045a - מומין אלו פרק שביעי בכורות דף מה, ע"א

MISHNAH^[1]

And one with lumps (baal hapikim); the ikel.^[2]

בעל הפיקין והעיקל - as [the Mishnah] goes on to explain; and it explains ikel first: “anyone who brings his soles together” – when he sits and joins the soles of his feet to each other – “and his knees do not knock against each other,” for they are bent outward.

Who is an ikel?

Anyone who brings his soles together and his knees do not knock against each other.

[One who has] a lump protruding from his big toe;

פיקה יוצאה מגודלו - a round piece of flesh, like a ball, protrudes from his big toe.

[one whose] heel protrudes behind him;

עקיבו יוצאה מאחוריו - as the Gemara explains: his shin stands in the middle of his foot, so that half the foot stands in front and half behind.

[one whose] soles are broad like a goose’s.

רחבות כשל אווז - they are flat like a goose’s, and their length is no more than their width.

If his fingers overlap one another, or are fused above, up to the joint – he is fit;^[3]

עד הפרק - the middle joint.

below the joint, and he cut it [apart] – he is fit.

למטה מן הפרק - that is, toward the nail, where they are all joined together; and he cut it so that they are separated – he is fit.

If he had an extra finger and he cut it off,

יתירה - an extra finger.

if it has a bone – he is unfit; and if not – he is fit.

אם יש בה עצם פסול - since he cut it off, for he is now lacking a limb that was in him; “and if not, he is fit,” for it counts only as a mere wart.

If he has extra [fingers] on his hands and on his feet, six and six – twenty-four,^[4]

ו' ו' כ"ד - the Gemara explains, in connection with the pasuk, why [the Mishnah] mentions them; and the Mishnah uses the language of the pasuk.

Rabbi Yehudah declares him fit, and the Chachamim declare him unfit.

One who is ambidextrous – Rebbi declares him unfit, and the Chachamim declare him fit.^[5]

GEMARA

The Rabbis taught: (Vayikra 21:19) “A broken leg” – I have only a broken leg; from where [do we know] to include the kishan, the ikel and the kilban?^[6]

גמ' הקישן - this is the one whose ankles knock together.

והעיקל והקילבן - this is the one who has a lump protruding from his big toe.

The Torah says: “or a broken leg.”

It was taught: the baal hapikin and the shufnar.

The reading is: בעל הפיקין והשופנר.

Rabbi Chiya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: The baal hapikin – one who has many cushions; the shufnar – one who has no cushions at all.^[7]

כסתות הרבה - his istemara, which is called kevila [in Old French], is very large.

A lump protrudes from his big toe, and his heel protrudes behind him:^[8]

Rabbi Elazar said: His shin comes out in the middle of his foot.

His soles are broad like a goose’s:^[9]

Rav Papa said: Do not say [it is a blemish only when the foot] is closed and not split; rather, once it is closed, even though it is split [it is a blemish].

טריפה - klostenba [in Old French].

His fingers overlap one another, or are fused:^[10]

The Rabbis taught: (Vayikra 21:19) “A broken arm” – I have only a broken arm; fingers that overlap or are fused above the joint, and he cut them [apart]...

“Above” in the beraisa is “below” in the Mishnah.

But you said [in the Mishnah that he is] fit!

Rather, [read]: and he did not cut them apart – from where [do we know that he is unfit]?

The Torah says: “or a broken arm.”

If he had an extra finger and cut it off: if it has a bone he is unfit, and if not he is fit:^[11]

Rabbah bar bar Chanah said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: And that is when it is counted along the hand.

ובנספרת על גב היד - it is counted with the other fingers, standing in their row; it is of such a finger that the Mishnah teaches, for it counts as a limb.

The Rabbis taught: An extra finger that has a bone but no nail conveys tumah by touch and by carrying, and conveys tumah in an ohel,^[12]

אם היה בה עצם ואין צפורן - [the beraisa] states a novelty: even though it has no nail it counts as a limb, if it is counted along the hand.

מטמא במגע ובמשא ובאהל - for instance, where it has a little flesh, but not a kezayis. For if it had a kezayis of flesh, then even if it were not counted, or had no bone, it would convey tumah in an ohel, since a kezayis of a corpse conveys tumah in an ohel. And if it had no flesh at all, then even if it were counted, so that it counts as a limb, it would not convey tumah in an ohel, for bones convey tumah in an ohel only as the majority of the frame, the majority of the number, or a quarter-kav. But now that there is some flesh, it conveys tumah even though there is not a kezayis, since it is counted along the hand and counts as a limb. For so we say in Maseches Niddah, in Perek Yotzei Dofen (Niddah 43b): Limbs have no minimum size – even less than a kezayis of a neveilah, and less than a kezayis of a corpse.

and it counts toward the number of 125.

ועולה למנין קכ"ה - if it has no flesh, it counts toward the number of 125, which is the majority of the number of a corpse’s limbs, for a corpse’s limbs are 248, and the majority of the number of a corpse conveys tumah in an ohel. “And when it is counted” – for if it does not stand in the row of the fingers it does not count as a limb, since it has no nail.

Rabbah bar bar Chanah said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: And when it is counted along the hand.

Rav Chisda said: This matter was said by our great teacher – may the Omnipresent be his help:^[13]

רבינו הגדול - Rav.

An extra finger that has a bone but no nail conveys tumah by touch and by carrying, but does not convey tumah in an ohel.

ואינה מטמאה באהל - and where it is not counted, as he explains; for there are two weaknesses: it has no nail, and it is not counted. But if it has a nail it conveys tumah even though it is not counted; and so we learned in Perek Ba Siman (Niddah 49a).

Rabbah bar bar Chanah said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: And where it is not counted along the hand.

Rabbi Yochanan said: They made their words like words of prophecy.^[14]

כדברי נביאות - for [prophets] need not give a reason for their prophecy, since they are listened to without a reason; so too these [Sages] gave no reason for their words.

Whichever way you take it: if it is a limb, it should convey tumah in an ohel too; and if it is not a limb, it should not convey tumah by touch and carrying either!

Rav Huna bar Manoach said in the name of Rav Acha the son of Rav Ika: They touched it [with tumah] because of [the law of] a bone the size of a barley grain.^[15]

Rav Papa says: It is a decree – [a finger] that is not counted, on account of one that is counted.

If so, one that is not counted should convey tumah in an ohel too!

The Rabbis made a distinction, so that terumah and kodashim would not be burned on its account.^[16]

We learned there: The majority of the frame and the majority of the number [of bones] of a corpse, even though there is not a quarter [kav] in it, are tamei.^[17]

ואע"פ שאין בהם רובע הקב טמאים - in an ohel; and we learn it in [Maseches] Ohalos.

The Rabbis taught: What is the majority of his frame? Two shins and one thigh, since that is the majority of his height in a grown man.

הואיל ורוב גובהו בגדול - for this is the majority of the height in a grown man, who is not a dwarf in his limbs: two shins and one thigh are the majority of the height of the body without the head. For with regard to the frame of a corpse the head is not counted, in the beraisa of Ohalos which teaches: What is his frame? The shins and the thighs, the body and the spine. Another version: we read “since it is the majority of his frame in size” (בגודל), and so is the wording of the Tosefta; בגודל means in height.

What is the majority of his number? 125.

Ravina said to Rava: Did the Tanna come to teach us arithmetic?

מניינא אתא לאשמועינן - [said] in astonishment: since [the limbs are] 248, it is obvious that the majority is 125.

He teaches us as it was taught: One who is lacking, who has only 200, and one with extra, who has 281 – all of them go by the number 125; go by the majority of people.^[18]

חסר שאין בו אלא מאתים - one who was created lacking two fingers on each hand and on each foot, that is, eight fingers; and in each finger there are six bones, as is explained in Maseches Ohalos; so 48 are lacking from the fingers, and only 200 remain. “And one with extra, who has 281” – for instance a woman who was created with four extra fingers, on each hand and foot; four extra fingers are 24 more bones; and in a woman there are two hinges, two doors and a key, as we say below; so there are 29 more limbs. Add them to 248 and you find 277; and the four that remain – I do not know how they come about, for certainly there are no more than six bones in each finger in all, no root and no branch; and so it is explained in Ohalos.

כולן עולין למנין קכ"ה - all these extras count as limbs and go by the number 125. And we learn from this that even though 125 is not the majority of his [own], for he had 281, nevertheless 125 counts as the majority; and for the one lacking too, even though his own majority would be ^[101], nevertheless only 125 counts as the majority.

Rav Yehudah said in the name of Shmuel: It once happened that the students of Rabbi Yishmael boiled [the body of] a harlot who had been sentenced by the king to burning; they examined it and found in her 252 [limbs].^[19]

He said to them: Perhaps you examined a woman, for the Torah added to her two hinges and two doors.

צירין - kardons [in Old French].

It was taught: Rabbi Elazar says: Just as a house has hinges, so a woman has hinges, as it says (Shmuel I 4:19) “She crouched and gave birth, for her pains (tzireha) came upon her.”^[20]

Rabbi Yehoshua says: Just as a house has doors, so a woman has doors, as it says (Iyov 3:10) “For it did not shut the doors of my [mother’s] womb.”

Rabbi Akiva says: Just as a house has a key, so a woman has a key, as it says (Bereishis 30:22) “And He opened her womb.”

According to Rabbi Akiva, [the finding] of Rabbi Yishmael’s students is difficult!

לר"ע - with the key, they come to 253; and this is difficult for the students of Rabbi Yishmael, who found only 252.

Perhaps, since it is small, it dissolved [in the boiling].

איידי דזוטרא - the key dissolved because of the boiling.

Rav said: And all of them do not convey tumah in an ohel, as it says (Bamidbar 19:14) “This is the law: when a man (adam) dies in a tent (ohel)” – something that is the same for every person.^[21]

וכולן - all these extras that are in a woman do not convey tumah in an ohel, [each] limb by itself, that has a little flesh on it.

Abaye said to him: And in a man there are none?

But it is written (Yeshayahu 21:3): “Pains (tzirim) have seized me, like the pains of a woman in childbirth”!

Hinges of flesh.

צירי בשר - this is an answer: it does not count as a limb without a bone.

But it is written (Daniel 10:16): “My lord, through the vision my pains (tzirai) have come upon me”!

Here too, hinges of flesh.

So too it stands to reason; for if you do not say so, 248 – where would you find it? Neither in a man nor in a woman!^[22]

Tosfos

בעל הפיקין שיש לו כסתות הרבה - Rashi explained: his istevara, which is called kevila, is large. And the Aruch^[23] explained: his sole is high, and there is much flesh toward the front of the foot and at the heel, and its middle is like a dome. And the term “cushions” implies as [the Aruch] explains, that it speaks of flesh and not of bone, like that [passage] in Bereishis Rabbah which says of man, whose excretory opening is covered by the buttocks, “he has cushions,” which is not so of an animal.

עשו דבריהם דברי נביאות מה נפשך כו' - since he challenges it, it implies that he did not say “words of prophecy” as praise; but in the first perek of Bava Basra (12a, see there)^[24] it implies that it is said in the sense of importance, for it brings there that [teaching]: “even though prophecy was taken from the prophets...” And at the end of Keitzad Me’abrin (Eruvin 60b, ד"ה אין) I explained [it].

Notes

1. 1. The Mishnah began on the previous amud (Bechoros 44b) with one whose ankles or knees knock together, and continues here with further blemishes of the legs, feet and hands that disqualify a kohen from serving in the Beis Hamikdash.
2. 2. Baal hapikim – one with round lumps of flesh; the Gemara below defines him as one who has many “cushions” on his feet. Ikel – one whose legs are bowed outward, so that when he brings his soles together his knees do not meet.
3. 3. Overlapping – one finger lies on top of the next; fused (kelutos) – grown together with no separation between them. “The joint,” says Rashi, is the middle joint of the finger.
4. 4. “Six and six – twenty-four” is the language of the pasuk (Shmuel II 21:20). The Gemara on the next amud (Bechoros 45b) explains the dispute.
5. 5. Shollet bishtei yadav – one who uses both hands equally well. The Gemara on the next amud explains the reasoning of each side.
6. 6. The pasuk lists among the blemishes of a kohen “a man who has a broken leg or a broken arm” (Vayikra 21:19). The beraisa reads the extra word “or” as including other deformities of the leg.
7. 7. Kesasos (cushions) – Rashi explains it as a part of the foot that is very large, and Tosfos understand him to mean a bone; the Aruch, cited by Tosfos, explains it as thick pads of flesh at the front of the foot and at the heel. The shufnar is the opposite: he has none.
8. 8. The Mishnah lists two blemishes of the foot here: a round lump of flesh bulging from the big toe, and a heel that juts out behind. Rabbi Elazar now defines the second.
9. 9. Like a goose’s – a flat foot, no longer than it is wide (Rashi). Rav Papa now clarifies which shape of foot is meant.
10. 10. The Mishnah ruled that overlapping or fused fingers leave him fit if they are joined only up to the joint, or if he cut them apart. The beraisa now deals with fingers that are joined.
11. 11. An extra finger with a bone counts as a limb, so once it is cut off he is lacking a limb; without a bone it is only a wart (Rashi). Rabbi Yochanan now states when it counts as a limb.
12. 12. A corpse conveys tumah by touch, by carrying, and through an ohel – being under one roof with it. A limb of a corpse with its flesh conveys all three; bones alone convey tumah in an ohel only in a large amount: the majority of the frame, the majority of the number (125 of the body’s 248 limbs), or a quarter-kav.
13. 13. “Our great teacher” is Rav, the teacher of Rav Chisda (Rashi).
14. 14. That is, they ruled without giving a reason, as a prophet need not give a reason for his words. Tosfos note that here the comparison is a criticism, while in Bava Basra (12a) the same comparison is praise.
15. 15. A bone of a corpse the size of a barley grain conveys tumah by touch and by carrying, but not in an ohel; so the extra finger was given the law of such a bone.
16. 16. Terumah and kodashim that become tamei are burned. Since the tumah of an uncounted finger is only rabbinic, the Rabbis left out tumah in an ohel, so that terumah and kodashim would not be burned because of it.
17. 17. The Mishnah in Ohalos (2:1) teaches that the majority of a corpse’s frame or of its number of bones conveys tumah in an ohel, even if together they are less than a quarter-kav, the amount needed for other bones.
18. 18. Though some people are born with fewer limbs and some with more, the measure of “the majority of the number” is always 125, for it follows the majority of people.
19. 19. Rabbi Yishmael’s students boiled the body of a woman executed by the government, to separate and count her bones, and found 252 – four more than 248.
20. 20. Each Tanna names parts of a woman’s body after the fittings of a house’s doorway – hinges, doors and a key – and brings a pasuk in which that word is used of childbirth or the womb.
21. 21. Tumah in an ohel is learned from “when a man (adam) dies in a tent”; “adam” is read as “what is the same for every person,” so the extra limbs of a woman do not convey tumah in an ohel on their own.
22. 22. A man has 248 limbs; if men also had “hinges” of bone, the number 248 would fit neither a man nor a woman.
23. 23. The Aruch is the Talmudic dictionary of Rabbi Nasan ben Yechiel of Rome, often cited by Tosfos.
24. 24. Bava Basra 12a: “From the day the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, prophecy was taken from the prophets and given to the wise” – there, comparing the Sages’ words to prophecy is praise.