Guide
Gynecology, Conception, and Pregnancy in Ancient Rabbinic Texts
1st–6th Centuries
Restricted
By Carol Bakhos
Women’s medicine has a special place in the Talmud because of the many halakhic rules governing women’s ritual purity and menstruation (see “Menstrual Impurity”). Most of the Hebrew texts here reflect an interest in women’s anatomy in relation to conception, birth, and miscarriage. The one Aramaic text is an Akkadian-type listing of female attributes, similar to those found in physiognomic omens.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
Anatomy of Reproductive Organs
m. Niddah 2:5
Hebrew
The sages conceptualized a woman’s [sexual organs] through an analogy: a chamber, an entryway, and an upper chamber. The blood of the chamber is ritually impure. If [blood…
Primary Source
Contraception, Pregnancy, and Nursing
t. Niddah 2:6
Hebrew
Three women use a mokh [a contraceptive absorbent]: a minor, a pregnant woman, and a nursing woman.
A minor—lest she become pregnant and die. Who is…
Primary Source
Conception, Gestation, and Determination of Fetal Sex
b. Berakhot 60a
If someone’s wife conceived, and he said [a prayer], “Let it be [God’s] will that my wife shall give birth to a male [child]”—this is a prayer in vain. [ . . . ]
[Hebrew] It has…
Primary Source
External Factors That Affect the Fetus
b. Ketubbot 60b–61a
AramaicA woman who has intercourse in a [public] mill will have epileptic children.[A woman] who has intercourse on the ground will have children with dislocated legs.[A woman] who treads on donkey’s…
Primary Source
The Course of Pregnancy
b. Niddah 31a
Hebrew
The rabbis taught: During the first three months, the embryo occupies the lowest dwelling chamber; during the middle [three months], it occupies the middle dwelling…