Page 20 - EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.1A

Pg: 20 - 1-Front 21-10-31

sperm reaching her womb without her having had intercourse with
a man was discussed by the gemara (Chagigah 14b): “They asked Ben
Zoma, ‘If a virgin became pregnant may she marry a Kohen Gadol?
Do we suspect that what Shmuel describes might have taken place,
for Shmuel said, ‘I am able to have repeated intercourse [with a vir-
gin] without drawing any blood [i.e. without perforating the hymen]”
[i.e. such intercourse, though bloodless, would nevertheless remove
her status as a virgin, disqualifying her from marriage to a Kohen
Gadol] or is Shmuel’s scenario uncommon?’ He told them, ‘Shmuel’s
scenario is uncommon and we suppose that she became pregnant in a
bathtub [and is still a virgin].’”

In other words, in light of the fact that a Kohen Gadol may only
marry a virgin, the gemara discusses a case where a woman claims to
be a virgin and her hymen is still intact but she is pregnant or where,
after the Kohen Gadol married her and found her to be a virgin, it
turns out that she is pregnant. May he marry her (or in the second
case, remain married to her), for perhaps she had previously had in-
tercourse without it damaging her hymen, in the manner mentioned
by Shmuel, who vouched for it being possible to have intercourse at
an angle leaving the hymen undisturbed? Ben Zoma responded that
since this is uncommon we are unconcerned that it might have hap-
pened and we assume that she became pregnant in a bathtub i.e. she
never had intercourse but became pregnant as a result of sperm that
a man ejaculated into a bath, entering her body.2

It is evident from this discussion that it is possible for a woman to
become pregnant without a man having come near her, in the event
that semen released into a bathtub entered her body, through acci-
dental impregnation in a bathtub. [It is also clear from the gemara
that this is not all that uncommon, since the gemara rejects the alter-
native – that she had intercourse at an angle – as being uncommon,
implying that accidental bathtub insemination, in comparison, is not
uncommon.] This accidental bathtub insemination is similar to the

2. See further siman 255, for the novel ruling which the Birkei Yosef derived from
this gemara.

4 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein