1)

(a)We just learned in the Beraisa that if the baby refuses to feed from anybody else, the father is obligated to pay his ex-wife to feed him. Rav Shimi bar Abaye rules like Rebbi Yitzchak citing Rebbi Yochanan, who gives the age of recognition as fifty days. Rav gives the age as three months, Shmuel as - thirty days.

(b)Rami bar Yechezkel disagrees with the previous version of Shmuel's opinion (which was apparently cited by his brother Rav Yehudah) - because it is not feasible for a baby to recognize his mother to that extent so soon.

(c)In his opinion - Shmuel does not give a fixed time for recognition; each baby needs to be examined independently.

2)

(a)In keeping with Rami bar Yechezkel's version of Shmuel, to ascertain whether the baby recognized his mother or not (to know whether the mother was obligated to feed her baby or not) - Shmuel instructed Rav Dimi bar Yosef to line up a number of women for an identification parade, to see which woman the baby would recognize.

(b)The baby did indeed recognize his mother, who tried to avert her eyes, but too late. And Rav Dimi bar Yosef ordered her to take her son and feed him.

(c)A blind baby would recognize his mother - by smell and touch.

3)

(a)According to Rebbi Eliezer, a baby who feeds from his mother after the age of twenty-four months is compared to one who feeds from a Sheketz (something that the Torah terms abominable). According to Rebbi Yehoshua - he may continue to feed even up to four or five years.

(b)Rebbi Yehoshua will agree with Rebbi Eliezer - in the case of a baby who already stopped feeding after the age of twenty-four months.

4)

(a)The Tana learns from the Pasuk in Shemini "es ha'Gamal ki Ma'aleh Geirah Hu" - that the milk of a woman is permitted ('Hu' Tamei, v'Ein Chalav Mehalchei Shetayim Tamei').

(b)We would otherwise learn from the fact that the milk of a non-Kasher animal, which is forbidden even though its touch (during its lifetime) does not render Tamei, that the milk of a woman, who does render Tamei (when she is a Nidah) someone who touches her, should certainly be forbidden.

(c)We reconcile this with what we just learned (that to feed from a woman after twenty-four months or four or five years is like feeding from a Sheketz) - by establishing that case when one feeds directly from the woman, whereas the Derashah "Hu" refers to milk that has already been extracted from her.

5)

(a)We would have thought that although the Tana precludes the milk of a woman from the prohibition of the milk of non-Kasher animals, he will not preclude that of blood - because whereas the milk of Kasher animals is Kasher, the blood of all animals is forbidden.

(b)We (also) learn from "Hu" (see Tosfos DH 'Yachol'), or from "es Zeh Lo Sochlu" at the beginning of the Pasuk - that the blood of a human-being is permitted.

(c)'v'Chilufa b'Dam' means - that, contrary to the Din of human milk, human blood is only permitted as long as it has not yet separated, but that once it has, it is prohibited. Consequently, blood on a slice of bread is forbidden, whereas it is permitted to swallow blood that is in one's mouth.

(d)Rav Yosef rules like Rebbi Yehoshua. We reconcile Rebbi Yehoshua's Shi'ur of four or five years with another Beraisa, where Rebbi Yehoshua gives the Shi'ur as even if he is already carrying his package on his shoulders - by establishing both as being one and the same Shi'ur.

6)

(a)Rav Yosef also rules like Rebbi Merinus, who permit a Gone'ach - someone with a heart complaint that causes him to sigh constantly) to feed from an animal on Shabbos, and like Nachum from France.

(b)Feeding from an animal normally forbidden on Shabbos - because it is separating a food from its source ('Mefarek', which is a Toldah of Dash [threshing]) ...

(c)... and Rebbi Merinus permitted it in the case of a Gone'ach because, being an unusual way of feeding, it is only Asur mid'Rabanan, and Chazal did not issue the decree in the case of pain (see Tosfos DH 'Gone'ach').

(d)Nachum from France permitted - squashing the hard weeds growing on a pipe that were blocking its mouth in a way that caused the water to flood the roof and seep into the house, in order to allow the water to drain the water from the roof, provided he did so with his feet ('kil'Achar Yad' see Tosfos DH 'Mema'achan').

(e)He permitted it, in spite of the fact that this would normally be considered a Chilul Shabbos - because there too, one does not usually fix a pipe with one's feet, and Chazal did not decree in the case of an Isur d'Rabanan, when there is a loss involved.

7)

(a)After twenty-four months - the baby must have stopped feeding for at least three days before Rebbi Yehoshua agrees that it is like feeding from a Sheketz.

(b)Some quote Rav Yehudah bar Chaviva Amar Shmuel as the source for this statement - others cite a Beraisa (cited by Rav Yehudah bar Chaviva ) as the source.

(c)According to Rebbi Meir in a Beraisa, a woman is forbidden to get engaged or married within twenty-four months after giving birth. According to Rebbi Yehudah - it is eighteen months.

8)

(a)Rebbi Yonasan ben Yosef connects the Machlokes between Rebbi Meir and Rebbi Yehudah to the same Machlokes between Beis Shamai (Rebbi Meir) and Beis Hillel (Rebbi Yehudah). When Raban Shimon ben Gamliel said 'Ani Achri'a' - he meant that according to those who give the period of the prohibition as twenty-four months, he would give it as twenty-one, and according to those who give it as eighteen, he would say, fifteen.

(b)He reduced the Shi'urim - on the basis that it takes three months for a woman's milk to dry up.

(c)Ula rules like Rebbi Yehudah. Mar Ukva testified - that Rebbi Chanina permitted him to marry a woman who had a baby of fifteen months.

9)

(a)When Abaye's Aris (share-cropper) asked him for permission to get engaged after fifteen months - he replied, on the grounds that the Halachah is always like Rebbi Yehudah (when he argues with Rebbi Meir) and like Beis Hillel (when they argue with Beis Shamai), and on the basis of Ula's ruling and Mar Ukva's testimony that even marriage is permitted after fifteen months, certainly betrothal.

(b)Abaye then went to Rav Yosef. Rav Yosef quoted him Rav and Shmuel - who rule that the woman is obligated to wait twenty-four months (like Rebbi Meir) excluding the day on which the baby was born and the day of the betrothal.

(c)Abaye then ran after his Aris three Parsah (some say, one) in the sand, to rescind his erroneous ruling, but he did not succeed in catching him.

(d)Abaye says that the prohibition of ruling in the place of one's Rebbe is not because it looks like Apikorsus - but because one lacks the necessary Siyata di'Shemaya (Divine assistance) to issue Halachic rulings.

(e)He said this because he himself had known about Rav and Shmuel's ruling, yet when it came to the crunch, he forgot it, because he was ruling in the vicinity of his Rebbe, Rav Yosef.

10)

(a)The Beraisa rules that if a woman gave her son to a wet-nurse, or if she weaned him or he died - she is permitted to marry immediately.

(b)When Rav Papa and Rav Huna Brei d'Rav Yehoshua wanted to follow the ruling of this Beraisa with regard to a woman who gave her son to a wet-nurse - that old woman told them that Rav Nachman had forbidden her personally to marry immediately, under those very same circumstances.

(c)Rav Nachman nevertheless permitted a woman from the family of the Resh Galusa to do so - because the reason that he took a strict line regarding others (i.e. because the wet-nurse might retract, leaving the mother no option but to feed the baby herself) does not apply to the Resh Galusa's family, seeing as people were inevitably afraid to retract from any contract made with them.

11)

(a)Regarding a woman who has been separated from her husband, or whose husband is unable to have relations with her, or one who is unable to have children, or with regard to getting married after her husband has died ...

1. ... Rebbi Meir rules - that the prohibition of marrying for three months remains in force.

2. ... Rebbi Yosi says - that she is permitted to get engaged or even married, immediately.

(b)Rav Nachman Amar Shmuel rules like - Rebbi Meir in all his decrees.

(c)When Rav Papi asked Rav Papa and Rav Huna Brei d'Rav Yehoshua why they tried to rule like the above Beraisa (permitting a woman who hired a wet-nurse to marry immediately) in spite of this ruling - they replied that they had simply forgotten about it.

(d)We conclude that if her baby died, the woman is permitted to marry immediately, but not if she weaned him. We ...

1. ... draw this distinction - because we are afraid - that if weaning will permit her to marry, then this will encourage her to wean the baby in order to remarry immediately, but we are not afraid that a woman will kill her baby, even for that.

2. ... do not rule like Mar bar Rav Ashi, who forbids either way (in spite of the story of the woman who actually strangled her baby in order to be able to remarry immediately) - because that woman was senile, and we do not issue rulings based on the actions of senile people.

12)

(a)Having taught us that a wet-nurse is forbidden to feed her own baby during that period, the Tana nevertheless finds it necessary to add that she is also not permitted to feed someone else's - because we might otherwise ascribe the prohibition of feeding her own baby simultaneously to the fact that, out of her love for him, she will feed him even when she knows that she does not have excess milk, whereas someone else's, she would only feed if she knew that she had enough for both.

(b)Rav Sheshes explains that when the Tana says 'Paskah Kim'ah, Ocheles Harbeh' - he means that even if they only fixed insufficient food to provide enough milk for the baby, she must provide the rest out of her own pocket, to ensure that the baby has enough to eat.

(c)She must take care with regard to her diet. Rav Kahana presents the list of forbidden foods as hops, small fish and earth, Abaye adds pumpkin and quince, Rav Papa, pumpkin and small dates. Rav Ashi adds Kimcha (a preserve comprising three kinds of food) and Harsena. Kimcha comprises - bread, milk and salt.

(d)Harsena is - small fish fried in flour, brine and their own fat.

(e)Some of the current foods are forbidden - because they stop her milk supply, others, because they cause the milk to go off.

13)

(a)Intimacy in the wrong location can have drastic repercussions. Chazal have said that intimacy in a mill results in children who suffer from epilepsy; on the ground, in children with long necks. If one is intimate after ...

1. ... treading on the blood of a donkey - one can expect children whose hair falls out or who suffer from boils.

2. ... regularly eating mustard - children who are constantly hungry.

(b)Regularly eating cress, results in children who have watery eyes; small fish, children with darting eyes. Someone who regularly eats ...

1. ... clay and who drinks beer - can expect ugly children.

2. ... meat and drinks wine can expect - healthy children.

(c)Eating eggs leads to children with big eyes; fish, to children with a lot of Chen (charm), and wild celery, to beautiful children. If one eats ...

1. ... coriander seeds, one can expect to have fat children ...

2. ... an Esrog - children who emit a pleasant aroma.

(d)The daughter of Shavur Malka (king of Persia) was conceived after her mother had eaten an esrog - as a result, they would bring her before her father at the head of the spices.