Echo Scripture

Mishnah Niddah 3

A woman who aborted a shapeless object: If there was blood with it, she is unclean, If not, she is clean. Rabbi Judah says: in either case she is unclean. If a woman miscarried an object that was like a rind, like a hair, like earth, like red flies, let her put it in water: If it dissolves she is unclean, But if it does not she is clean. If she miscarried an object in the shape of fishes, locusts, or any forbidden things or creeping things: If there was blood with them she is unclean, If not, she is clean. If she miscarried an object in the shape of a beast, a wild animal or a bird, whether clean or unclean: If it was a male she sits in uncleanness as she would for a male; And if it was a female she sits in uncleanness as she would for a female. But if the sex is unknown she sits in uncleanness for both male and female, the words of Rabbi Meir. The sages say: anything that has not the shape of a human being cannot be regarded as a human child. If a woman aborted a sac full of water, full of blood, or full of pieces of flesh, she need not be concerned that it was a birth. But if its limbs were fashioned she must sit for both male and female. If she aborted a sandal or a placenta she sits in uncleanness for both male and female. If a placenta is in a house, the house is unclean, not because a placenta is a fetus but because generally there can be no placenta without a fetus. Rabbi Shimon says: the child might have been mashed before it came out. If a woman aborted a tumtum or an androginos, she must sit for a male and a female. [If she gave birth] to a tumtum and a male, or to an androginos and a male, she must sit for a male and a female. [If she gave birth] to a tumtum and a female or an androginos and a female, she must sit only for a female. If the embryo came out in pieces or in a reversed position it is deemed born as soon as its greater part come out. If it came out in the normal way [it is not deemed born] until the greater part of its head came out. And what is meant by the "greater part of its head"? Once the forehead comes out. If a woman miscarried and it is unknown what it was, she sits for both a male child and a female child. If it is unknown whether it was a child or not, she sits for both a male and a female and as a menstruant. If a woman miscarried on the fortieth day, she need not be concerned that it was a valid childbirth. On the forty-first day, she sits as for both a male and a female and as for a menstruant. Rabbi Ishmael says: [if she miscarried on] the forty-first day she sits as for a male and as for a menstruant, But if on the eighty-first day she sits as for a male and a female and a menstruant, because a male is fully fashioned on the forty-first day and a female on the eighty-first day. But the sages say: the fashioning of the male and the fashioning of the female both take forty-one days.

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