(Baraisa): Five things were said about the Egyptian gourd - 1) One may not spread it over seeds; 2) it brings Tumah (if gourd leaves are covering both flesh of a corpse and vessels); it separates for Tumah (that if there is flesh of a corpse underneath a leaf and vessels over it, they remain Tahor); 3) its stem is a Tefach; 4) any amount of it prohibits (if it became prohibited as Kilayim and then became mixed with other permitted ones; 5) one who vows against gaining benefit from gourds is only prohibited in Egyptian gourd.

Question (R. Yona): Why aren't the laws of bringing Tumah and separating from Tumah considered two separate things?

Baraisa (Bar Kapara): There are seven - 1) One may not spread it over seeds; 2) it brings Tumah; 3) it separates for Tumah; 4) its 'arm' is a Tefach; 5) one must distance a Beis Rova from its seeds (see later in Menachos 54(a)); 6) it is Kilayim with Aramian gourd; 7) it is Kilayim with Remutzah gourd (see earlier Menachos 23-1(b)).

However, Bar Kapara did not teach 'any amount of it prohibits' and 'one who vows etc.'

(R. Yosi): Rabban Gamliel, son of Rebbi, went out to the marketplace. They came and asked him, "When the Mishnah taught that if gourd was spread over seeds, he must uproot it, was that specifically when the gourd leaves were touching the produce or even if they were not?'' Rabban Gamliel asked this question to his father who answered that it applies only when they were touching.

(R. Yona): R. Hillel, son of Rav Valles went out to the marketplace and they asked him the same question. He asked his father, who gave the same answer, that it applies only when they were touching.

Question: Why did Rebbi decide to retract and follow the Chachamim (in Menachos 42-2(e))?

(R. Chinana): If you permitted Egyptian gourd, even though it becomes entangled; you would certainly permit cucumbers and beans that do not become so entangled.

(R. Abba Mari): R. Mana didn't agree with R. Chinana because Rebbi said that since the Mishnah taught that cucumbers and Egyptian beans may not grow over grains, so too Egyptian gourd is prohibited. And when Rebbi then said 'I identify with their rationale more than mine', he meant that their branches do not entangle as much as the Egyptian gourd (and therefore, the only one prohibited is the Egyptian gourd).