If she miscarries something like a membrane, like a hair, like dust, like red flies, she should put it in water, [and] if it dissolves she is impure; and if not, she is pure. If she miscarries something like fish, [like] locusts, [like] <i>shekatsim u'remasim</i> [small animals, such as reptiles, insect, or rodents, which move by scurrying, creeping, slithering, etc.], if they had blood with them, she is impure; and if not, she is pure. If she miscarries something like a [domesticated] animal, a beast, or a fowl, whether pure or impure ones [i.e. kosher or not kosher], if it is male, she should sit for [the number of postpartum days of impurity and purity required for one who gives birth to] a male; and if it is female, she should sit for [the number of postpartum days of impurity and purity required for one who gives birth to] a female. And if [its sex is] unknown, she should sit for [the number of days of impurity and purity required for one who gives birth to] a male and for [one who gives birth to] a female [i.e. she should be stringent in both directions, with a longer period of initial impurity, and a shorter period of subsequent purity], according to Rabbi Meir. And the Sages say: anything that does not have a human shape is not [considered to be] a fetus [with regard to the purity status of one who gives birth].
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
כמין שערה – hair.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
If a woman miscarried an object that was like a rind, like a hair, like earth, like red flies, let her put it in water: If it dissolves she is unclean, But if it does not she is clean. None of these objects count as a miscarried birth, therefore she is not impure as if she had given birth. The only issue is whether or not it is considered to be blood. The test is to put that which she miscarried in water and see if it dissolves. If it does, then it counts as blood and she must consider herself to be impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
יבחושין (looking like a mass of red insects) – mosquitos or gnats.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
If she miscarried an object in the shape of fishes, locusts, or any forbidden things or creeping things: If there was blood with them she is unclean, If not, she is clean. These shapes also don't count as births (see Bekhorot 8:1, Keritot 1:5). Therefore, the only question is again whether she is a menstruant. If there is blood, then she is. If not, she is clean.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
תטיל למים – [let her place them into water] – that is tepid, and have them remain in that tepid water for twenty-four hours.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
If she miscarried an object in the shape of a beast, a wild animal or a bird, whether clean or unclean: If it was a male she sits in uncleanness as she would for a male; And if it was a female she sits in uncleanness as she would for a female. But if the sex is unknown she sits in uncleanness for both male and female, the words of Rabbi Meir. According to Rabbi Meir, these animal shapes do count as human births. If the object seems to have been male, then she must be unclean as she would be had she given birth to a male. This means that she is unclean for seven days and then the following 33 days any blood she discharges is pure (see Leviticus 12: 2, 4). If female, she is impure for 14 days and then the following 66 days any blood is pure (v. 5). If it is unclear whether it is a boy or girl, then the rule is stringent. She is impure for two weeks, as if she had given birth to a girl, but subsequent blood is pure for only 33 days, as if she had given birth to a boy.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
אם נמוחו טמאה (if they dissolve [into blood] – because she is a menstruant woman, that it is blood.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
The sages say: anything that has not the shape of a human being cannot be regarded as a human child. The other rabbis disagree with Rabbi Meir. If the miscarriage doesn't have the shape of a human being, it doesn't count as a human being and she does not count as having given birth.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
אם יש עמהן דם טמאה – our Mishnah is like the Sages who argue with Rabbi Yehuda above (i.e., in Mishnah 1) that it is possible for the opening of the uterus without blood.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
וחכמים אומרים כל שאין בו מצורת אדם אינו ולד – everyone agrees that when it’s body is born in the form of a wild animal, and its face is that of a human, it considered a [human] fetus; its body like that of a human but its face like that face of wild animal, it is a wild animal and this is not a [human] fetus, for we go after the form of the face. They didn’t disagree other than with one for whom part of the face was like that of a human and part of like the face of an animal, and even if most of the face is like that of a human, but one eye that is in his head alone is like that of an animal, Rabbi Meir states that one requires the entire form of a human being, for since it has the eye like an animal, this is not a [human] fetus. But the Rabbis hold, that which lacks the form of a human being at all and even doesn’t have part of a human form, is not a [human] fetus, but if he has part of a [human] form, it is a [human] fetus. But the Halakha is according to the Sages.
