Hinges, Doors, and the Key by Which God Opens the Womb

It was taught: Rabbi Eliezer says: Just as there are hinges [tzirim] for a house, so there are pangs [tzirim] for a woman, as it is said, "And she bowed and gave birth, for her pangs turned upon her" (1 Samuel 4:19). Rabbi Yehoshua says: Just as there are doors for a house, so there are doors for a woman, as it is said, "Because it did not shut up the doors of my womb" (Job 3:10). Rava said: They [these parts] do not impart impurity under a tent [the dead body's openings], as it is said, "This is the law: when a man dies in a tent" (Numbers 19:14), a matter common to every person, and in a man there are no pangs. But is it not written, "Pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor" (Isaiah 21:3)? Those are pangs of the flesh, for if you do not say so, how do you arrive at the 248 limbs? They would be found neither in a man nor in a woman. Rabbi Akiva says: Just as there is a key for a house, so there is a key for a woman, as it is said, "And He opened her womb" (Genesis 29:31). And against Rabbi Akiva the students of Rabbi Yishmael raise a difficulty, for Rabbi Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel: It happened with the students of Rabbi Yishmael that they boiled [in examination] a certain harlot who had been condemned to burning by the king, and they found in her 252 limbs. They came and asked Rabbi Yishmael: How many limbs are there in a person? He said, 248. They said to him: But behold, we examined and found 252. He said: Perhaps you examined a woman, in whom Scripture added two hinges and two doors. Perhaps, since they are small, they were worn away [in a man and so not counted].