Berachot 25: Potty Talk

The rabbis talk bathroom etiquette today.  We cannot recite the Shema in places that smell of dung, that are close to bathrooms, that are somehow disgusting.  What do we do if we have already begun reciting the Shema when those smells overcome us?  The rabbis discuss our options.  They note that in other circumstances, like that of 'leprosy', one is made ritually impure by standing over or under a person who is ritually impure.  Further, a person who is ritually impure is separated from the community for a period of time.  Is that how we should understand how to treat one who prays while in a disgusting circumstance?

For how long must we avoid prayer in a place that has been urinated upon?  While it is still moist? While there is a mark there?  What about feces - must it be completely dry so that when it is thrown it turns to dust?  Or dry so that there is a crust on its outer edges?  And what does it mean to be moist?  Enough to moisten other things?  

The rabbis wonder if one awakens after a seminal emission, is it acceptable to say the Shema after immersion but before the sunrise?  Vatikin, pious people, would conclude the recitation of the Shema with sunrise.  The rabbis go on to discuss fecal matter stuck to one's sandal, saying Shema in front of a naked Gentile, how much water it takes to nullify urine (any amount? a quarter of a log?).  Where is the urine placed if it is in a vessel and we must move four cubits away from it to recite Shema?

At the end of our daf, we are told the story of the wedding celebration of Rav Achai's son and Rav Yitzchak bar Shemuel bar Marta's daughter.  After the son was unable to consummate the marriage, Rav Achai looked for the possible causes of the problem and saw a Torah scroll under the wedding canopy.  He said that his son's life could be endangered, for wherever there is a Torah scroll or tefillin, it is forbidden to engage in conjugal relations until one takes them out of the room or places them in a vessel inside a second vessel.