[Wenn] eine Frau fünf zweifelhafte Blutentladungen oder fünf zweifelhafte Geburten hatte, bringt sie ein Opfer, und sie kann Opferfleisch essen, und die anderen [stellen] keine Verpflichtung für sie dar. Wenn eine Frau fünf bestimmte Geburten oder fünf bestimmte Blutentladungen hatte, bringt sie ein Opfer und kann Opferfleisch essen, und die anderen stellen weitere Verpflichtungen für sie dar. Es war einmal in Jerusalem, dass der Preis für Nest [ein Paar Opfervögel] bei einem goldenen Dinar [einer bestimmten Geldeinheit] lag. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel sagte: Durch dieses Heiligtum! Ich werde heute Nacht nicht schlafen, bis es einen [silbernen] Dinar kostet ! Er betrat den Hof und lehrte: [Wenn eine Frau] fünf bestimmte Geburten hatte, [oder] fünf bestimmte Blutentladungen, bringt sie ein Opfer und darf Opferfleisch essen, und die anderen [stellen] keine Verpflichtungen für sie dar. Und der Preis für ein Nest lag bei einem Viertel eines [silbernen] Dinar .
Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
חמשה ספיקי זיבות – doubtful gonorrhea/flux (for a female) , as such example, she claims that she saw three [consecutive] days and does not know if it was during he days of her menstrual cycle or during the days of her flux, she brings a sacrifice which is not consumed. Doubtful miscarriage is, for example, when she aborted and did not know what she aborted. If she has upon her five doubtful fluxes or five doubtful abortions [she brings one sacrifice].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Keritot
If a woman had five doubtful genital discharges or five doubtful births, she needs to bring only one offering, and she may eat sacrifices [immediately], and she is not liable to bring the other [offerings]. There are two situations that are described here. 1) A woman had genital discharge for three consecutive days once a month for five months and she doesn’t know if these occurred during her menstrual cycle, in which case she was not a “zavah” and does not need to bring a sacrifice, or not during her menstrual cycle and she is a zavah does need to bring a sacrifice. 2) She had five miscarriages and she doesn’t know whether what she miscarried counts as a birth and she must bring a sacrifice or doesn’t count as a birth and she does not bring a sacrifice. In both of these cases, the woman might be liable for as many as five sacrifices (each consisting of an olah and a hatat) or she might not be liable at all. The rule in this case is that she needs to bring only one sacrifice and then she can eat any sacrificial meat, as is always the case when a woman brings a sacrifice for being a zavah or for giving birth. While she can, if she wants, bring four more sacrifices, she need not do so.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
מביאה קרבן אחד – a sin=offering of a fowl that is brought for a doubt.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Keritot
If a woman had five certain births, or five certain genital discharges, she brings one offering and may then eat sacrifices [immediately], and she is liable to bring the other offerings. However, if she had five certain cases of genital discharge or five certain births, then she must bring all five sacrifices. After she brings the first sacrifice she can already resume eating sacrifices.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
ואוכלת בזבחים – for his sacrifice comes o purify her, for it is like a ritual immersion, for if a woman had been defiled with several defilements, one ritual immersion counts for all of them, even this sacrifice is similar.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Keritot
It once happened in Jerusalem that the price of a pair of doves rose to a golden denar. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel said: By this sanctuary, I shall not go to sleep tonight before they cost but a [silver] denar! Then he entered the court and taught: if a woman had five certain births or five certain genital discharges she needs to bring only one offering, and she may then eat sacrifices, and she is not liable to bring the other [offerings]. Thereupon the price of a pair of birds stood at a quarter of a [silver] denar each. This section contains a fascinating story. Because of the previous halakhah that demanded that a woman bring a sacrifice for every certain birth or certain genital discharge, the price of the birds used for the sacrifices went all the way up to a golden denar for a pair. A golden denar is the equivalent of 25 silver denars. Market forces were working in favor of those selling the birds and would have discouraged women from bringing the sacrifices that they so frequently had to bring. To combat this, Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel boldly changed the halakhah so that a woman would have to bring only one sacrifice, even if she had had five certain births or discharges. This new halakhah immediately brought the price down to ¼ of a denar. The actions of Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel are one of the clearest examples of a rabbi adapting the halakhah to fit the needs of the Jews of his time. The halakhah to Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel is not supposed to be something that is simply too costly to fulfill. When he saw that the cost of sacrifices was becoming prohibitive, he didn’t refrain and simply say, “What can I do? That’s what the law demands.” Rather he acted to ensure that what the law did demand was something that people could reasonably observe.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
ואין השאר עליה חובה – the Sages did not require her to bring them, for even the one [sacrifice], with difficulty, they permitted to offer a doubtful pinching of an unconsecrated bird’s neck to the altar, but rather if this is not the case, she doesn’t have a remedy to become purified with Holy Things.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
חמש לידות ודאות או חמש זיבות ודאות מביאה קרבן אחד אוכלת בזבחים – as has been explained.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
והשאר עלהי חובה – as is taught in a Baraita, it is possible that she brings [a sacrifice] on the birth that is before the completion and/or on the birth that is after the completion (of the eighty days), one sacrifice for both, the inference teaches us (Leviticus 12:7): “Such are the rituals concerning her who bears a child. [male or female].”
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
קינין – two nests, that is four turtle-doves.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
בדיני זהב – with two golden [denars]. Each nest is a golden denar.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
המעון הזה – this is an oath [taken by Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel]..
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
נכנס לבית דין ולימד וכו' – even though it was lenient in Torah law. But he taught a thing that was not Halakha, because of (Psalms 119:126): “It is a time to act for the LORD, [for they have violated Your teaching],” he did so. For where it not for this, they would not find it, and they would prevent the poor from bringing even one [sacrifice], and they would eat Holy Things in a physical state of ritual impurity.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Keritot
ברבעתים = two nests for two-quarters of a silver Denar. And a gold Denar is twenty-five silver Denars.
