SELECTED REFORM RESPONSA

that all women are permitted to use this contraceptive, the meaning of the phrase meshameshot bemokh in our baraita must therefore be that these three women must use this precaution- which implies that all other women may use it. From this, argues Luria, we must conclude that even if we should decide that the law(halakhah) follows the Hakhamim who differ from R. Meir , it would only mean that we would not make it obligatory for these three women to use this precaution. But these three women, like all other women, are permitted to use it if they so desire. This is in essence the opinion of Luria.

It seems to me that a correct analysis of the baraita will show that Luria did not go far enough in his conclusions, and that there is no difference of opinion between R. Meir and the other teachers on the question of whether a pregnant or a nursing woman must take this precaution. For this is what the baraita says:"There are three women who, when having intercourse with their husbands, must take the precaution of using an absorbent to prevent conception: a minor, a pregnant woman, and a woman nursing her baby. In the case of the minor, lest she become pregnant and die when giving birth to the child.[It was believed by some of the Rabbis that if a girl became pregnant before having reached the age of puberty, she and her child would both die at the moment of childbirth. Comp. saying of Rabba b. Livai in Yevamot 12b and Tosafot ad loc., s.v. shema tit-aber; also saying in Yer., Pesahim, VIII. 1, 35c¢: Iberah veyaleda, ad shelo hevi-a shetei se-arot-hi uvenah metim.] In case of a pregnant woman, this precaution is necessary, lest, if another conception takes place, the embryo becomes a foetus papyraceus(comp. Julius Preuss , Biblisch- Talmudische Medizin, Berlin, 1921, pp. 486-487). In the case of 2 nursing mother, this precaution is necessary, for if she should become pregnant, she will have to wean her child before the proper time[which was considered to extend for twenty-four months], and the child may die as a result of such an early weaning." So far the baraita apparently represents a unanimous statement. It then proceeds to discuss the age up to which a woman is considered a minor in this respect. R. Meir says that the minor in this case is a girl between the age of eleven years and one day and twelve years and one day, and that during that period only must she take this precaution. Before or after this age she need not take any precaution, but may have natural intercourse(meshameshet kedarkah veholechet). The other teachers, however,

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