Study Chullin folio 72A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
The Talmud objects: But what about the Mishnah’s case of a dead fetus in its mother’s womb, and a midwife who touched it there, which is similar to the case of two swallowed rings, and yet the Mishnah rules that the fetus renders the midwife impure.
Rabba said: A fetus is different from a ring in this regard, since it will ultimately leave the womb. Rava said in puzzlement: Is that to say that a fetus will ultimately leave the womb, but a ring that someone swallowed will not ultimately leave his body? A ring will certainly be expelled eventuall
As Rav Yosef says that Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: This impurity of the midwife in the Mishnah’s case is not in effect by Torah law; rather, it was decreed by rabbinic law. The Talmud asks: What was Shmuel’s intention in emphasizing: It is not in effect by Torah law; rather, it was decreed
The Talmud asks: What is the reason for this decree? Rav Hoshaya said: It is a rabbinic decree lest the fetus extend its head out of the concealed opening of its mother’s womb. If it did, it would be regarded as having been born, and it would then be ritually impure by Torah law. The rabbis were co
The Talmud objects: If so, the rabbis should also decree that the woman herself, who is carrying the fetus, is impure, since she also might not notice that the fetus’s head emerged. The Talmud explains: A woman accurately senses with regard to her own body whether the head of the fetus had emerged.