Thursday, July 12, 2007

Yevamos 71b - Millah When Parents are in Jail

The gemara is searching for a case where milah of a child holds one back from eating the korban pesach even though the mitzvah of milah didn't exist at the time of slaughtering the korban pesach. Rava says that if the parents of an 8 day old child were in jail at the time of slaughtering the korban pesach, they are not mechuyav in the mitzvah of milah since they are unable to perform it. Therefore, if they would remain in jail even for the time of eating, they can eat the korban pesach (that an agent brought for them), but if they get out at the time of eating, their child being an orel prevents them from eating the korban pesach. Maharsha points out that the gemara (and rashi) imply that although a woman is not metzuvah in milah to her child, the fact that her child is an orel still prevents her from being able to eat korban pesach. Therefore, the gemara must make the case where she is also in jail. What would be the din if only the father were in jail (for both the slaughtering and the eating) but the mother was not in jail; certainly the mother cannot eat since from her perspective the child is an "orel", but can the father eat? It seems to me that since according to maharsha there is a joint chiyuv on the father and mother, if the mother would not be in jail, then even the father could not eat from the korban pesach.
Do you think that is correct?
Also, Rashi implies that if the parents were unable to do the bris on 8th day due to some o'nes, the beis din would not be responsible to step in since the parents plan on doing the mitzvah after the o'nes passes. Ya'avetz makes ukimtah where there is no beis din and there is no one else to do it - very dochek. Simply speaking rashi implies that the father fulfilling his mitzvah to do milah himself takes precedence over anyone else, even at the expense of milah b'zmana. But, based on what I wrote above from maharsha, if the mother is not in jail she should do milah to allow herself to eat korban pesach, even though she is not really metzuveh in milah to her son. So, the mother's mitzvah of korban pesach would over ride the father's mitzvah to do the milah himself.

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