• Why a midwife becomes tamei from touching the dead fetus

The Mishnah had taught that a midwife who inserts her hand into the womb and touches the dead fetus becomes tamei. The Gemara asks that this is analogous to two rings swallowed by one person, and according to Rabbah, the fetus should not be metamei the midwife!? Shmuel answers: טומאה זו אינה מדברי תורה – this tumah is not Biblical, אלא מדברי סופרים – rather, it is from the words of the סופרים. He means that one should not think this Mishnah follows Rebbe Akiva, who holds a fetus inside a womb is metamei (Rashi says he disputes the entire principle of טומאה בלועה), and the midwife is tamei מדאורייתא. Rather, the Mishnah can agree with Rebbe Yishmael, who holds a fetus inside a womb is not metamei. Still, the Rabbis decreed tumah on the midwife, because שמא יוציא ולד ראשו חוץ לפרוזדור – perhaps the dead fetus will put its head out of the “antechamber” (the birth canal) and become capable of being metamei, without the midwife realizing. No tumah was decreed on the mother, because אשה מרגשת בעצמה – a woman giving birth senses herself when the fetus’s head emerges, and will realize that it is metamei. Still, we cannot rely on her to inform the midwife, since she is preoccupied with the labor.

• Machlokes if the mother’s shechitah can remove tumah from the protruding אבר

The next Mishnah states that if the fetus put out a limb and one cut it off, and then shechted the mother, the rest of the עובר’s meat is tahor. Although the limb is tamei (either as אבר מן החי, or, if the fetus is dead, as a נבילה), it could not be metamei the fetus while it was in the mother’s womb, since the mother was alive and not susceptible to tumah. If he shechted the mother and then cut off the protruding limb, Rebbe Meir says the remaining meat is מגע נבלה – tamei on account of touching neveilah. Since the mother was shechted, the fetus is classified as food, and susceptible to tumah (even if it is alive). Therefore, it contracts tumah from the protruding limb. However, the Chochomim say that just as with a טריפה animal, שחיטתה מטהרתה – its shechitah purifies it from becoming a נבילה when it dies, so too, the shechitah of the mother should prevent the אבר from becoming tamei. Rebbe Meir replies that shechitah of a טריפה only prevents tumah from דבר שגופה – something which is its own body, but not from the עובר’s protruding limb.

• טומאת בית הסתרים – how a limb or garment is metamei as it is torn away

The Gemara asks how the fetus became tamei from the limb: טומאת בית הסתרים היא – it is tumah in a concealed area (i.e., the point of contact with the fetus), and טומאת בית הסתרים is not metamei!? The Gemara suggests that the Mishnah follows Rebbe Meir, who said that if a garment measuring three tefachim by three tefachim was tamei as מדרס, and was divided in two, the pieces lose their טומאת מדרס, but are tamei from contact with מדרס, from touching each other when the garment was torn. Rebbe Yose said they are not tamei, because the contact between the pieces was טומאת בית הסתרים.

The Gemara answers that Rebbe Yose agrees with our Mishnah, because if segments of three טפחים square are torn from a large garment, Rebbe Yose agrees the torn pieces are tamei through contact with מדרס, because בשעת פרישתן מאביהן – during the separation from their “parent” garment, they inevitably contract tumah from the garment, because the edges touch after they are no longer concealed. The same applies to a limb torn from a fetus. Ravina answers that a garment does not stand to be severed, but עובר לחתיכה קאי – the protruding limb of a fetus stands to be severed, וכל העומד לחתוך כחתוך דמי – and anything which stands to be severed is considered as if it was already severed, so it is not considered “concealed.”