We learned in a Braita: after Birkat Hamazon, you should send the cup of blessing to your wife, and she will be blessed.
Ulla once visited Rav Nachman. After Birkat Hamazon, Ulla sent the cup of blessing to Rav Nachman.
Rav Nachman said: "Will The Master now pass the cup of blessing to my wife, Yalta?"
Ulla said: "Rebbe Yochanan said: the fruits of a woman's womb are not blessed directly, but only through the fruits of the man's loins, as the Torah says: He will bless the fruit of your belly (Devarim 7:13). The verse uses the masculine form to teach us that the blessing is directed toward the belly of the man."
The same was taught in a Braita, in the name of Rebbe Natan: How do we know that the fruit's of a woman's womb are not blessed directly, but only through the fruits of the man's loins? The Torah says: "He will bless the fruit of your belly" (Devarim 7:13). The verse uses the masculine form to teach us that the blessing is directed toward the belly of the man.
When Yalta heard this exchange, she arose in fury, went to the storage room, and broke 400 barrels of wine.
Rav Nachman said: "Maybe The Master should send her another cup."
Ulla sent her a cup with the following message: "This cup is from the same barrel as the cup of blessing, so it's like the cup of blessing."
Yalta sent back the following message: "From beggars come words, and from rags come lice."
(Brachot 51b)
This was a Greek idea, that the man's emission contains the homonculus, a fully formed human in miniature, and the woman is merely the receptacle.
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