Shabbat 136 - July 20, 28 Tamuz

Today's daf is sponsored by Danielle Leeshaw in honor of the wonderful community of daf yomi participants at Hillel International that inspire students and staff to learn and love Talmud study.

How does one perform a brit milah on Shabbat if according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, it is not clear until the thirtieth day if the baby will survive? How does one treat a case where one is not sure if a baby is viable (in the terminology of the rabbis - a baby born after eight months is not viable but after seven or nine would be viable - what if it is unclear what month the baby was born?) - do we view the baby as alive for the time is was living, even if it doesn't make it to day 30 or do we view it as if it was never alive? The relevance is in a case where the husband died while the woman was pregnant and they had no other children. If the child is considered to have lived for the time it was alive, she is exempt from levirate marriage. If not, she is obligated. The gemara brings two stories of rabbis whose children died within the first thirty days and they mourned for them. Others did not understand why and they needed to explain themselves. One can see from these stories, raising awareness about the difficulties of those dealing with infant loss/stillborn births. Rabbi Yehuda allows a brit milah on an androgenous/hermaphrodite on Shabbat. Rav Shizbi says that in other places Rabbi Yehuda does not treat an androgenous as a clear male - see for example laws of valuation.