(a) I'm not sure I understand your question this time, Rafi.

The Gemara finds the Mishnah to problematic according to Rebbi Yochanan, but according to Reish Lakish all is well with the Mishnah. Tosfos asks why that is so. Even according to Reish Lakish (that the Chalitzah of a Me'uberes is not valid), it is not clear why an Arusah must wait three months before marriage, since she cannot possibly be pregnant (and her Chalitzah will certainly be valid).

Tosfos answers that according to Reish Lakish, the Gemara knew that the Isur was only a Gezeirah, but nevertheless it thought that such a Gezeirah could not be enacted according to Rebbi Yochanan. (The Gemara concludes that there indeed is a Gezeirah not to allow anyone to be Choletz, lest we allow a normal woman to be Choletz,. even according to Rebbi Yochanan.)

(b) The Gemara in Sotah 12a holds that Moshe was born after a full, nine month pregnancy. The reason the Egyptians didn't bother his mother the first three months was because they thought she became pregnant when her husband remarried her, while she was actually pregnant for three months prior to that.

Be well, Mordecai

I am aware that Rashi on the Torah learns that Moshe was born after only six months.

However, the Gemara in Sotah does not explain like Rashi. The question had been why

the Gemara did not prove a six month term from Moshe; the answer is that

the Gemara itself did not hold that Moshe was born after six months of pregnancy.

(Even if Rashi had a different Girsa in the Gemara, the Gemara certainly cannot

*prove* from Moshe that a baby can be born after six months, since there clearly

is another way to learn that verse, as our Girsa in SOtah suggests)

Thanks! Mordecai

It seems that Rashi in Shemos is quoting a Midrash (cited from "Midrash ha'Gadol") that argues with the Gemara in Sotah.

Alternatively, we could answer as follows. The Gemara says that the mistake of the Mitzri'im was that they did not realize that she became pregnant three months earlier; she actually gave birth, though, after nine months. However, Rashi in Shemos says that she gave birth after six months of pregnancy, and not after nine months.

The MAHARSHA in Sotah (12a), quoting the CHIZKUNI, suggests that both explanations are true. It is true that Yocheved gave birth after six months and not nine months. However, the Mitzri'im anticipated that she might give birth then, because they knew that it is possible for a woman to give birth "l'Mekuta'in," after only six months. Therefore, they checked six months after she came back to see if she had given birth, assuming that she had only become pregnant upon her return home six months earlier. In truth, though, she have given birth three months earlier, because she had become pregnant before she separated (three months earlier).