✦ ❖ ✦ D A A T · L E V E L 3 — S Y N T H E S I S ✦ ❖ ✦
Siman 154 — The midwife and the wet-nurse
דיני מיילדת עובדת כוכבים וישראלית
Two seifim. In one direction, conditions of presence against a danger; in the other, a lever of enmity that permits delivery for pay, and permits neither nursing nor Shabbat.
Structured revision, ruling tables, quick memorisation
Source: Shulchan Aroukh, Yoreh De'ah קנ״ד — 2 seifim
Nosei kelim: ש״ך (ד׳ ס״ק) · ט״ז (ה׳ ס״ק) · באר היטב (ד׳ ס״ק) · פתחי תשובה (ב׳ ס״ק) · נקודות הכסף · בית יוסף · טור
Compiled by: הרב יוסף חיים סממה · DAAT
For students who have mastered Levels 1 and 2
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📑 Plan of the synthesis
- The axiom: two fears, two regimes
- The 3 reflex questions
- Master table — the two seifim clause by clause
- The conditions of presence, and how far they reach
- The expert midwife: a question left open for two centuries
- Enmity: where it permits, where it does not
- Shabbat, and the Chatam Sofer
- The Rambam: one treatise, two written reasons
- The apparatus at a glance
- Golden rules, mnemonic, pitfalls and flash card
1. The axiom: two fears, two regimes
The starting point:
The two halves of the siman resemble each other and do not answer each other. In the first direction the fear is danger: it is met by a third party’s presence, since a supervised danger ceases to be one. In the second the fear is מגדלת בן לעבודה זרה: no supervision can do anything about it, and an entirely different lever operates — איבה.
Hence the axiom: what permits in one direction has no force in the other. Enmity does not open the door of seif 1; a third party’s presence changes nothing in seif 2.
The mishnah gives both directions and one reason:
| The direction | The fear | The remedy | Where it is written |
|---|
| A non-Jewish woman with a Jewish woman | שפיכות דמים | Presence, and domain | The Tur; the seif gives only the conditions |
| A Jewish woman with a non-Jewish woman | מגדלת בן לעבודה זרה | Enmity, only where it applies | The mishnah, and the Beit Yosef |
💡 The marker: the siman is not read as a reciprocity but as two neighbouring files. The first is settled by אחרות עומדות על גבה, the second by בשכר.
2. The 3 reflex questions
1. Which way does the situation run? A non-Jewish woman serving a Jewish woman → seif 1, conditions of presence. A Jewish woman serving a non-Jewish woman → seif 2, a question of pay, profession and day.
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2. Are both conditions met? The Taz holds that two are required — others present and the Jewish domain — for delivery as for nursing. And the night closes the case separately.
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3. Is an excuse available? This is the question that decides enmity. Where one can refuse without giving offence — Shabbat, nursing, a woman not of the profession — there is no enmity, and the lever falls.
3. Master table — the two seifim clause by clause
| Seif | The clause | The verdict | What governs it |
|---|
| א | עובדת כוכבים לא תיילד לישראלית בינה לבינה | Forbidden | the fear of danger |
| א | ואפילו אם היא מומחית | Forbidden | Shakh: צ״ע; Pit’hei Teshuvah: an answer |
| א | וכן לא תניק לבן ישראל בביתה ואפילו אחרים עומדים על גבה | Forbidden | supervision alone does not cure the domain |
| א | אבל בבית ישראל מותרת ליילד ולהניק אם אחרים עומדים על גבה | Permitted | the two conditions together |
| א | או יוצאים ונכנסים | Permitted | the Rosh’s leniency |
| א | והוא שלא יניחנו עמה לבדו בלילה | Forbidden | a separate clause |
| ב | ישראלית לא תניק לבן עובד כוכבים אפילו בשכר | Forbidden | enmity does not apply |
| ב | אלא אם כן יש לה חלב הרבה ומצערת אותה מותרת להניקו | Permitted (gloss) | she is the one who suffers |
| ב | ולא תיילד לעובדת כוכבי׳) | Forbidden | מגדלת בן לעבודה זרה |
| ב | אלא אם כן היא ידועה למילדת שאז מותר | Permitted | Rashba: without the profession she can decline |
| ב | ודוקא בשכר ובחול | Limits | neither for free nor on Shabbat |
| ב | אסור ללמד לעובד כוכבים אומנות | Forbidden (gloss) | Yerushalmi, via the Taz |
4. The conditions of presence, and how far they reach
What the Taz establishes
That both conditions hold for both acts, and that the seif’s different wording depends on a fact, not on a rule: a woman ordinarily gives birth at home.
| The situation | Others present? | In a Jewish house? | The verdict |
|---|
| Delivery | No | Yes | Forbidden |
| Delivery | Yes | Yes | Permitted |
| Delivery | Yes | No | Forbidden per the Taz |
| Nursing | Yes | No | Forbidden — the seif says so |
| Nursing | People coming and going | Yes | Permitted |
| The child alone with her, at night | — | — | Forbidden |
One question remains open, and it is worth knowing:
Does coming and going suffice outside a Jewish house? The Taz reads the Tosafot as easing; the Nekudot HaKesef reply that they may already be speaking of a Jewish house, and that the Beit Yosef, following the Rosh, need not report a view he does not adopt. The question stays open — and it is exactly the modern case of a child entrusted away from home. A question for one’s Rav.
5. The expert midwife: a question left open for two centuries
| Who | What he says | Date, and effect |
|---|
| שולחן ערוך | The expert is forbidden | The seif, with no written reason |
| בית יוסף · ט״ז | Because stillbirths are frequent | The classic reason |
| ש״ך | The Yerushalmi says the opposite; no decisor wrote it — צ״ע | An open difficulty |
| באר היטב | It transmits the Shakh, צ״ע included | Earlier than the answer |
| פתחי תשובה | Beit Yaakov: the expert meant is one expert only in that | The difficulty is resolved |
The Pit’hei Teshuvah adds a second thing in the same author’s name: a woman of such standing that failure would cost her publicly — אשה חשובה — is permitted, just as an important man may be treated.
6. Enmity: where it permits, where it does not
| The case | Does enmity apply? | Why |
|---|
| Delivering a non-Jewish woman, for pay | Yes | A refusal would be a refusal |
| Delivering for free | No | The seif writes: for pay, precisely |
| A woman not of the profession | No | She can say she is not skilled (Rashba) |
| Nursing a non-Jewish child | No | Two excuses available (Abaye) |
| On Shabbat | No | An answer exists that gives no offence (Abaye) |
💡 The rule beneath the cases: enmity is measured by the refusal, not by the service. Where a credible excuse exists, there is nothing to fear and the lever does not operate.
7. Shabbat, and the Chatam Sofer
What the Chatam Sofer adds, and what he does not lift
He permits in a setting where practitioners are plentiful, and without even invoking enmity. Then he goes down to detail: what in a delivery involves no forbidden labour; the cutting of the cord, which he assigns to a non-Jewish woman present; and the case where enmity would raise a fear of danger to life. He does not lift the seif’s prohibition — he shows where it does not bite.
Grave and technical matter. The distinction between what in a delivery is a labour forbidden by the Torah and what is not cannot be read off a synthesis page. The Chatam Sofer himself conducts it responsum in hand, and ends with references to further sources. A question for one’s Rav, without exception.
8. The Rambam: one treatise, two written reasons
| The point | The Rambam | The Shulchan Arukh |
|---|
| The treatise | הלכות עבודה זרה וחוקות הגויים פרק ט׳ | Yoreh De’ah, siman 154 |
| The reason, for the Jewish woman | מפני שמגדלת בן לעבודת כוכבים | Not written |
| The reason, for the non-Jewish woman | כדי שלא תהרגנו | Not written |
| The conditions | ברשותה | The domain and the presence |
| Enmity | אבל מיילדת היא בשכר משום איבה | בשכר, without the motive |
The Rambam writes the two reasons the seif passes over, and writes only one condition where the seif lays down two. The Beit Yosef shows where the second comes from: from the Rosh.
9. The apparatus at a glance
| Author | Entries | What it bears on |
|---|
| ש״ך | 4 | א: the expert (the longest, ending in צ״ע) · ב, ג: scope · ד: enmity |
| ט״ז | 5 | א: the two conditions and the Tosafot (the longest) · ב: the expert · ג: enmity and the Yerushalmi · ד: the reason · ה: Shabbat |
| באר היטב | 4 | It digests the Taz and the Shakh, never concluding |
| פתחי תשובה | 2 | א: the answer to the Shakh’s צ״ע · ב: the Chatam Sofer, and Shabbat |
| נקודות הכסף | 1 | Two answers in one line, defending the Beit Yosef |
Note: the two longest entries in the siman both bear on a difficulty rather than a rule — the Shakh’s צ״ע, and the Taz’s question to the Beit Yosef. Both receive their answer elsewhere: in the Pit’hei Teshuvah for the first, in the Nekudot HaKesef for the second.
10. Golden rules, mnemonic, pitfalls and flash card
The 5 golden rules
- Two directions, two fears, two levers. Nothing that permits in one direction holds in the other.
- Two conditions, not one. The Taz: others present and the Jewish domain, for delivery as for nursing.
- The night is a clause of its own. The seif states it alone, and nothing in the siman loosens it.
- Enmity is measured by the refusal. Where an excuse exists it does not apply: Shabbat, nursing, a woman not of the profession.
- Expertise protects only if it has something to lose. That is the Beit Yaakov’s key, and it resolves the Shakh’s צ״ע.
Mnemonic — the word מִילָּד
מ — מְיַלֶּדֶת : two directions, two fears
י — יוֹצְאִים וְנִכְנָסִים : discontinuous presence suffices — in a Jewish house
ל — לַיְלָה : the clause nothing loosens
ד — דּוֹקָא בְּשָׂכָר וּבְחוֹל : the three conditions of the second direction
The 4 classic pitfalls
- Reading the siman as a reciprocity. The two directions share neither fear nor remedy.
- Thinking a third party’s presence suffices everywhere. For nursing in the non-Jewish woman’s house, the seif declares it insufficient in so many words.
- Taking the Shakh’s צ״ע for a leniency. He disputes the reason, not the halakhah — and the Pit’hei Teshuvah answers the difficulty.
- Extending enmity to Shabbat. The seif writes ובחול, and the Chatam Sofer works in the detail without lifting the rule.
| Seif | In one line |
|---|
| 1 | A non-Jewish woman does not deliver a Jewish woman alone with her, even if expert, and does not nurse in her own house even under watch; but in a Jewish house both are permitted with others present or coming and going — and never the child alone with her at night. |
| 2 | A Jewish woman does not nurse a non-Jewish child even for pay, unless she has too much milk and it pains her; and she does not deliver a non-Jewish woman, unless she is known as a midwife — and then for pay and on a weekday. The gloss adds that one does not teach a craft. |
Flash card. שפיכות דמים → בינה לבינה → אפילו מומחית → אחרות עומדות על גבה + בבית ישראל → או יוצאים ונכנסים → לא לבדו בלילה ‖ מגדלת בן לעבודה זרה → לא תניק אפילו בשכר → ידועה למילדת → בשכר ובחול
🎓 Summary of the study path
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DAAT · הרב יוסף חיים סממה
תלמיד חכם · מעביר שיעורים בהלכה ובחסידות
סימן קנ״ד · Level 3 — Synthesis / Revision · דיני מיילדת עובדת כוכבים וישראלית
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