Female Anatomy

Hebrew

R. Judah said in the name of Samuel: There was an instance when the disciples of R. Ishmael once cleansed with boiling water [the corpse of] a prostitute who had been condemned by the king to [death by] burning. They examined and found 252 [limbs]. [They came and inquired of R. Ishmael, “How many limbs has the human body?” He replied to them, “248.”] Thereupon they said to him, “But we have examined and found 252?” He [R. Ishmael] replied to them, “Perhaps you made the examination on a woman, in whose case Scripture adds two hinges [in her reproductive organs] and two doors [of the womb].”

It was taught [in a baraita] that R. Eleazar said: As a house has hinges, so a woman’s [body] has hinges [in her reproductive organs], as it is said in Scripture: She bowed herself and gave birth, for her hinges [lit., birth pangs] turned suddenly upon her (1 Samuel 4:19). R. Joshua says: As a house has doors, so a woman’s [womb] has doors, as it is said in Scripture: Because it shut not up the doors of my [mother’s] womb (Job 3:10). R. Akiva says: As a house has a key, so a woman has a key [for the womb], as it is said in Scripture: And [God] opened her womb (Genesis 30:22).

In light of the opinion of R. Akiva [whose exegesis adds a fifth limb, i.e., the key], is there not a difficulty in connection with what R. Ishmael’s disciples [discovered; i.e., 253 vs. 252 limbs]?—[No!] It may be that since it [the key to the womb] is very small, it was dissolved [in the course of] boiling [the remains of the corpse].

Translated by Markham J. Geller and Lennart Lehmhaus.