We are now learning Mishnah 4 in the second chapter of Tractate Kerisos. This Mishnah consists of several parts and different topics, and in the Babylonian Talmud, it is divided into several Mishnayos. The first part completes what we began in the previous Mishnah, which said: "Chamishah mevi'in korban echad al aveiros harbeh" - five situations in which a person who several times performed an act requiring a sacrifice, all the instances combine together and he brings one sacrifice for all of them. The previous Mishnah referred to these situations as "aveiros" (transgressions), whereas here we will deal with the fifth case, which is not an aveirah at all: "Ishah sheyaldah vlados harbeh" - a woman who gave birth or miscarried several times, with all the events occurring within a time window of eighty days.
The Law of the Days of Completion:
When a woman gives birth, after her days of completion - forty days for the birth of a male and eighty days for the birth of a female - she brings a set of sacrifices on the forty-first or eighty-first day. The novelty of the Mishnah is that if, within the eighty days of completion following the birth or miscarriage of a female, another child is born to her, even though this child by itself would obligate a sacrifice, since it comes within the days of completion, she does not bring a separate sacrifice for it. She waits until the end of the entire process - eighty days from the second miscarriage - and then brings one set of sacrifices for both events together.
Since we are dealing with a woman who gives birth to or miscarries females, every time she attains the status of a new mother, an additional eighty days open up for her, and this can continue as a chain: one event enters into another. For example, if she miscarries every sixty days - on the sixtieth day, on the one hundred and twentieth day, on the one hundred and eightieth day, and so on - each miscarriage occurs within eighty days of the previous one, and therefore she continuously extends the period of completion. When the chain finally ends, she will bring one set of sacrifices on the eighty-first day for the entire period.
In the words of the Mishnah:
"Hipilah besoch shmonim nekeivah" - if within the eighty days since she gave birth to her live daughter, or miscarried a female, she miscarries another female, a new window of eighty days now opens.
"Chazrah vehipilah besoch shmonim nekeivah" - and similarly, if she miscarries again and again, as long as the miscarriages occur within eighty days of the preceding one and involve cases of doubtful females, the period continues to be extended, and ultimately she brings one set of sacrifices. This is the example of a situation where one brings a single sacrifice for several events, each of which by itself would have obligated a sacrifice.
The same applies to a woman who gives birth to or miscarries twins. The simplest case is a woman who gives birth to twins and brings one set of sacrifices for them, for this very same reason: the second child, whether born a minute later or a day later, comes within the forty or eighty days of the first birth. In this scenario, the first birth could have been a male, since it has forty days; however, in the previous scenarios, which deal with repeated miscarriages, they must have been females. This is because forty days of pregnancy are required for a miscarriage to obligate an additional set of sacrifices, while the birth of a male only has forty days of completion - the days of pure blood.
The Opinion of Rabbi Yehudah:
This concludes the opinion of the Tanna Kamma, and Rabbi Yehudah disagrees. In his view, when a woman gives birth to a female, she has a time window of eighty days: the first fourteen days are days of impure blood, and from the fifteenth day until the eightieth are days of purity. Within this window, if she bleeds, the bleeding has no significance - it is not considered niddah and has no effect on her cycle or on the counting of her days. In the same way, says Rabbi Yehudah, if she miscarries within these eighty days, the miscarriage has no practical significance and is not considered a birth at all, but rather merely a part of her days of completion.
The practical implication: suppose a woman gives birth, and every sixty days she miscarries. The first birth is the first child. The miscarriage after sixty days is the second child, and she does not bring a sacrifice for it. However, the next miscarriage, the third child, arrives one hundred and twenty days after the first birth, and again, is not within the days of completion - since the days of completion ended eighty days after the first child, and the second child did not open a new period. Therefore, a new time window of eighty days opens here. It turns out that for the first and second, she brings one set of sacrifices, and for the third, a new set. And so on: a fourth miscarriage that comes sixty days after the third is considered part of the days of completion of the third, while a fifth miscarriage will obligate an additional set of sacrifices.
This is what Rabbi Yehudah said: "Mevi'ah al harishon ve'einah mevi'ah al hasheni" - she brings for the first and does not bring for the second, and brings for the third and does not bring for the fourth. The halachah does not follow Rabbi Yehudah, but rather the Tanna Kamma; therefore, a woman who miscarries every sixty days, when the matter finally concludes, will become pure and bring one set of sacrifices for the entire sequence of events. With this, the first topic introduced in Mishnah 3 is completed.
A Korban Oleh Veyored:
The second thing presented in Mishnah 3 is: "V'chamishah mevi'in korban oleh v'yored" - And five bring a variable korban. The literal meaning of "oleh v'yored" is ascending and descending, and the intention is that the amount of money required to be spent on the korban changes according to the financial ability of the one bringing it. In these five cases, we evaluate if the person can afford the expense, and if he cannot afford it, he is allowed a cheaper option.
The first three of the five originate in Vayikra chapter 5, and they are the classic variable chatas offering, which has three levels:
Wealthy: If he can afford it, he brings a regular chatas - a female sheep or a female goat.
Poor: If he cannot afford it, he brings a pair of birds - two young pigeons or two turtledoves, one as an olah and one as a chatas. One does not mix them and bring one of each species.
Extremely poor: If he cannot even afford the two birds, he brings a sinner's minchah - exactly a tenth of an ephah of fine wheat flour, without oil and without frankincense.
And these are the five cases in which a variable korban is brought:
"Al shemias hakol" - For hearing the voice. This is the oath of testimony. Reuven has a case in a Torah court, and he asks Shimon and Levi to testify on his behalf. They swear that they cannot testify and do not know the facts, even though this is not true, and later they admit the truth and wish to repent. Since they could have helped Reuven but did not, they are obligated in this variable korban. The expression "hearing the voice" refers to the wording of the verse: "And if a soul sins and hears the voice of an oath" - the voice of Reuven adjuring them to testify for him.
"V'al bitui sefasayim" - And for an utterance of the lips. This is an oath of utterance: a person who swears that he will do something or will not do it, or that something happened or did not happen - four possibilities. If he swore "I did not steal a cookie" but he did steal, this is the case; similarly, if he swore "I will not eat a cookie today" and eventually forgot and ate it, whether accidentally or otherwise, his oath is a false oath. In each of these scenarios, he is obligated in the variable korban. The term "utterance of the lips" is derived from the wording of the verse: "Or if a soul swears, uttering with his lips to do evil or to do good."
"V'al tumas mikdash v'kodashav" - And for defiling the Temple and its holy things. A person whose body is tameh and enters the Temple grounds to a place forbidden to him, or who eats holy foods forbidden to him, whether it is a kohen eating a minchah or a regular Jew eating the Pesach offering. If he did this intentionally, he is liable to kares; if he did it unintentionally, he is obligated in a variable chatas.
Although it is customary to group the defilement of the Temple and its holy things together, sometimes they are not grouped, because in the Torah's count they are two separate cases. As we saw in the first Mishnah of the tractate, in the count of thirty-six types of kares, they were counted as two separate instances of kares. For this reason, the Rambam rules that these are not five scenarios but six, since he counts the defilement of the Temple and its holy things as the third and fourth cases.
The woman after childbirth and the metzora:
The last two cases of the five are slightly different. While both the woman after childbirth and the metzora are given the option to substitute one or two sheep for birds, it is not a true variable chatas: whereas the variable chatas has three levels - wealthy, poor, and extremely poor - here there are only two levels. There is no state of extreme poverty that allows bringing less than birds.
The woman after childbirth: A woman who gives birth, as well as a woman who miscarries, brings a pair of offerings. If she can afford it, an olah in the form of a male sheep, and a chatas in the form of a bird, a turtledove or a young pigeon. This is an exceptional case where a bird chatas is brought without a bird olah. If she cannot afford the sheep, she brings a pair of birds as usual, one as an olah and one as a chatas, two young pigeons or two turtledoves. There is no stage of fine flour here.
The metzora: At the end of his purification process, the metzora brings three offerings. If he can afford it: an asham - and asham offerings are always male, therefore a male sheep; an olah - which is also always male, an additional male sheep; and a chatas - which for an individual is always female, therefore a female sheep. If he cannot afford it, he brings only the asham as a male sheep, since the asham of a metzora is the primary offering, and in place of the two sheep for the olah and chatas he brings a pair of birds, two young pigeons or two turtledoves.
Shifchah charufah:
With this, we have reached the end of the second section, and from here the Mishnah begins a new topic (in the Babylonian Talmud a new mishnah begins here): the law of a shifchah charufah, whose exact definition we will explain in the next mishnah. In short, this is a woman who is half free and half maidservant, meaning she was a Canaanite maidservant and was half freed, and she is betrothed to a Hebrew slave - so it turns out that only half of her is married, as it were, and she is like a half-married woman. Because of this, the laws that apply to cohabiting with her are different from the other forbidden relationships prohibited by the Torah.
"Mah bein hashifchah l'vein kol ha'arayos?" - What is the difference between the maidservant and all other forbidden relationships? We will note a few of the differences here, and we will see more of them in the next mishnah:
"Shelo shavsah lahen lo be'onesh velo bekorban" - In other forbidden relations, the man and the woman are equal: if both acted unintentionally, each brings a chatas; if they acted intentionally, each is liable to kareis or the fixed punishment. With the designated maidservant the law is different: the only punishment for the woman is lashes, and when she is liable to lashes he is obligated to bring the asham offering. He brings an asham and she receives lashes, an exceptional arrangement.
"Kol ha'arayos bechatas ushifchah be'asham" - With forbidden relations in general, one who acts unintentionally brings a chatas; with the designated maidservant there is no chatas at all, but rather the asham of the designated maidservant.
"Kol ha'arayos benekeivah ushifchah bezachar" - With other forbidden relations the offering is a female chatas, whereas the asham of the designated maidservant comes from a male animal. It is worth noting that this is not a complete anomaly, for an individual's chatas is always female and an asham is always male, so this simply comes as part of the package.
"Kol ha'arayos echad ha'ish ve'echad ha'ishah shavin bemakos uvekorban" - Whereas here she is liable to lashes alone and he to the asham offering alone. And it must be emphasized: he is obligated to bring the offering whether he acted unintentionally or intentionally. Her liability to lashes teaches that she acted intentionally; if she acted unintentionally, she does not receive lashes and he too is not obligated in an asham.
The beginning of relations and the completion of relations: With other forbidden relations, relatives, a married woman and the like, even the beginning of the act crosses the line and creates liability to punishment. With the designated maidservant the completion of relations is required, and less than that creates no liability.
Multiple acts: In an ongoing relationship with a married woman, each and every time the act is done unintentionally with a lapse of awareness in between, he becomes liable to an additional chatas. With the designated maidservant, whether unintentionally or intentionally, and even if there were several occasions with a lapse of awareness in between, he brings a single asham of the designated maidservant for all the acts.
The final difference, which the Mishnah describes as a stringency introduced with the designated maidservant, is that one who has relations with her is obligated to bring an offering even if he did so intentionally. With all other forbidden relations there is no obligation of an offering for an intentional act, whereas here there is an obligation even for an intentional act.
At first glance one might wonder: is this really a stringency? It sounds like a leniency, for the offering gives a person a way to atone for himself, and generally we do not grant an intentional sinner the privilege of bringing an offering precisely because his situation is more severe. But it truly is a stringency: one who transgressed the other forbidden relations and wishes to repent, his repentance helps him, and that is what he must do. Whereas with the designated maidservant, even if he repents with all the repentance in the world, he does not attain complete atonement until he brings his offering. This can be a real problem, for if he cannot afford to bring an offering, he will be unable to achieve complete atonement, and in this sense the Torah was more stringent with him.
In summary: In this Mishnah we completed the law of "Ishah sheyaldah veladot harbeh" - a chain of births and miscarriages that come one within the days of the fulfillment period of the other, for which a single set of offerings is brought, along with Rabbi Yehudah's opinion that a birth within the days of the fulfillment period does not count and begins a new tally. After that we examined the five cases of the offering that adjusts to one's means: hearing a call to testify, an utterance of the lips, and the tumah of the Temple and its sacred things, all three of which have a sliding chatas with three levels, as opposed to the woman who gave birth and the metzora, which have only two levels. Finally we enumerated the differences between the designated maidservant and other forbidden relations: in punishment and in offering, in chatas versus asham, in female versus male, in the completion of relations, in a single offering for many acts, and in the obligation of the offering even for an intentional act.