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Week 54 - Shabbat - 9 December 2000

YEVAMOT: CHAPTER 8: MISHNAH 6

A sun-eunuch priest who married the daughter of an Israelite, bestows on her the right to eat terumah. Rabbi Yose and Rabbi Shimon say, An androgynous priest who married a dauther of an Israelite bestows on her the right to eat terumah. Rabbi Yehudah says, A tumtum that was torn and was found to be a male, does not submit to halitzah, because he is accounted a eunuch. An androgyne may marry, but may not be married. Rabbi Eliezer says, One is liable to stoning on account of an androgyne, as on accout of a male.

Kehati

A sun-eunuch priest -- a priest who was a eunuch from his mother's womb (as explained in 8:4), who married the daughter of an Israelite -- even though he is unable to beget, bestows on her the right to eat terumah -- since he is fit to enter into the assembly.

Rabbi Yose and Rabbi Shimon say, An androgyne -- who has both male and female characteristics; Rabbi Yose and Rabbi Shimon hold that he is accounted a male, and therefore if he is a priest who married a daughter of an Israelite he bestows on her the right to eat terumah -- the Gemara states that Rabbi yose changed his opinion, since he says in the baraita: "An androgyne is a creature in its own right, and the Sages did not decide if it is male or female" (see Bik. 4:5); therefore, if he is a priest, he may eat terumah, but he does not give his wife the right to eat terumah. This is the halakhah.

Rabbi Yehudah says, A tumtum -- in whom neither male nor female characteristics are visible, that -- the skin covering its sexual organs -- was torn and was found to be a male -- he has the sexual organ of the male, nevertheless he does not submit to halitzah -- if his brother's wife comes before him for yibum, he does not submit to halitzah from her, because he is accounted a eunuch -- who neither performs yibum nor submits to halitzah. The halakhah does not follow Rabbi Yehudah (see Bartenura; see also Tosefot Rabbi Akiva Eiger).

An androgyne may marry -- a woman, but he may not be married -- to a man, because he is accounted a male.

Rabbi Eliezer says, One -- who has intercourse with an androgyne is liable to stoning on account of an androygne as the law (Lev. 20:13) prescribes for a man who has intercourse with a male -- the Gemara explains that thsi applies only if he has a connexion with him as with a male, but the person who has intercourse with him through his female organ is exempt from the Court-imposed death penalty. This is the halakhah (Rambam, Hil. Isurei Bi'ah 1:15).

YEVAMOT: CHAPTER 9: MISHNAH 1

There are those permitted to their husbands and prohibited to their yevamim, permitted to their yevamim and prohibited to their husbands, permitted to these and to these, and prohibited to these and to these. And these are permitted to their husbands and prohibited to their yevamim: a common priest who married a widow, and he has a brother a High Priest; a halal who married a fit and he has aritually fit brother; an Israelite who married the daughter of an Israelite, and he has a mamzer brother; a mamzer who married a mamzeret, and he has an Israelite brother -- are permitted to their husbands and prohibited to their yevamim.

Kehati

"The normal practice of the Tanna, after he has explained the laws of the Tractate, is to teach them once again in concise language, so that they will be memorized in an orderly fashion, and kept in your mouth and in your mind" (Tosafot).

There are those women who are permitted to their husbands and -- if their husbands died childless, they are -- prohibited to their yevamim; and there are women who are permitted to their yevamim and prohibited to their husbands; and there are women who are permitted to these -- their husbands, and to these -- their yevamim, and -- there are those who are -- prohibited to these -- their husbands, and to these -- their yevamim.

And these are permitted to their husbands and prohibited to their yevamim: a common priest who married a widow, and he has a brother a High Priest -- this woman was permitted to her husband, but she is prohibited to her yavam, for a widow is prohibited to a High Priest. This is also the law regarding a common priest who wed a virgin, for when he died she became a widow, and she is prohibited to a High Priest. The Tanna mentioned "widow" on account of the second section of this law (in mishnah 2, below), which teaches the case of a High Priest who married a widow;

And a halal -- a priest born to a woman who is unfit to marry a priest, e.g., his mother was a divorcee when she married his father, who married a woman fit to marry into the priesthood, and he has a ritually fit brother -- a fit priest. Thus she was permitted to her husband, for fit women were not enjoined not to marry unfit men, but she is forbidden to marry his brother by yibum, because she became ineligible for the priesthood by intercourse with the halal (see Tosefot Yom Tov, who quotes another version);

An Israelite who married the daughter of an Israelite, and he has a mamzer brother -- she is prohibited from being married to him as his yevamah (as was taught in 2:4);

A mamzer who married a mamzeret, and he has an Israelite brother -- who is prohibited from marrying his yevamah as she is a mamzereti; all of these are permitted to their husbands and prohibited to their yevamim -- as was explained for each case.

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