Halakhah for Bekhorot 89:58
זיל בתר רובא דאינשי
He replied to him: He informs us of the following as it was taught: If a person is defective [in the number of joints], having only two hundred,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' A man born with two fingers missing on each hand and two toes on each leg i.e., eight members. Now since every finger has six bones, this makes altogether a total of forty-eight joints of which this man is short. Thus he has only two hundred joints of the two hundred and forty-eight which the human body contains.');"><sup>34</sup></span>
Peninei Halakhah, Women's Prayer
Women, who do not pray in the synagogue, do not hear the ḥazan, and therefore must practice one would when praying individually. That is, according to Ashkenazic custom, before beginning Shema she says, “Kel Melekh ne’eman” (“God, faithful King”). Even though women have 252 limbs, as the womb has two doors and two hinges (Bekhorot 45a), since all people have 248 limbs, perhaps it is most important to direct the blessings toward them, and the blessing will then continue to the limbs unique to women (Minḥat Elazar 2:28; Ha-elef Lekha Shlomo OḤ 120).
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