[Avodah] length of pregnancy

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Eli Turkel asked:

> In a recent daf yomi (Nidah 38a) Rav Yehuda claims that birth
> occurs after rosh chodesh of the 9th month. ...
>
> ... ie how does bet din declaring Rosh Chodesh affect the woman ...

I suppose it is similar to how declaring a second Adar can retroactively change someone from being older than Bar Mitzvah to younger than Bar Mitzvah. Or the more classic case of a girl who was raped at just over 3 years old, the extra Adar can cause her to be not-yet-three so that her besulim grow back.

MY question is not on *how* the Beis Din's declaration can affect biology, but where Rav Yehudah got his information that it does so. Statistical analysis seems unlikely, unless he either obtained information on when other couples had relations, or had so many children himself that his own practices gave him enough information. But the alternative is that he got this information by Revelation, which (to me) doesn't sound too likely either.

Akiva Miller

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