Today's daf speaks of miscarriages where the fetus emerges looking like an animal, a bird, part of a human, etc. The rabbis make decisions about when the offspring is considered to be the miscarriage of a human form and thus the woman is ritually pure. Very often part of a fetus is discharged, and women were not considered to be ritually impure after these miscarriages.
At one point, Rabbi Yirmeya speaks about an animal developing as a human embryo and thus becoming betrothed one day. In fact, this betrothal could cause a problem because of Chalitza. Rabbi Zeira does not find this funny. He treated Torah study with extreme seriousness, even suffering needlessly to prove his love for Torah. It is good to learn that other rabbis hoped to help him gain perspective on Torah learning, even if their example was somewhat insensitive.
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