The Case of the Surrogate Mother in Halacha (Copy)

(28) And God blessed them; and God said unto them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.’

(1) Now Sarai Abram’s wife bore him no children; and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. (2) And Sarai said unto Abram: ‘Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing; go in, I pray thee, unto my handmaid; it may be that I shall be built up through her.’ And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

(1) And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and she said unto Jacob: ‘Give me children, or else I die.’ (2) And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel; and he said: ‘Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?’ (3) And she said: ‘Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; that she may bear upon my knees, and I also may be built up through her.’

(13) So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in unto her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son. (14) And the women said unto Naomi: ‘Blessed be the LORD, who hath not left thee this day without a near kinsman, and let his name be famous in Israel. (15) And he shall be unto thee a restorer of life, and a nourisher of thine old age; for thy daughter-in-law, who loveth thee, who is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him.’ (16) And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. (17) And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying: ‘There is a son born to Naomi’; and they called his name Obed; he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

[There are] Three keys in the hand of the Holy One, Blessed is He, that are not given over in the hand of a messenger, and these are them: The key of rains, the key of childbirth, the key of revival of the dead.

Rabbi Hezkiya, Rabbi Cohen in the name of Rav: In the future, a person will give a judgement and an accounting over everything that his eye saw and what he did not eat.

If a Nazir is called a sinner just for abstaining from wine, how much more so someone who abstains from anything else!

Therefore a singular man was created-- to teach you that anyone who causes one Israelite life to be lost, the text accounts to him as if he caused a whole world to be lost. And anyone who sustains one Israelite life, the text accounts to him as if he sustained an entire world.

If he grafted a young shoot onto an old stem, the young shoot is annulled by the old stem and the law of Orlah does not apply to it.

(7) And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden was of beautiful form and fair to look on; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.

“For she had neither father nor mother…And when her father and mother died” (Esther 2:7). Why did it need to say this again? Aha said: When her mother became pregnant with her, her father died; when she was born, her mother died.

Rashi - When she was born her mother died and therefore she could not be called a mother

(2) When the sons of a female proselyte have adopted the Jewish faith at the same time with their mother [and one of them dies without issue], his brother is not bound to yibum, nor to receive Chalitzah [from the widow of his deceased brother].

"And afterwards she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah" (Gen. xxx. 21). What is the meaning of "and afterwards?" Rab said: After Leah passed judgment on herself, saying, "Twelve tribes are destined to issue from Jacob — six have issued from me and four from the handmaids, that makes ten ; if this child [which is expected from me] be a male, my sister Rachel will not even be like one of the handmaids." Immediately [the child in the womb] was changed to a daughter; as it is said, "And she called her name Dinah!

(10) And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman.

(10) בן הכנענית THE SON OF THE CANAANITISH WOMAN — means the son of Dinah, who had been associated with a Canaanite (Shechem). When they (her brothers) had killed Shechem, Dinah refused to leave the city until Simeon swore to her that he would marry her and regard the child she was about to bear as his own (cf. Genesis Rabbah 80).

(2) Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: If a woman be delivered, and bear a man-child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of the impurity of her sickness shall she be unclean.

There are three partners in [the creation of] a human: The Holy Blessing One, their father, and their mother. Their father seeds the white from which [comes] bones and tendons and fingernails and brain that is one's head and the white of the eyes. Their mother seeds redness from which [comes] skin and flesh and hair, and black that is in the eye. And the Holy Blessing One puts in one spirit and n’shamah and beauty of face and power of sight and power of hearing and power of speech and ability to walk and knowledge and wisdom. And when one's time arrives to take leave of the world, the Holy Blessing One takes a part and the other part rests beside one's father and mother.

Antoninus said to Rebbe: At what point is the soul given to a human? Is it from the moment of decree [that such a child will exist], or from the moment of formation? He responded: "from the moment of formation." He replied, "is it possible that a piece of meat can last for three days without salt, and yet not become rotten? Rather it must be from the moment of decree." Rebbe said: "This thing I learned from Antoninus, and there is a supporting verse: [Job 10] Your Providence has guarded my soul."

(22) And if men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follow, he shall be surely fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

If a pregnant gentile woman converted, there is no need for her son to perform ritual immersion.Why is there no need for him to perform immersion?Should you reply that it is due to a ruling of R' Yitzchak; for R. Yitzchak stated: According to Biblical law [a covering of] the greater part, if one objects to it it is considered an interposition, but if one does not object to it it is not considered an interposition, behold [it may be retorted] Rav Kahana stated: This applies only in respectof its greater part, but when the whole of it is effected a legal interposition is constituted!The case of the embryo is different since its positionis that of its natural growth.

A male convert and a female convert must wait 3 months (after conversion before resuming marital relations). In this case, why do we need to distinguish (since she is married to the same man before and after the conversion)?

Here too it is necessary to distinguish between offspring conceived in sanctity and offspring not conceived in sanctity.

Until the fortieth day it is only a mere fluid.

[What is the law regarding the sanctity of a firstborn animal] if the two wombs were attached and the fetus went out of one and entered the other? Its own womb is exempted [from future status as a firstborn, as this was its firstborn] and the one not its own is not exempted, or perhaps the one not its own is also exempted? This remains unresolved...

Let thy father and thy mother be glad, and let her that bore thee rejoice.

"A virgin who has become pregnant, what is her [permissibility] to [marry] a Kohen Gadol [who may only marry a virgin?" Do we consider the opinion of Shmuel, for Shmuel said, "I can have intercourse multiple times without [causing] bleeding." Or maybe [the case] of Shmuel is uncommon [and thus she would be forbidden]? He said to them: "[The case] of Shmuel is uncommon, but we consider that maybe in the baths, she was impregnated [by leftover semen]."