[Avodah] Can a besula become pregnant?

[Akiva Miller]

.

(Many thanks to R' Joel Rich and R' Moshe Gluck for sending me valuable
sources on this topic.)



Yevamos 34a (near the bottom) states that "ain isha mis'aberes b'biah
rishona - a woman does not get pregnant from (her) first relations."



On 35b, the Gemara challenges this idea, pointing out that in Bereshis 38,
Tamar got pregnant from first relations, which were with Yehuda. The answer
is that Tamar had damaged her besulim beforehand, so that she would be able
to conceive from Yehuda. (The Gemara adds that although Er and Onan had
relations with Tamar, they deliberately did it in such a way that her
besulim was not damaged.)



On Bereshis 19:36, Rashi gives a similar answer regarding Lot's daughters.
Rashi accepts the principle that "a woman does not get pregnant from (her)
first relations," and so he says that they did something which enabled them
to conceive. (Rashi's wording is different from that in Yevamos, so it's
not clear to me whether he's describing the same procedure. And for the
purposes of this thread, the exact procedure doesn;t really matter anyway.)



I would like to ask about another case where a woman seems to have
conceived from her first relations, and that woman is Leah Imenu.



According to Rashi on Bereshis 49:3, Reuven was conceived from Yaakov
Avinu's very first drop of semen. How can this be? Did Leah have relations
with someone else prior to marrying Yaakov? Did Yaakov have prior relations
with Leah, rendering her non-besulah, without emitting?



Those ideas are *not* very appealing. The alternative would be to suggest
that she did something medically that enabled her to conceive Reuven, but
whereas Tamar and Bnos Lot had strong incentives to get pregnant
immediately, I don't know what Leah's motivation might have been. Perhaps
she was afraid that Yaakov would divorce her when Rachel became available,
so she tried to lock him in by getting pregnant?


Before clicking "send", I searched for an answer yet again, and this time I
found it. The Ohr Hachayim on this pasuk (Bereshis 49:3) is very long, and
near the very end (paragraph beginning "Gam ramaz") he quotes Rashi and
writes:  "From this you learn that [Yaakov] did not have relations with
[her] besulim, rather he removed [her] besulim with a finger, so that he
would not waste that drop. So you have learned that even during the act,
physical desire did not overpower him, and his act was a totally holy
thing."


Alternatively, https://mg.alhatorah.org/Parshan/Rid/Bereshit/49.1#m7e0n6 gives
the perush of Rav Yeshaya of Trani (Ri"d) on this pasuk, who answers that
according to the Yerushalmi, *all* of the Imahos damaged their besulim. He
doesn't states where this Yerushalmi can be found, nor does he explain
*why* the Imahos would do that, but I suppose it's reasonable to presume
that their logic was the same as the Ohr Hachayim has assigned to Yaakov -
to prevent wasted seed.


Conclusion: I do not know where Chazal got this idea that "a woman does not
get pregnant from (her) first relations," nor have I seen any proof or
evidence for it. We do have three stories in the Torah - Lot's daughters,
Tamar, and Leah - which *seem* to disprove it, but all three can be
understood in a way that does *not* disprove it.


Akiva Miller
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