Niddah

We have learnt: HOW LONG MAY PROTRACTED LABOUR CONTINUE? R. MEIR RULED: EVEN FORTY OR FIFTY DAYS. Now this might quite possibly happen according to Rab on R. Adda b. Ahabah's interpretation,  but according to Levi  does not this present a difficulty?  — Levi can answer you: Was it stated that she was clean throughout all these days?  [No; if the birth occurs] in the days of menstruation  she is regarded as a menstruant and only when it occurs in the days of her zibah  is she clean. Another reading. R. Levi ruled: [The birth of] a child is a cause of cleanness  in those days only in which a woman may normally become a major zabah.  What is the reason? It is written in Scripture,  Her blood many days.  Abba Saul in the name of Rab  ruled: Even in the days in which she may normally become a minor zabah. What is the reason? Days  and All the days  are written in the context. We have learnt: HOW LONG MAY PROTRACTED LABOUR CONTINUE? R. MEIR RULED: EVEN FORTY OR FIFTY DAYS. Does not this present a difficulty against both of them?  — Was it stated that she was clean throughout all of them?  [No;] if she was in labour during the days of her menstruation she is regarded a menstruant and only where this occurred during the days of her zibah  is she clean. It was taught: R. Meir used to say. A woman may sometimes bleed  for a hundred and fifty days  without becoming a major zabah.  How? The two days  preceding the period of her menstruation,  the seven days of menstruation, two days after menstruation,  fifty days  which childbirth causes to be clean, eighty days  prescribed for a female birth,  seven days of menstruation  and the two days  after the menstruation.  If so,  they  said to him, might not a woman bleed all the days of her life and no major zibah would occur in them?  — He replied: 'What is it that you have in mind? Is it the possibility of frequent abortions? The law of protracted labour  does not apply to abortions'. Our Rabbis taught: A woman may sometimes  observe a discharge on a hundred days and yet no major zibah would result from it. How? The two days  prior to the time of menstruation,  the seven days of menstruation, two days after menstruation,  eighty days following the birth of a female child,  seven days of menstruation and the two days  after menstruation. What new law does this  teach us? — That the law differs  from him who ruled that it was impossible for the uterus to open without some bleeding, [since thereby]  we were informed that it is possible for the uterus to open without previous bleeding. R. JUDAH RULED: … SUFFICES FOR HER etc. It was taught: R. Judah citing R. Tarfon ruled, Her [ninth] month suffices for her  and in this there is one aspect of a relaxation of the law  and one of restriction.  How? If she was in labour for two days at the end of the eighth month and for one day at the beginning of the ninth month, even though she gave birth to the child at the beginning of the ninth month, she is regarded as having born it in zibah;  but if she was in labour for one day at the end of the eighth month and for two days at the beginning of the ninth, even though she bore the child at the end of the ninth month,  she is not regarded as having given birth in zibah.  Said R. Adda b. Ahabah: From this  it may be inferred that R. Judah holds that it is the shofar  that is the cause.  But could this  be right,  seeing that Samuel stated: A woman can conceive and bear only on the two hundred and seventy-first day  or on the two hundred and seventy-second day  or on the two hundred and seventy-third day?  He  follows the view of the pious men of old; for it was taught: The pious men of old performed their marital duty on a Wednesday only, in order that their wives  should not be led to