OPINIONS: Rav Chisda and Rav Hamnuna (end of 22b) argue about the Halachah in a case in which a person started to urinate while saying Shemoneh Esreh and paused in his Shemoneh Esreh until the urine finished flowing from his body. One Amora maintains that he must start Shemoneh Esreh again from the beginning. The other Amora maintains that he may commence from where he paused. The Gemara (23a) says that whether or not he must begin again depends on whether the person was considered "fit" or "unfit" to pray in the first place, since he needed to urinate. Why would he be considered fit to pray in such a situation?

(a) RASHI explains that a person is considered fit to pray even if he has the urge to urinate. (Of course, l'Chatchilah he should not pray. However, this is not because he was "unfit" as a person, but because it is disrespectful to do so.)

(b) The ROSH explains that even when urine is dripping from a person, he is considered fit to pray. He does not even have to repeat the parts that he may have recited while urine was actually dripping from him. Only when urine is emerging in a steady flow is he considered unfit to pray.

OPINIONS: The Gemara says that if a person must take off his Tefilin in order to go to the bathroom, during the day he should wrap them in their straps and hold them against his heart. At night, he should put them in a container.

Rebbi Zeira qualifies this statement by saying that during the day, a person is permitted to wrap the Tefilin in their straps and hold them only when there is time to put the Tefilin on again before sundown. If there is no time to put them on again, he must place them in a container.

There are three ways to understand this Gemara:

(a) According to the text of RASHI's explanation as recorded by RABEINU YONAH, the Gemara is saying that if one takes off the Tefilin during the day for any reason (e.g. to eat a meal), and he will soon put them on again, he may place them on the ground even without a container. (Rabeinu Yonah did not have the words "b'Yado k'Neged Libo" ("hold them in his hands against his heart") in his text of the Gemara.)

(b) According to our text of RASHI (DH ba'Yom), Rashi says that if a person removes his Tefilin during the day in order to go to the bathroom, the Rabanan did not require him to go to the trouble of putting them in a container. If he removes his Tefilin because it is night, though, he must put them in their container. Rebbi Zeira adds that if it is already dark, even if he is only going to the bathroom he must put the Tefilin in their container, and he must not wait until later to do so.

(c) RAV HAI GA'ON, as quoted by Rabeinu Yonah and the Ritva, says that both "day" and "night" refer to someone who has to go to the bathroom. During the day, the Rabanan did not require him to go to the trouble of putting his Tefilin in a container. During the night, however, they did require him to do so. Furthermore, during the day, holding the Tefilin is conditional upon whether he sees that there will be time after he leaves the bathroom to don his Tefilin before sundown. If he sees that when he leaves the bathroom he will have time to wear the Tefilin again, then he does not have to put them in their container. If he sees that he will not have time to wear them again, then he must put them in a container and set them aside, even though it is still daytime.

(Rashi presumably rejected this explanation because a person has no way of knowing whether there will be time left to wear his Tefilin once he leaves the bathroom. Also, the words "Ein Shehus ba'Yom" -- "there is no time left in the day" -- appear to be referring to the point at which he removes his Tefilin, and not to the point at which he plans to wear them again. -M. KORNFELD)