd all around him, so he could not leave to relieve himself.
3. 3. A leech (עלוקה) swallowed with drinking water was known to make the belly swell. The Gemara asks how the beraisa knew that the man's swelling came from holding back urine rather than from a leech.
4. 4. Devarim 7:14 promises that if Israel keeps the mitzvos, no one among them or their animals will be barren. Reish Lakish reads the extra word “among your animals” as a condition: when you are like animals, which relieve themselves without delay.
5. 5. Ein Eitam was a spring south of Yerushalayim from which water was channelled to the Beis Hamikdash; the Kohen Gadol's immersions on Yom Kippur were in that water. It was a disgrace for urine to flow into it, so in Bavel, whose waters were thought to reach it, one should not let urine flow off into the rivers.
6. 6. Hidrokan is dropsy, a swelling of the body with fluid; yerakon is jaundice, a yellowing of the skin. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel teaches that holding back the bowels or the urine causes these illnesses. Tosfos below discuss whether they are two diseases or one.
7. 7. The Mishnah lists among a kohen's blemishes one on whom a “spirit of melancholy” comes from time to time. Like epilepsy, such an attack makes him unfit to serve; the Gemara asks what kind of spirit is meant.
8. 8. The Mishnah lists as blemishes a kohen with abnormally large testicles (meushban) and one with an abnormally large organ (baal gever). The Gemara now clarifies which term refers to which and at what size it becomes a blemish.
9. 9. Rechubah here is the knee: Rav Yehudah showed with his hand that the organ is a blemish when it hangs down as far as the knee.
10. 10. Vayikra 21:20 lists “mero'ach eshech” among the blemishes that disqualify a kohen. The Tanna Kamma explains it as one who has no testicles or only one; the other Tannaim read the words differently.
11. 11. Gor'in u'mosifin v'dorshin is a way of expounding a verse by moving letters from one word to another. Here the ches of mero'ach and the alef of eshech change places, giving “mar'av chashuch”, his appearance is dark.
12. 12. The Mishnah on the next amud (45a) lists the kushi, one who is very dark-skinned, as a separate blemish. Since Rabbi Chanina ben Antigonus counts dark complexion here, he does not list kushi again there.
13. 13. “Ladders of the Euphrates” are its underground channels and branches. Springs that rise from the ground are considered water of the Euphrates, and its water was held to mix with all the waters of the world.