1)

(a)Rav Yehudah Amar Shmuel declares Kasher a hole in the Milah that became stopped-up - provided the Zera does not tear it open again as it passes through.

(b)Rava establishes Shmuel by a hole in the Atarah. Shmuel cannot be speaking about a hole in ...

1. ... the lower part of the Milah - because there, even if the flesh is completely severed, he is still Kasher.

2. ... the top part of the Milah - because there, the fusion will not tear open when the Zera passes through; that only happens close to the point where it leaves the body.

(c)Using hot barley-bread, Rav Yosef taught Rava brei d'Rabah to check whether the fusion will tear open as a result of the Zera passing through - by placing hot barley-bread by the back passage, causing an emission, following which it is easy to ascertain whether the fusion tore open or not.

2)

(a)We ask why it is necessary to use such extreme measures - whether one cannot find a simpler way of causing an emission, seeing as most people are not like Yakov Avinu, who never had an emission before he married Leah (see Tosfos DH 'she'Lo').

(b)Abaye therefore suggests - bringing the colored clothes of a woman.

(c)Rava refutes this because not everyone is like Barzilai ha'Gil'adi (whose desire for women caused him to age prematurely) - meaning that most people are not so adulterous, that merely seeing a woman's colored clothes will cause them to have an emission.

(d)So we test the fusion - using the method that was suggested initially (taking hot barley-bread ... ).

3)

(a)A hole renders a person Pasul - because, as a result, the Zera drips instead of flowing (and is therefore not fit to germinate).

(b)When the Tana of the Beraisa, after stating that if the hole became stopped-up, it is Kasher once more, adds 'and this is a Pesul that returns to its original Hechsher' - he means to preclude a membrane that grew over a wound on the lung of an animal, which remains Pasul.

(c)Rav Idi bar Avin told Abaye that the way to stop-up a hole was to bring a grain of barley, fat and a large ant - the grain to scratch the skin around the location of the hole, the fat to rub over the wound, and the large ant which one allows to bite the wound before cutting off its head, to serve as a clamp to hold the ends of the hole tight until it grows together. A grain of barley is preferable to a metal implement - which causes a wound or swelling.

(d)All this would not work with a grown-up - because the skin tends to peel after it has begun to heal.

4)

(a)Rabah bar Rav Huna says - that someone who urinates from two places is Pasul.

(b)His father Rav Huna said that two women who go through the motions of an immoral act together - are Pasul li'Kehunah (because this makes them Zonos).

(c)Rava said - that the Halachah is neither like the father nor like the son.

(d)Because, even Rebbi Elazar, who maintains that a Panuy who had relations with a Penuyah turns her into a Zonah, only says that by a man and a woman, but not by two women, whose behavior is indecent, but does not render them Zonos.

5)

(a)The Tana of our Mishnah learns from the Pasuk in Ki Setzei "Lo Yavo Petzu'a Daka u'Kerus Shafchah bi'Kehal Hash-m" - that they are permitted to marry a Giyores and a Shifchah Meshuchreres, who are not considered a Kahal.

(b)They asked Rav Sheshes - whether a Petzu'a Daka Kohen retains his Kedushah and is therefore forbidden to marry a Giyores and a Shifchah Meshuchreres, or whether he has lost it and is permitted to marry them.

(c)Rav Sheshes resolves their She'eilah from the Beraisa 'Petzu'a Daka Yisrael Mutar bi'Nesinah' - from which we see that a Yisrael who is a Petzu'a Daka loses his Kedushas Yisrael (otherwise he would not be permitted to marry a Nesinah, who is one of the seven nations).

(d)Rava initially refutes Rav Sheshes' proof, on the grounds that - when the Torah writes "Lo Tischaten Bam", it refers to marrying them when they are still Nochrim, in case they lead one astray after their idols. Once they convert however, it is only the Rabanan who forbade marrying them, and that decree did not extend to those men who are unable to have children.

6)

(a)When it was pointed out to Rava that the Tana even permits a Mamzer (who is able to have children) to marry a Nesinah, he changed emended his previous explanation - to explain that the decree of Chazal did not extend to any Pesulim.

(b)Rava changed his entire interpretation of the Pasuk "Lo Tischaten Bam" - because, he pointed out, before a Nochri converts, marriage is not applicable to him, only after he has converted.

(c)Consequently, he concludes - Rav Sheshes was right in inferring from the fact that a Petzu'a Daka is permitted to marry a Nesinah, that he must have lost his Kedushah, and that a Petzu'a Daka Kohen is therefore permitted to marry a Giyores and a Meshuchreres.

7)

(a)The problem with the Pasuk "va'Yischaten Shlomo es bas Paroh" is - that we just said that there is no marriage with a Nochris before she converts.

(b)To answer that he converted her clashes with what we learned above (in the second Perek) that they did not accept converts in the days of David and Shlomo. We answer however, that this was only because they were afraid that the conversion was purely for the sake of Yisrael's great wealth - a reason that would not apply to bas Paroh, who was not short of money.

(c)Even assuming that Shlomo really did convert bas Paroh - we are left with the problem that she was a first generation Egyptian, who was forbidden even if she had converted.

(d)We know that the 'modern' Egyptians (of those days) were those who had originally lived there - because of Rebbi Yehudah, who testified that he had a Chaver called Menimin, a disciple of Rebbi Akiva who was also an Egyptian convert.

8)

(a)Rav Papa proves from a Pasuk in Melachim that in fact, Shlomo did not marry bas Paroh. It says that he did - because he was so fond of her that it was as if he had married her.

(b)Ravina queries Rav Sheshes from our Mishnah 'Petzu'a Daka u'Kerus Shafchah Mutarim b'Giyores u'Meshuchreres, v'Einan Asurin Ela mi'la'Vo b'Kahal'. We cannot infer from the first half of the statement that a Petzu'a Daka Kohen is forbidden to marry a Nesinah (to prove Rav Sheshes wrong) - because the second half of the statement implies that she is permitted.

(c)Whenever the inference from the Reisha clashes with the inference from the Seifa - we ignore the inferences.

9)

(a)Our Mishnah now discusses various Pesulei Kahal. The Chumra that ...

1. ... an Amoni has over a Mitzri is - that the women are permitted.

2. ... a Mitzri have over an Amoni is - that even a third generation Mitzri and onwards is forbidden, too.

(b)Rebbi Shimon is even more lenient than the Tana Kama with regard to a Mitzri. He argues - that if, where the men are prohibited forever, the women are permitted immediately (by the Amonim and the Moavim), then, where they are only prohibited for three generations (the Mitzri'im), the women should certainly be permitted immediately.

(c)The Chachamim in the Mishnah replied to him - that if it is a Halachah l'Moshe mi'Sinai, they would accept it, but if it was his own 'Kal va'Chomer', then they had a problem with it.

10)

(a)To explain the opening ruling in our Mishnah, Rebbi Yochanan cites a Pasuk in Shmuel. When Shaul ha'Melech asked Avner "ben Mi Zeh ha'Na'ar?", he could not have been referring to ...

1. ... David himself - because David was his armor-bearer. How could he not have known him?!

2. ... to David's father Yishai himself - because Yishai was a well-known public figure (for, as Rav or Rebbi Aba said, he used to go out at the head of six hundred thousand men.

(b)What he was in fact, asking him was whether Yishai descended from Peretz (in which case he was destined to become king - which frightened Shaul), or from Zerach, in which case he could be a dignitary without becoming king.

(c)The connotation of the name 'Peretz' is - that he can break a path through somebody else's property (something that a king has the right to do).

(d)What caused Shaul to ask about David in the first place - was the fact that when David wore Shaul's armor (to go and fight Golyas), it fitted him perfectly, despite the fact that Shaul was a giant of a man, head and shoulders taller than anyone else.

11)

(a)Do'eg ha'Edomi, a lifelong enemy of David, poured fuel on to the flames, when he suggested - that, better still, they should inquire whether David was even permitted to enter into the Kahal (to marry a Yisraelis [let alone to become king]), because he descended from Rut ha'Moavi'ah.

(b)Avner replied - that the Torah writes "Amoni u'Moavi", implying 'v'Lo Amonis u'Moavis' (that the women are permitted).

(c)We Darshen 'Amoni v'Lo Amonis, Moavi v'Lo Moavis', but not 'Mamzer v'Lo Mamzeres' - because the very word Mamzer implies 'Mum Zar' (a blemish of foreignness), so what difference could there possibly between a male Mamzer and a female one?!

(d)We do not Darshen 'Mitzri v'Lo Mitzris' - because the real reason that we Darshen "Amoni" 'v'Lo Amonis ... is not so much intrinsically (since the male form generally incorporates the female), but because the Torah adds " ... because they did come into the desert and offer you bread and water; and it is men who are expected to do this, and not women.

12)

(a)Do'eg attempted to refute the explanation that it is not the way of women to provide food to foreign people outside their land - by arguing that it is up to the men to provide for the men, and the women, to provide for the women.

(b)The King changed his description of David from "Na'ar" to an "Elem" - because 'Elem' is from the root 'Nis'almah' (hidden), as if to say 'the Halachah is hidden from you; Go and ask in the Beis ha'Medrash.

(c)According to Rava, just as Do'eg was about to pronounce David, Pasul - Amasa ben Ish (alias Yisra he'Yisraeli) girded his sword and announced that he would pierce anyone who did not listen to him. Because he had received a tradition from the Beis-Din of Shmuel ha'Ramasi that "Amoni u'Mo'avi", 've'Lo Amonis u'Moavis'.

(d)Yisra ha'Yisraeli was his real name; and the reason that the Pasuk in Divrei ha'Yamim calls him Yisra ha'Yishmaeli, is because he girded his sword like a Yishmaeli (who were always ready for a fight).