DANIEL SCHIFF

arrives at this conclusion because the proximity of the Toraitic statements "...to make a separation between the unclean and the clean..."(Leviticus 11:47) and"...if a woman brings forth seed and bears a male child..." (Leviticus 12:2) leads him to the view that a clear separation between clean and unclean sexual practices will result in a boy. Using the same methodology, Rabbi Yohanan next submits that anybody who conducts the ceremony of havdalah over wine on motzei Shabbat will produce male issue. This rather hopeful prescription is based on the observation that the words of havdalah,"...to make a separation between the holy and the ordinary..."(Leviticus 10:10), together with the words,"...and between the unclean and the clean"(Leviticus 10:10 and 11:47) are also in the vicinity of Leviticus 12:2, and hence the observance of havdalah is connected to male births.

On the same Talmudic page, Rabbi Elazar employs the identical hermeneutic device to demonstrate that male offspring are dependent on the sanctity with which intercourse is performed. Rabbi Elazar understands the proximity of the words"...sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy..." (Leviticus 11:44) to the words of Leviticus 12:2, to imply that sanctification will indeed lead to the birth of males. A view given in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah in Niddah 70b-71a goes even further than Rabbi Elazar, maintaining that realizing the preferred sex is dependent on the suitability of the marital union as well as the sanctified nature of the intercourse:"amar lahem, yisa isha hahogenet lo viyikadeish atzmo bish-at tashmish." In both cases Rashi interprets the"sanctity" concerned as referring to the appropriate modesty- tzniut- of the intercourse itself.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Niddah 70b-71a is that it represents the one instance wherein a healthy skepticism as to the effectiveness of the proposed methodology is evidenced in the Talmud . Following Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah's recommendation the text continues"[d]id not many, they said to him, act in this manner but it did not avail them?" Tacitly accepting the merit of the challenge, the rabbis

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