Daf Yomi - Kesuvos 60 - Highlights

Recognizing its Mother

The braisa had stated: If the child recognizer her (the divorcee) and will only nurse from her, the husband is required to pay her wages and she is forced to nurse.

The Gemora asks: From what age do we make this assumption?

Rava answers in the name of Rabbi Yirmiyah bar Abba who said in the name of Rav: From three months. Shmuel said: From thirty days. Rabbi Yitzchak said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: From fifty days. Rav Simi bar Abaye said: The halacha follows that which Rabbi Yitzchak said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan.

The Gemora asks on Shmuel: Do children, in fact, recognize their mother at such a young age (thirty days)?

Rami bar Yechezkel said: Do not listen to those rules which my brother Yehudah stated in the name of Shmuel, for the following is what Shmuel said: It is whenever the child recognizes his mother.

The Gemora records an incident: A divorcee once came before Shmuel declaring her refusal to nurse her son. Shmuel said to Rav Dimi bar Yosef, “Go and test her.” He went and placed the mother among a row of women and, taking hold of her child, carried him in front of them. When he came up to her, the child gazed at her face, but she turned her eyes away from him. Rav Dimi said to her, “Lift up your eyes, come and take your son.”

The Gemora asks: How does a blind child recognize its mother?

Rav Ashi said: By her smell and by taste. (60a)

Human Milk and Blood

The Gemora cites a braisa: A child may be nursed until he is twenty-four months. From that age and onwards, he is to be regarded as one who is nursing an abominable thing (the Rabbis forbade it); these are the words of Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Yehoshua said: He may nurse even for four or five years. If, however, he ceased nursing after twenty-four months and started again, he is to be regarded as one who is nursing an abominable thing.

The braisa had stated: From that age and onwards, he is to be regarded as one who is nursing an abominable thing.

The Gemora asks a contradiction from a braisa which states that milk and blood from a human being is Biblically and Rabbinically permitted; why does our braisa say that a child should not nurse after twenty-four months?

The Gemora answers: Human milk is permitted for consumption when it has been separated from the woman’s breast, whereas the braisa which prohibited nursing after twenty-four months is referring to nursing directly from the woman’s breast.

The Gemora notes: The reverse is true regarding human blood. If the blood is separated from the human body, it is forbidden (because people will say that it is blood from an animal); if however, the blood is between his teeth, he is permitted to suck without any concerns (for no one sees him eating it). (60a)
Nursing from a Goat on Shabbos

The Gemora cites a braisa: Rabbi Marinus says: One who is groaning (due to a pain in his heart resulting in shortness of breath) is permitted to nurse milk directly from a goat on Shabbos (which is known to heal this condition).

The Gemora explains its reasoning: Nursing is an act of unusual extracting (which is only Rabbinically prohibited), and where pain is involved, no preventive measure has been enacted by the Rabbis. (Extracting is a sub-category of threshing, where one extracts the grain from the covering in which it grew; milking an animal with one’s hand would be Biblically prohibited since he is extracting the milk from the animal’s udder; however, nursing directly from the animal is not the ordinary manner and therefore, it is only Rabbinically forbidden.)

Rabbi Yosef stated: The halachah is in agreement with R. Marinus. (60a)

Fixing a Gutter

The Gemora cites a braisa: Nachum Ish Galya said: If straw collected in a gutter (and thus prevents the proper flow of the water), it is permissible to crush it with one’s foot in private on Shabbos, and he does not need to be concerned about the matter. What is the reason? Since this repair is carried out in an unusual manner and when a financial loss is involved, the Rabbis did not enact any preventive measure.

Rabbi Yosef stated: The halachah is in agreement with the ruling of Nachum Ish Galya. (60a)

The braisa had stated: If, however, he ceased nursing after twenty-four months and started again, he is to be regarded as one who is nursing an abominable thing.

Ceased to Nurse

The Gemora asks: When will it be considered that he stopped nursing?

Rav Yehudah bar Chaviva answered in the name of Shmuel: If the child stopped nursing for three days. An alternative version is that this was a braisa taught in front of Shmuel. (60a)

Marrying a Nursing Mother

The Gemora cites a braisa: A nursing mother whose husband died within twenty-four months of the birth of their child shall neither be betrothed nor married again until the completion of the twenty-four months (were she to marry sooner and happen to become pregnant, she would be compelled to wean her child prematurely); these are the words of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Yehudah however, permits her to remarry after eighteen months (a sufficient enough time for a child to be nursed).

Rabbi Nosson bar Yosef said: Those (the words of Rabbi Meir) surely, are the very words of Beis Shamai and these (the words of Rabbi Yehudah) are the very words of Beis Hillel; for Beis Shamai ruled: Twenty-four months, while Beis Hillel ruled: Eighteen months!

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel replied: I will explain: According to the opinion that a child should nurse for twenty-four months, a nursing mother is permitted to remarry after twenty-one months, and according to the opinion that a child should nurse for eighteen months, she may remarry after fifteen months. This is because a nursing mother’s milk deteriorates only after three months of pregnancy.

Ula said: The halacha follows the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah. Mar Ukva said: Rabbi Chanina permitted me to remarry a nursing mother after fifteen months.

The Gemora records an incident: Abaye's sharecropper once came to Abaye and asked him, “Is it permissible to betroth a nursing woman after fifteen months?” Abaye answered him: “firstly, whenever there is disagreement between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehudah, the halacha follows the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah, and furthermore, in a dispute between Beis Shamai and Beis Hillel, the halacha follows the opinion of Beis Hillel. And Ula said: The halacha follows the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah. Mar Ukva had stated: Rabbi Chanina permitted me to remarry a nursing mother after fifteen months. Certainly, there is no need for you to wait longer than that since you only intend betrothal (and there is no actual concern that she will become pregnant and be forced to wean her child).”

When Abaye came before Rav Yosef, Rav Yosef told him: Both Rav and Shmuel maintain that a nursing woman is required to wait twenty-four months, not including the day on which the child was born, and not including the day of erusin. Thereupon, Abaye ran three parsaos after him, and some say one parsah along sand mounds, but failed to overtake him.

Abaye said, “The statement made by the Rabbis that even a simple question about the permissibility of eating an egg with kutach (a mixture containing milk), a man shall not decide in the vicinity of his teacher was not due to the fact that this might appear disrespectful; but rather, it is because a student would have no success in dealing with the matter correctly. For I have, in fact, learned the tradition of Rav and Shmuel, and yet, I did not merit applying it.”

The Gemora cites a related braisa: If a nursing mother gave her child to a wet nurse or she weaned him, or if the child died, she is permitted to remarry immediately.

Rav Papa and Rav Huna son of Rabbi Yehoshua intended to issue a practical decision in accordance with this braisa, but an elderly woman said to them, “'I have been in such a position and Rav Nachman forbade me to remarry (until the conclusion of the twenty-four months).”

The Gemora asks: Surely, this could not have been so, for has not Rav Nachman in fact permitted such remarriage in the house of the Reish Galusa (after the widows had given their children over to wet nurses)?

The Gemora answers: The f house of the Reish Galusa was different from ordinary people because no nurse would break her agreement with them. (In the case of ordinary people, however, the nurse might well change her mind at any moment and the child would consequently have to fall back upon the nursing of his own mother. Should she then happen to become pregnant, the child would be in danger of starvation.)

Rav Papi said to them: Could you not have inferred it (that the woman should be forbidden to remarry) from the following braisa: A woman who regularly goes to her father’s house (and was there for an extended period of time prior to her husband’s death), or she was angry with him (prior to her husband’s death and didn’t have relations with him), or her husband was in jail, or her husband was old or sick, or if she was sick, or if she miscarried after her husband’s death, or if she was a barren woman, or if she was old, or a minor, or an aylonis, or she was infertile, she is nevertheless required to wait three months before remarrying. These are the words of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Yosi said: She is permitted to marry immediately. Rav Nachman stated in the name of Samuel: The halachah follows the opinion of Rabbi Meir in respect of his restrictive measures!

They answered him: This braisa did not occur to us.

The Gemora concludes: The law is that if the child died, the widow may remarry immediately, but if she has weaned him, she is forbidden.

Mar son of Rav. Ashi ruled: Even if the child died, the widow is forbidden to remarry immediately because there is a concern that she will kill her child in order to be in a position to remarry. It once actually happened that a mother strangled her child. This incident, however, is no proof. That woman was an imbecile, for it is not likely that sane women would strangle their children. (60a – 60b)

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