- Why an arel was included in the prohibition to eat terumah and an onein was not
It was taught on Daf 70a that Rebbe Akiva learned that the words, "איש איש" in the passuk that teaches that a metzora or a zav shall not eat terumah, are coming to include an arel in the prohibition, and on amud Beis we learned that Rebbe Yose b’Rebbe Chanina taught that the passuk of "וכל זר" is coming to teach that an onein is permitted to eat terumah. The Gemara on this Daf asks why not say the opposite, that "איש איש" prohibits the onein from eating terumah and "וכל זר" permits an arel to eat it, and answers that it is logical that an arel should be included in the prohibition because it has the following five stringencies: מחוסר מעשה – The arel is lacking an act to make him fit. ומעשה בגופו – an act must be performed on his body. וענוש כרת – not being circumcised is punishable by kares. ישנו לפני הדבור – the mitzvah of milah existed before the giving of the Torah. ומילת זכריו ועבדיו מעכבת – the non-circumcision of one’s male children and slaves prevents one from bringing the pesach. When the Gemara counters that aninus also has stringencies, such as it applies at all times, applies to men and women, ואין בידו לתקן עצמו – and a person does not have the capacity to remedy himself, it answers that an arel has more stringencies. Rava brings an alternative explanation.
- ערל מקבל הזאה
Rebbe Yochanan said in the name of Rebbe Benaah: ערל מקבל הזאה – An arel may be mekabel haza’ah. Rashi explains that if an uncircumcised Jew was a tamei meis and received sprinkling from the mei chatas, when he has his bris he may eat kodshim immediately without requiring another haza’ah. We do not say הזאה ערלות לא שמה הזאה – that the haza’ah of an arel is not considered a haza’ah. שכן מצינו באבותינו שקבלו הזאה כשהן ערלים – for so we find with our forefathers, during the times of Yehoshua, that they received haza’ah when they were uncircumcised, for it is stated in the passuk: "והעם עלו מן הירדן בעשור לחדש הראשון" – and the people ascended from the Yarden on the tenth of the first month. We know they did not have circumcision on the tenth because of their exhaustion from the journey. They must have had it on the eleventh. So, when did they have the haza’ah? It must have been before, when they were areilim – uncircumcised. When Mar Zutra suggests that perhaps they offered the pesach in a state of tumah, the Gemara answers that a Baraisa taught explicitly: מלו וטבלו ועשו פסחיהן בטהרה – they circumcised themselves, and immersed in a mikveh, and performed the pesach in a state of taharah.
- לא ניתנה פריעת מילה לאברהם אבינו
Rabbah bar Yitzchak said in the name of Rav: לא ניתנה פריעת מילה לאברהם אבינו – The mitzvah of uncovering the circumcision was not given to Avraham Avinu. Whereas milah is done by cutting off the foreskin that typically removes the thick upper skin but leaves the thin membrane attached, periah refers to exposing the member by removing the thin membrane encasing it. This is done by splitting the membrane with one’s nails and pulling it back until the corona is exposed. For it was stated in the passuk: "בעת ההיא אמר ה' אל יהושע עשה לך חרבות צרים" – At that time Hashem said to Yehoshua: “Make sharp knives for yourself…and circumcise bnei Yisroel again, a second time.” The Gemara clarifies that the word, "שוב" – again, refers to doing periah to those who were already circumcised.
