RECOGNIZING THE MOTHER
(Beraisa): If the baby recognizes his mother...
Question: At what age do we say that a child recognizes his mother?
Answer #1 (Rav): It is after three months.
Answer #2 (Shmuel) It is after 30 days.
Answer #3 (R. Yochanan): It is after 50 days.
(Rav Simi bar Abaye): The Halachah follows R. Yochanan.
Question: We understand Rav and R. Yochanan. Some babies are faster to recognize their mothers than others;
But Shmuel should agree that a baby cannot recognize his mother after 30 days!
Correction (Rami bar Yechezkel): My brother Rav Yehudah cited Shmuel to say 30 days. This is incorrect. Really, Shmuel said that it depends only on when the baby recognizes her.
A (divorced) woman (who did not want to nurse her baby) came in front of Shmuel. Shmuel told Rav Dimi to see if her son recognizes her. He sat her among other women, and passed her son in front of them. When the baby reached her, he was looking at her. Shmuel told her that she must nurse him.
Question: How can a blind baby recognize his mother?
Answer: He recognizes her smell and (her milk's) taste.
HOW LONG MAY A CHILD NURSE?
(Beraisa - R. Eliezer): A child may nurse for 24 months. After this, it is like nursing from a disgusting thing;
R. Yehoshua says, he may nurse for four or five years. If he stopped nursing after 24 months and resumes, it is like nursing from a disgusting thing.
Contradiction (Beraisa) Suggestion: Perhaps human milk is forbidden!
A Kal v'Chomer supports this! We are lenient about touching animals (a living animal is always Tahor), but we are stringent about their milk (of Tamei species);
We are stringent about touching people (a living Yisrael can become Tamei), all the more so we should be stringent about their milk!
Rejection: (The Tamei animals are listed in Parshas Shemini, and repeated in Parshas Re'eh.) "The camel (the repetition forbids its milk)... it is Tamei", but milk of humans is permitted.
Suggestion: Perhaps human milk is permitted because milk of some animals is permitted. The blood of every animal is forbidden, so also human blood should be forbidden!
Rejection: "It" is forbidden, but the blood of humans is permitted. (Rashi - perhaps the same word permits human milk and blood. Alternatively, "Zeh" permits human blood.)
(Rav Sheshes): It is not even a Mitzvah (mid'Rabanan) to refrain from human milk.
Answer: Milk that separated from the breast (into a Kli) is permitted. Nursing (above the permitted age) is despicable.
The opposite applies to blood (it is forbidden only if it separated):
(Beraisa): If blood is on a loaf, one scrapes it off and eats the loaf;
If blood is between one's teeth, one may swallow it without concern.
(Beraisa - R. Yehoshua): A child may nurse until four or five...
Contradiction (Beraisa - R. Yehoshua): (He may nurse) even if he can carry a bundle on his shoulder.
Answer: This is the same Shi'ur (four or five, depending on how healthy he is).
(Rav Yosef): The Halachah follows R. Yehoshua.
(Beraisa - R. Marinus): A moaning child may suckle (from a goat's udder) on Shabbos.
This is because suckling is Mefarek (a derivative Melachah of Dash, i.e. extracting a food), done in an unskilled way. (Normally, one milks by hand. Suckling is forbidden only mid'Rabanan, so) Chachamim did not forbid it to one who is in pain.
(Rav Yosef): The Halachah follows R. Marinus.
(Beraisa - Nachum Ish Galya): If a gutter pipe became clogged, (on Shabbos and the water is dripping into the house) one may covertly squash the clogging matter with his foot, without concern.
This is because this is an unskillful way of fixing a Kli. (Normally, it is forbidden mid'Rabanan.) Chachamim did not decree when this will cause a loss.
(Rav Yosef): The Halachah follows Nachum Ish Galya.
(Beraisa): If he ceased nursing after 24 months, he may not resume nursing.
Question: How long is considered that he stopped?
Version #1 Answer (Rav Yehudah bar Chaviva, citing Shmuel): It is three days.
Version #2 Answer (Rav Yehudah bar Chaviva in front of Shmuel - Beraisa): It is three days.
A NURSING WOMAN MAY NOT MARRY
(Beraisa - R. Meir): If a woman was widowed during the 24 months of nursing, she may not become Mekudeshes or have Nisu'in until 24 months (lest she become pregnant and wean the baby prematurely);
R. Yehudah says, she must wait until 18 months.
R. Nasan bar Yosef says, they argue as Beis Shamai and Beis Hillel do;
Beis Shamai say, the Shi'ur is 24 months. Beis Hillel say, it is 18 months.
R. Shimon ben Gamliel says, I will explain these opinions:
The opinion that says 24 months (is the Shi'ur for nursing) permits to marry after 21. The opinion that says 18 months permits to marry after 15.
This is because milk is not impeded until three months of pregnancy.
(Ula): The Halachah follows R. Yehudah.
(Mar Ukva): R. Chanina permitted me to marry a nursing woman after the baby was 15 months old.
Abaye's sharecropper asked whether he may Mekadesh a nursing woman when the baby is 15 months old.
(Abaye): (Yes!) Firstly, the rule is the Halachah follows R. Yehudah when he argues with R. Meir.
Secondly, the Halachah follows Beis Hillel against Beis Shamai.
Thirdly, Ula ruled like R. Yehudah.
Fourthly, R. Chanina permitted this to Mar Ukva.
These rulings permit Nisu'in. All the more so, Kidushin is allowed!
Abaye came before Rav Yosef (his Rebbi).
Rav Yosef: Rav and Shmuel both require waiting 24 months, excluding the day of birth and the day of Kidushin.
Abaye ran three Parsa'os (about 12 kilometers; some say, one Parsah in sand), but did not catch his sharecropper to retract his ruling.
Abaye: Chachamim say 'Do not rule in the place of your Rebbi, even to permit eating eggs with a dairy dip.' (Aruch - this refers to eggs found inside a slaughtered chicken.) This is not (only) because it shows arrogance. Rather, he will rule incorrectly!
I had learned this teaching of Rav and Shmuel, and still, I erred!
(Beraisa): If a woman gave her baby to a wet-nurse or weaned him, or he died, she may marry immediately.
A case occurred, and Rav Papa and Rav Huna brei d'Rav Yehoshua were about to rule like this Beraisa. A woman told them that Rav Nachman had forbidden her to marry in such a case.
Question: Rav Nachman permitted widows of the Exilarch's house!
Answer: There is different. A wet-nurse who accepted to nurse a baby of their house would not retract.
Question (Rav Papi): We have another source that Rav Nachman forbids!
(Beraisa - R. Meir): A woman must wait three months before remarrying even in the following cases (even though it is unlikely or impossible that she is pregnant):
She was constantly going to her father's home or was quarrelling with her husband;
Her husband was imprisoned or overseas;
Her husband was too old to have children or sick;
She was sterile, too old to have children, an Ailonis or a minor;
She miscarried after her husband died;
Her womb was uprooted.
R. Yosi permits her to marry immediately.
(Rav Nachman): The Halachah follows decrees of R. Meir.
Retraction (Rav Papa and Rav Huna): We overlooked this.
The Halachah is, if the baby died, she may marry. If she weaned him, she must wait;
(Mar bar Rav Ashi): Even if he died, she must wait. If not, perhaps she will kill her baby in order to marry!
Such a case occurred, and a woman choked her baby!
Rejection: That woman was insane. A normal woman would not kill her baby.
OBLIGATIONS OF A NURSING WOMAN
(Beraisa): If a woman accepted to nurse a baby, she may not nurse during this period her own or another's baby;
Even if meager food was stipulated, she must still eat well. She may not eat things bad for the milk.
Question: If she may not nurse her own baby together with the first, we need not teach that she may not nurse another's baby!
Answer: One might have thought that out of concern for her baby, she would nurse him (if we permitted her) even if enough milk will not remain for the first baby;
However, we would permit her to nurse another's baby, for she would not nurse another baby unless more remains for the first;
The Beraisa forbids even another's baby.
Question: The Beraisa says that if meager food was stipulated, she must still eat well. Who pays for the extra food?
Answer (Rav Sheshes): She pays for it.
Question: The Beraisa forbids her to eat things bad for the milk. What are these?
Answer #1 (Rav Kahana): They are hops, grass, small fish and earth.
Answer #2 (Abaye): Even gourds and quince are bad.
Answer #3 (Rav Papa): Even bark and immature dates are bad.
Answer #4 (Rav Ashi): Even Kutach (a dip made with bread and milk) and fried breaded fish are bad.
Some of these impede milk; others cloud it.
A child who results from Bi'ah in a millhouse will be epileptic. A child who results from Bi'ah on the ground will be long-necked;
If she walked on the blood of a donkey, the children will be bald or have warts. (Rashi (cited in Shitah Mekubetzes) says that the following foods affect the baby if she ate them during pregnancy. Perhaps the same applies to walking on a donkey's blood.)
If she ate (or drank) mustard, cress, small fish regularly, earth, beer, or beef and wine, the child will be gluttonous, his eyes will constantly tear, his eyes will always be moving, he will be ugly; he will be black, or he will be healthy, respectively.