Jastrow, שֶׁמָּא

שֶׁמָּא (= שַׁלָּמָּה, v. דִּילְמָא I) [for why,] 1) lest, perhaps. Ab. II, 4, v. פָּנָה. Y. Ab. Zar. I, 39ᶜ top [read:] אי לי ש׳ מי שכתוב … עקב יבוא לנשכיני woe is me, (I am afraid,) lest he of whom it is written (Gen. III, 15) … come to bite me; Bab. Ab. Zar. 8ᵃ אוי לי ש׳ בשביל וכ׳ woe is me, lest the world grow dark around me, because I have sinned. Keth. 12ᵃ וניחוש ש׳ תחתיו וכ׳ but must we not consider the possibility that she may have prostituted herself while she was engaged to him?; a. fr. —2) שמא m. apprehension, doubt, possibility. Ib. 14ᵃ התם ברי הכא ש׳ there she asserts a certainty, here a possibility (as she cannot be certain about it herself). Ib. וקיל ליה ש׳ וכ׳ and he regards this statement of a possibility so lightly that &c. Ib. אפי׳ בש׳ נמי מכשיר even with her uncertain assertion he declares her fit for marriage. Ib. 12ᵇ, a. fr. ברי וש׳, v. בָּרִי; a. fr.