008b – אין נערכין - פרק שני – ערכין, דף ח ע”ב

Twelve [days] – her opening is eight.^[1]

שנים עשר פתחה שמונה - For after she has sat eight clean days she has left the doubt either way. Even if you say the first two [days] were the end of zivah, eighteen days are complete for her by the later count, and the days of niddah and zivah^[2] have passed, and it is the beginning of niddah. But the eighth day itself is in doubt: one may say that two of the twelve were the end of zivah, and of the ten, seven were for niddah and three for zivah, so that she is a zavah; she sat seven clean days, and this eighth day on which she saw is still within the eleven [days of zivah] and is not the beginning of niddah, for between the end of niddah and the beginning of [the next] niddah there are no fewer than eleven days, [which end only] when the twelve days of the later count are complete. Or perhaps it is the beginning of niddah: the first day of the twelve was the beginning of niddah, at the end of seven the days of niddah were complete and on the eighth the days of zivah began, and by the twelfth day five of the days of zivah had gone; it turns out that the days of zivah end after six [more days], and after six the days of niddah and zivah are complete, and she has sat [seven] clean days for zivah, and this eighth is the beginning of niddah. This is the doubt, and it is a great disruption, for she does not return to her niddah opening until after seventeen days: she becomes once again a confused woman who said “I saw one day impure” and does not know whether it was in the days of niddah or the days of zivah. If, after seeing on this eighth day, she stops for seven days and then sees, and wishes to keep [only] a day against a day,^[3] we are strict with her and say: perhaps the day on which she saw was the end of zivah, and now it is the beginning of niddah. Or if she sees three [days] and wishes to count [only] four days [more], we are strict with her and say: perhaps that eighth day on which she saw was the beginning of niddah, and now she is in the days of zivah and is a zavah. And so she remains in this doubt forever, until she sits seven clean days.

Thirteen – her opening is seven.

שלשה עשר פתחה שבעה - The first two (days) we treat as possibly the end of zivah; eleven remain, and with seven clean days that makes eighteen.

For the opening of a confused woman is no fewer than seven and no more than seventeen.^[4]

שאין פתח בטועה פחות משבעה - For even if she saw fourteen [days], she does not return to her opening with fewer than seven clean days; for either way she is a zavah, and as long as she has not sat seven clean days she does not leave the status of zivah.

Rav Adda bar Ahavah said to Rabbah: Why do I need all this? Let her count seven [clean days] and become permitted!^[5]

א"ל רב אדא וכו' - Rav Adda erred and thought that all these – seventeen, sixteen and fifteen – were said in order to permit her to her husband.

He said to him: We are speaking of setting her right with regard to niddah and her opening.^[6]

נדה ופתחה - So that she will know from when to count the days of niddah: if she sees three or four days, she counts only three [more as niddah] together with them, and the rest will be days of zivah for her, so that if she sees again she keeps a day [against a day].

The Rabbis taught: All the confused women are zavos; they bring an offering and it is not eaten, except for “her opening is seven” and “her opening is eight,” who bring an offering and it is eaten.^[7]

כל הטועות זבות - Below he reverses it and explains: “Rather, all the zavos among the confused women” – that is, all those among the cases above whom we can treat as possible zavos, i.e. all of them except “one day impure” and “two days impure,” for with fewer than three days impure she cannot be treated as a possible zavah.

מביאות קרבן - At the end of seven clean days, two turtledoves, one for a chatas and one for an olah, as the law of a zavah, for perhaps they were zavos.

ואינו נאכל - The chatas is not eaten, for perhaps they were not days of zivah, and this chatas is chullin, and its melikah makes it neveilah,^[8] for chullin killed by melikah is only neveilah. The olah is brought on condition: if she is a zavah it is for her obligation, and if not it is a voluntary offering; but there is no voluntary chatas.

חוץ מפתחה ז' ופתחה ח' שמביאות קרבן ונאכל - For either way, since she saw twelve [days] in a row, they are zavos. Even if you say the first two were the end of zivah, still [the rest] is the beginning of niddah and zivah by the later count, for ten days remain: seven for niddah and three for zivah. All the more so if the first ones were the beginning of niddah, or three of them the end of zivah – either way they are zavos.^[9] But all the earlier ones are only possible zavos, for one may say three of those days were zivah and she is a zavah, and one may say she is not a zavah, for the first two days were from the end of zivah and she has no more zivah by the later count.

Are all the confused women zavos?^[10]

אטו כל הטועות זבות - This is a mere concern; they are not certain zavos.

And further: is [one who saw] one day or two days fit to bring an offering?

Rather [read]: All the zavos among the confused women bring an offering and it is not eaten, except for “her opening is seven” and “her opening is eight,” who bring an offering and it is eaten.^[11]

אלא כל זבות הטועות - Which implies: every one who may be doubted as a zavah because of her confusion, i.e. from “I saw three days impure” onward.

Mishnah

With nega’im there is no less than one week, and no more than three weeks.^[12]

מתני' אין טוהר בנגעים בפחות משבוע אחד - For hesger [quarantine].

Gemara

Less than a week – the nega’im of a person; and no more than three weeks – the nega’im of houses.^[13]

גמ' נגעי אדם - There is [a ruling] for them in one week, as written in the parashah.

נגעי בתים - Three weeks, as taught in Toras Kohanim:^[14] “And the Kohen shall return” and “the Kohen shall come” – this is returning and this is coming; just as at the coming he removes [the stones], scrapes and plasters, and gives it a week, so at the returning, etc. And from where [do we know] that if the nega remained as it was in both, in the first and second weeks – from where that he removes, scrapes and plasters and gives it a week – that is, a third week – the verse says: “And the Kohen shall come,” “and if the Kohen shall surely come”; just as we find, etc.

Rav Pappa said: (Tehillim 36:7) “Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains” – these are the nega’im of a person; “Your judgments are a great deep” – these are the nega’im of houses.^[15]

אלו נגעי אדם - For they are clarified within one week, whether to purify or to confirm [the tzara’as], and this is a great kindness.

The plain meaning of the verse – what is it written about?^[16]

Rav Yehudah said: Were it not for “Your righteousness [that] is like the mighty mountains,” who could stand before “Your judgments [that] are a great deep”?

אלמלא צדקתך כו' - As he explains below.

Rabbah said: “Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains” – because “Your judgments are a great deep.”^[17]

In what do they differ?

במאי קמיפלגי [וכו'] - Rabbi Elazar said: He presses down. The Holy One, blessed be He, presses down and hides sins beneath the Throne of Glory, so that the merits will outweigh [them].

In [the dispute] of Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yose b’Rabbi Chanina, as it was stated: Rabbi Elazar said: He presses down [the sins]; Rabbi Yose b’Rabbi Chanina said: He lifts [them].^[18]

נושא - He lifts and raises the pan of sins upward, so that the merits will outweigh [them].

Rabbah holds like Rabbi Elazar, and Rav Yehudah like Rabbi Yose b’Rabbi Chanina.^[19]

רבה כר' אלעזר - And this is what he says: “Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains” – that You make us righteous by pressing down and hiding “Your judgments,” i.e. the sins, in “the great deep.”

ורב יהודה כר' יוסי [בר"ח] - And this is what he says: “Were it not for Your righteousness [that] is like the mighty mountains” – that You do us a kindness by raising the sins – “who could stand before Your judgments,” which would weigh down to the great deep?

Mishnah

One does not make fewer than four full months in a year, and it did not seem [right] to make more than eight.^[20]

מתני' אין פוחתין מארבעה חדשים מעוברין - Of thirty days, in a year; and Ulla explains the reason in the Gemara.

The Two Loaves are eaten no earlier than the second [day] and no later than the third.^[21]

פחות משנים - On the second day after their baking.

ולא יותר על שלש - On the third day after their baking they are eaten, and no later. [If] Yom Tov of Atzeres falls on Sunday, they are baked on Erev Shabbos, for their baking overrides neither Shabbos nor Yom Tov, and they are eaten on Yom Tov after their waving, i.e. on the third day. And when Atzeres falls on one of the other days of the week, they are baked on Erev Yom Tov and eaten on Yom Tov, which is the second day after their baking.

The showbread is eaten no earlier than the ninth and no later than the eleventh.^[22]

לחם הפנים כו' - How? They are baked on Erev Shabbos and eaten on the following Shabbos, which is the ninth day after their baking. [If] the two days of Rosh Hashanah fell on Thursday and Friday, the showbread is baked on Wednesday, arranged on Shabbos, and eaten on the next Shabbos, which is the eleventh day after its baking.

A child is not circumcised earlier than the eighth [day] or later than the twelfth.^[23]

קטן נימול לשנים עשר - How? [If] he was born at bein hashmashos of Erev Shabbos, he is not circumcised on Shabbos, for perhaps it is the ninth day, since bein hashmashos is possibly day and possibly night; and if it was day, Shabbos turns out to be the ninth day, and a circumcision not at its time overrides neither Shabbos nor Yom Tov. And if the two days of Rosh Hashanah fell after that Shabbos, he is not circumcised until the third day, which is the twelfth from his birth.

Gemara

What is “it did not seem [right] to make more than eight”?^[24]

Rav Huna said: It did not seem right to the Sages to make more than eight [months] full.^[25]

גמ' לא נראה לחכמים לעבר יותר על שמונה כו' - And the first clause of our Mishnah, which teaches “one does not make fewer than four full months,” [means] that we do not make more than eight deficient months, but eight we do make. He does not explain it now; Ulla explains it below, and Rav Huna agrees with Ulla.

What is different about nine, that [they may] not?^[26]

If so –^[27]

דאם כן - If we made nine full months, the new moon would come three days before Rosh Hashanah. For between this molad of Tishrei and the next molad of Tishrei there are four days, eight hours and 876 parts;^[28] so if this molad of Tishrei is at the beginning of Friday night, the next molad of Tishrei is eight hours into Wednesday. When we arrange the months one full and one deficient, Rosh Hashanah is fixed on the day of the molad, for the order of the moon’s cycles is one full and one deficient: a lunar month is twenty-nine and a half days, two-thirds of an hour and seventy-three parts, so two months make fifty-nine days, i.e. one month of twenty-nine and one month of thirty days. When we make seven full months, Rosh Hashanah is pushed one day after the molad; with eight full months it is pushed two days; and with nine full months it is pushed three days.

Tosfos

ולא יתר על ג' שבועות - Houses’ nega’im: for sometimes we do not know whether they have become fully pure until three weeks, e.g. if [the nega] stood unchanged in the first and second [weeks], and he removed, scraped and plastered and gave it another week – for if it returns, [the house] requires demolition, and if it does not return, it is pure. But with a person, we always know his status within two weeks, for if it stood unchanged in the second week he is pure at once; and in fewer than (six) days his purity cannot be known, for there is no hesger of fewer than seven.^[29]

משפטיך תהום רבה - House nega’im, which can come to a delay of three weeks.

מאי שנא תשעה דלא - For if so, the moon would come three days early. For if the molad of Tishrei is at the beginning of Friday night, the next molad of Tishrei is on Wednesday at eight hours; when we make one full and one deficient, Rosh Hashanah is fixed on Wednesday; and when we make nine full months, the fixing is delayed three days and Rosh Hashanah is pushed three days from the day of the molad, so that the fixing will be on Shabbos, while the molad was on Wednesday. “Now too it comes two days early”: for the fixing is delayed two days after the molad, Wednesday and Thursday, and the fixing will be on Friday; so it comes two days early, for from Wednesday the new moon will be seen. And it is difficult for Rashi: let [the Gemara] answer that one can find a case where it does not come two days early, e.g. where the molad of the past fixing was on Wednesday, for the moon is hidden six hours and will not be seen until the next day, Thursday, so that it comes only one day early; for thus it is established according to the answer, that the molad is not seen on its day because the moon is hidden six hours. So explained the Kuntres,^[30] who explained “here too, e.g. where the year was a leap year,” and the intercalation of the year is a month: add 5 [days], 21 [hours], 589 [parts],^[31] and you find the molad of Tishrei on Thursday at 21 hours; and since the moon is hidden six hours, you find that the moon will not be seen until Friday night (and the intercalation of the year is a month). And the intercalation delays this year’s fixing beyond last year’s by only five days; were it not for two [extra] full months the fixing would be on Thursday; because of the (five) full months beyond one full and one deficient, the fixing is delayed Thursday and Friday and is fixed on the seventh day, as last year; and now the sighting of the moon precedes the fixing by only one day. And the Kuntres explained: even though sometimes there is [a two-day lead] – e.g. if last year’s molad was on Friday at eighteen [hours] and it was fixed on Shabbos, and when you add 5 [days], 21 [hours], 589 [parts] you find the molad on Thursday at 14 [hours], and the moon is seen that same day, and now they fixed it on Shabbos because you made eight full months, so that it now comes two days early – that is no refutation, for we establish [the Mishnah] where it comes only one day early. And it is further difficult for him: since the Gemara now says “it comes two days early,” it implies that this never happens; yet nowadays we push the following molad by [the rule of] גטר"ד,^[32] and it is fixed on Thursday, so there are two days. And one cannot reject this [by saying] that now we are not concerned, since in several matters the practice is not the same as it was in the days of the Amoraim, for in their days they did not push one day because of the aravah,^[33] as we do. That is not so, for Rashi explained and answered that the reason they did not now push [Rosh Hashanah off] the seventh day, to fulfil the mitzvah of shofar, is that if so, we would sometimes find it coming two days early, where the molad occurred at the eighteenth [hour] and was pushed to the next day as well because of two Shabbosos [in a row]; and if we pushed it also from the seventh day to the first day, it would turn out to come two days early – and now too we would make the same inference. And Rashi answered that the reason we do not count גטר"ד as coming two days early is that for the people of Bavel the moon is hidden eighteen [hours] from the new (and six from the old), as stated at the end of the first perek of Rosh Hashanah (Rosh Hashanah 20b);^[34] so it does not come two days early, since it is not seen by everyone that day until the next. And if you ask: if so, what is his difficulty, “now too it comes two days early”? When last year’s molad was at the beginning of Friday night, now it is on Wednesday at eight hours, and there is no two-day lead! One may answer: he understood that last year’s molad was on Friday at eighteen [hours] or lower, like the first clause, “one does not make fewer than four full months” and eight deficient, for so it is explained according to Rav Huna, and so it is explained according to Ulla shortly; and Ulla’s explanation, that we make eight deficient months, is found only in such a case, where last year’s molad was on the day before the fixing. Therefore he understood according to Rav Huna that the latter clause too speaks of such a case, where last year’s molad preceded the day of fixing, on Friday at eighteen; therefore now the molad is on Wednesday at two hours, for even when it is hidden eighteen hours it will be seen on Wednesday. And now it is well why he did not answer that last year’s molad was on Shabbos at ten hours: for he understood [the case] like the latter clause, where the molad is on the day before the fixing. And if you ask: according to what we explained, that we do not count the moon as coming early unless it preceded by eighteen hours, what does he mean at the start of the sugya, “now it comes two days early,” when we make two full months beyond the regular order? Surely it is possible that with two full months the molad was at nine hours, so that all that day it would not be seen by the people of Bavel! One may answer: he challenges “it comes two days early” at least where last year’s molad occurred on the day before the fixing [on Friday, one hour, so that nowadays it occurs on the day of fixing, for even if it is hidden eighteen [hours] it will be seen afterward. Rashi].^[35]

Notes

1. 1. This continues the beraisa from the previous amud [Arachin 8a]. A to’ah, a “confused woman,” does not know when her bleeding began, so she cannot tell which days are niddah and which are zivah. The beraisa lists, for each number of days she saw blood, how many clean days she must wait to reach her “opening” (pitchah) – a point that is certainly the start of a new niddah period. One who saw twelve days reaches it after eight clean days.
2. 2. From the start of a niddah period come seven days of niddah, followed by eleven days of zivah. Blood seen on three consecutive days within the eleven makes a woman a zavah gedolah, who must count seven clean days and bring an offering; only then does a new niddah cycle begin (Vayikra 15:25–28, Metzora).
3. 3. A woman who sees blood on one or two days within the eleven days of zivah is a zavah ketanah; she need only keep one clean day against each day she saw. Rashi’s point is that the confused woman cannot rely on this leniency, since that day might be the start of niddah.
4. 4. This is the Mishnah’s rule (8a): no case needs fewer than seven clean days, because she may be a zavah, who must count seven; and none needs more than seventeen, the figure for one who saw one, two or three days.
5. 5. Rav Adda bar Ahavah, a Babylonian Amora, assumed that all these counts were meant to permit her to her husband (Rashi). For that, seven clean days are always enough, since even a certain zavah is permitted after seven clean days and immersion.
6. 6. The answer: the counts are not about permitting her now, but about restoring a known cycle. Once she reaches a certain start of niddah she can again tell whether a later sighting falls in niddah days or zivah days, and treat it correctly.
7. 7. A zavah gedolah brings, after her seven clean days, two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one as a chatas and one as an olah [Vayikra 15:29–30]. A woman who is only possibly a zavah also brings them, but the chatas may not be eaten, as Rashi explains.
8. 8. A bird chatas is killed by melikah – the Kohen nips the back of its neck with his fingernail. That is valid only for a real offering; if the bird is really chullin, melikah is no slaughter and the bird is neveilah, so it may not be eaten. An olah can be brought on condition, as an obligation or as a voluntary gift, but there is no voluntary chatas.
9. 9. However the twelve or thirteen days are divided, at least three of them fall within days of zivah, so she is certainly a zavah and her chatas is a real one that may be eaten. In the shorter cases she is only possibly a zavah.
10. 10. The question: the beraisa calls every confused woman a zavah, yet most are only possibly zavos. Moreover, one who saw only one or two days can never be a zavah gedolah, who needs three days, so she brings no offering at all.
11. 11. The Gemara reverses the beraisa’s words: not “all confused women are zavos,” but “the zavos among the confused women” – those who might be zavos, namely those who saw three days or more.
12. 12. Nega’im are the tzara’as afflictions of a person, a garment or a house (Vayikra 13–14). When a doubtful mark appears, the Kohen quarantines it (hesger) for a week and then checks whether it has spread. Rashi reads the Mishnah as speaking of these quarantine periods; his text reads “there is no purity in nega’im in less than one week.”
13. 13. The Gemara assigns each half of the Mishnah: “less than a week” refers to a person’s nega, whose first quarantine is a full week [Vayikra 13:4–5]; “no more than three weeks” refers to a house, whose process can stretch into a third week.
14. 14. Toras Kohanim (the Sifra) is the Tannaic midrash on Vayikra. For a house, the Kohen removes the afflicted stones, scrapes the plaster and replasters (chalitzah, ketzitzah, tichah) [Vayikra 14:39–42]; the derashah from “returning” and “coming” adds a third week.
15. 15. Rav Pappa reads the verse [Tehillim 36:7] as a hint to our Mishnah: a person’s nega is settled quickly, a kindness (“Your righteousness”); a house’s nega may drag on for three weeks, a deep, long judgment (“Your judgments are a great deep”).
16. 16. Apart from Rav Pappa’s derashah, what is the verse itself saying? Two Amoraim explain.
17. 17. For Rav Yehudah, God’s kindness is what saves us from His deep judgment. For Rabbah, His kindness is so great precisely because the judgments are hidden in the deep. The Gemara now ties each reading to a known dispute.
18. 18. Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yose b’Rabbi Chanina are early Amoraim of Eretz Yisrael. Their words echo Michah 7:18–19, “Who lifts iniquity… He will press down our iniquities.” When a person’s merits and sins are evenly balanced, God either presses the sins down out of sight or lifts their pan of the scale, so that the merits outweigh them (Rashi).
19. 19. For Rabbah, “Your judgments” are the sins, which God presses down into the great deep – that is His righteousness. For Rav Yehudah, His righteousness is lifting the sins, without which His judgment would sink us to the deep.
20. 20. A lunar month is about twenty-nine and a half days, so the Beis Din made each month either “full” (me’ubar, thirty days) or “deficient” (twenty-nine). The Mishnah rules that a year has at least four full months and, as the Gemara explains, no more than eight.
21. 21. The Two Loaves are the chametz loaves waved on Shavuos [Vayikra 23:17]. Baking them overrides neither Shabbos nor Yom Tov, so they are baked beforehand and eaten on the second or third day after baking, as Rashi explains.
22. 22. The showbread is the twelve loaves on the Shulchan [Vayikra 24:5–9]. They are baked on Friday, set out on Shabbos, and eaten by the Kohanim the following Shabbos – the ninth day from baking, or the eleventh when Yom Tov forces earlier baking.
23. 23. Circumcision on the eighth day [Vayikra 12:3] overrides Shabbos and Yom Tov; a delayed circumcision does not. A baby born at dusk on Friday may be one day older than we count, so he cannot be circumcised on Shabbos; if two days of Rosh Hashanah follow, he waits until the twelfth day.
24. 24. The Mishnah’s clause, “and it did not seem more than eight,” is unclear: did not seem right to whom, and eight of what? The Gemara asks what it means.
25. 25. Rav Huna, a leading Babylonian Amora, reads the clause as: the Sages did not see fit to make more than eight full months in a year. Rashi adds that the first clause, “at least four full months,” then means no more than eight deficient months, as Ulla explains on the next amud [Arachin 9a].
26. 26. The Gemara asks what would be wrong with nine full months.
27. 27. The sentence continues on the next amud [Arachin 9a]: “if so, the moon would appear three days early” – the new moon would be seen three days before Rosh Hashanah, and people would complain about the Sages (Rashi there).
28. 28. The molad is the calculated moment of the new moon. An hour is divided into 1,080 parts (chalakim); a lunar month is 29 days, 12 hours and 793 parts, so a twelve-month year is 354 days, 8 hours and 876 parts – whole weeks plus 4 days, 8 hours and 876 parts. With months alternating full and deficient, Rosh Hashanah stays on the day of the molad; each extra full month pushes it a day later.
29. 29. If the nega returns after the stones were removed and the house replastered, the house must be demolished (netitzah) [Vayikra 14:43–45]. A person whose mark is unchanged after the second week is declared pure at once, so his case never needs a third week.
30. 30. “The Kuntres” (the booklet) is the Tosafists’ name for Rashi’s commentary.
31. 31. A leap year of thirteen months is 383 days, 21 hours and 589 parts – whole weeks plus 5 days, 21 hours and 589 parts. So after a leap year the molad of Tishrei falls that much later in the week.
32. 32. גטר"ד is one of the postponement rules of the fixed calendar: in an ordinary year, if the molad of Tishrei falls on Tuesday at 9 hours 204 parts or later, Rosh Hashanah is postponed, and since it may not fall on Wednesday it is set on Thursday.
33. 33. Rosh Hashanah is never set on Sunday, so that Hoshana Rabbah will not fall on Shabbos and cancel the mitzvah of the aravah.
34. 34. Rosh Hashanah [Rosh Hashanah 20b]: the moon is hidden six hours of the old moon and eighteen of the new. Per Rashi, in Bavel the new moon cannot be seen until about eighteen hours after the molad, so an early molad does not always mean an early sighting.
35. 35. Tosfos here weighs Rashi’s calendar calculations against the Gemara’s claim of a two-day lead. The Vilna edition prints this Tosfos at the top of the next amud [Arachin 9a]; it is placed here because it comments on the last line of this amud, “what is different about nine.”