Study Shabbat folio 134B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Mishnah: One may wash the baby on Shabbat, both before the circumcision and after the circumcision. And one may sprinkle hot water on him by hand but not with a vessel, in order to depart from the usual manner in which this is done. R' Elazar ben Azarya says: One may wash the baby on the 3rd day f
If there is uncertainty whether or not to circumcise a baby, and likewise in the case of a hermaphrodite [androginos] baby, who possesses both male and female genitals, one does not desecrate Shabbat to perform the circumcision, since it is not certain that the circumcision is required. And R' Yehud
Talmud: The Talmud questions the Mishnah’s statement that one may sprinkle hot water on the baby only by hand: Didn’t you say in the first clause of the Mishnah that one may wash him? If it is permissible to wash the baby, it is certainly permitted to sprinkle water on him with a vessel.
It was Rav Yehuda and Rabba bar Avuh who both said that this Mishnah is taught employing the style known as: How. In this style, the latter clause clarifies the former. It should be understood as follows: One may wash the baby both before circumcision and after circumcision. How may one wash him? O
Rava said: Doesn’t it teach the phrase one may wash, and washing is not sprinkling. Rather, Rava said that this is what the Mishnah is teaching: One may wash the baby, both before circumcision and after circumcision. On the 1st day, one may wash him in his usual manner. However, on the 3rd day fol