Mishnah
Mishnah

Halakhah for Niddah 5:3

תִּינוֹקֶת בַּת יוֹם אֶחָד, מִטַּמְּאָה בְנִדָּה. בַּת עֲשָׂרָה יָמִים, מִטַּמְּאָה בְזִיבָה. תִּינוֹק בֶּן יוֹם אֶחָד, מִטַּמֵּא בְזִיבָה, וּמִטַּמֵּא בִנְגָעִים, וּמִטַּמֵּא בִטְמֵא מֵת, וְזוֹקֵק לְיִבּוּם, וּפוֹטֵר מִן הַיִּבּוּם, וּמַאֲכִיל בַּתְּרוּמָה, וּפוֹסֵל מִן הַתְּרוּמָה, וְנוֹחֵל וּמַנְחִיל. וְהַהוֹרְגוֹ, חַיָּב. וַהֲרֵי הוּא לְאָבִיו וּלְאִמּוֹ וּלְכָל קְרוֹבָיו כְּחָתָן שָׁלֵם:

A baby girl one day old can become impure as a <i>niddah</i>. At ten days old she can become impure as a <i>zavah</i> [a female who has certain types of atypical genital discharges, distinct from her menses, which render her impure]. A baby boy one day old can become impure as a <i>zav</i>, or impure by having <i>nega'im</i> [diseased patches on skin, clothes, or houses that create impurity], or impure through [contact with] the impurity of a corpse; and he creates <i>zikah</i> [the bond between a widow waiting for either leverite marriage or to perform <i>chalitzah</i>, and the man upon whom the obligation to perform leverite marriage has fallen] for <i>yibum</i> [the obligation to perform leverite marriage]; and he can exempt one from requiring <i>yibum</i> [i.e. if his father dies, he counts as a son to except any of his uncles from having to do <i>yibum</i>]; and he can feed <i>terumah</i> [i.e. his existence can render <i>terumah</i> permissible to one for whom it was formerly forbidden]; and he can render <i>terumah</i> to be forbidden [to one who was formerly permitted to eat it]; and he can inherit or cause others to inherit [portions of an estate]; and one who kills him is liable [for murder]; and he is thereby fully like a son-in-law to his father and to his mother and for all his relatives.

Gray Matter III

Moreover, Rav Shmuel Wosner (Teshuvot Sheivet Halevi 2:205 and 6:175) adds that the Mishnah (Niddah 5:3) describes how a baby on the day it is born has the potential to become tamei. This clearly indicates that before the baby is born it does not have this potential. Rav Wosner seems to share Rav Zalman Nechemia’s view that the prohibition for a kohen to come in contact with the dead applies only in a situation where the kohen becomes tamei. Indeed, he writes that a wife of a kohen should not hesitate to give birth in a hospital despite the presence of tum’at meit. It seems that Rav Wosner would not require a kohen’s wife to inquire as to the gender of her child when she undergoes a sonogram and that he would permit a kohen’s wife to visit a hospital or funeral home even when she is pregnant.
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