Torah Community Connections

Week 58 - Wednesday - 3 January 2001

YEVAMOT: CHAPTER 14: MISHNAH 9

If two brothers, one a deaf-mute and one of sound senses, are married to two unrelated women, one a deaf-mute and one of sound senses; and the male deaf-mute, husband of the female deaf-mute, died, what shall the man of sound senses, husband of the woman of sound senses, do? He weds, and if he wants to send her away -- he sends her away. If the man of sound senses, husband of the woman of sound senses, died, what shall the male deaf-mute, husband of the female deaf-mute, do? He weds, and may never send her away.

Kehati

If two brothers, one a deaf-mute and one of sound senses, are married to two unrelated women, one a deaf-mute and one of sound senses -- the male deaf-mute to the female deaf-mute, and the man of sound senses to the woman of sound senses;

And the male deaf-mute, husband of the female deaf-mute, died -- and his wife came before his brother of sound senses for yibum, what shall the man of sound senses, husband of the woman of sound senses, do? He weds -- his yevamah, the female deaf-mute, but he may not submit to halitzah from her, because the law of halitzah does not apply to a female deaf-mute, and if he wants to send her away -- the yevamah, he sends her away -- with a bill of divorce, after the yibum.

If the man of sound senses, husband of the woman of sound senses, died -- and his wife came before his deaf-mute for yibum, what shall the male deaf-mute, husband of the female deaf-mute, do? He weds -- his yevamah, and may never send her away -- since he is a deaf-mute, and his bill of divorce, which is effective by Rabbinic law, does not have the power to cancel her yibum tie to him, which is a result of the fully valid marriage of his brother, which was valid by Torah law.

YEVAMOT: CHAPTER 15: MISHNAH 1

If a woman went with her husband overseas, and there was peace between him and her and peace in the world, and she came and said, "My husband died" -- she may marry; "My husband died" -- she may marry by yibum. If there is peace between him and her but there is war in the world, there is a dispute between him but her and peace in the world, and she came and said, "My husband died" -- she is not believed. Rabbi Yehudah says, She is never believed, unless she came weeping and her garments were rent. They said to him, It is all one, -- she may marry.

Kehati

This and the following chapter, the last two chapters of the Tractate, resume the subject of the woman whose husband died overseas, some of whose laws have already been taught in Chapter. 10, above.

If a woman went with her husband overseas -- i.e., to a distant land, if there is peace between him and her and peace in the world -- the Gemara explains that the mishnah used in this clause in order to teach in the second section of the mishnah the case in which "there is a dispute between him and her," or "there is war in the world". Regarding this case, however, it is not necessary to know specifically that there is peace between him and her, or that there is peace in the world, because this is the law also in an unspecified case; and she -- the woman, came -- from overseas, and said -- to the Court,

"My husband died -- permit me to marry," she may marry -- they permit her to be married, for they believe her; and similarly, if she said, "My husband died" -- and he has no children, she may marry by yibum -- they permit her to marry by yibum her husband's brother. Even though she is presumed to be a married woman, and she does not have witnesses that her husband died, nevertheless, because of the enactment regarding agunot (deserted wives), the Sages were lenient to believe her. For a woman is presumed not to marry until she investigates thoroughly and it is clear to her that her husband has died, since she fears that her husband may return after she marries, and as a result she will have ruined herself, for she will be prohibited to her first and second husbands, she will lose her ketubah, and her children will be mamzerim, as children of a married woman who married another. Hence the Sages stated that the woman is believed when she says that her husband died.

If there is peace between him and her but there is war in the world, or there is a dispute between him and her but peace in the world, and she came and said, "My husband died" -- she is not believed -- for if there is war in the world, we fear, that her husband went and did not return, and she says, on the basis of conjecture alone, that he died. And if there is a dispute between him and her, we fear, that out of hatred for her husband she wishes to prohibit herself to him. The Gemara explains the meaning of "there is a dispute between him and her" -- e.g., she said to her husband, "You divorced me in the presence of so-and-so and so-and-so," and they said, This is completely untrue.

Rabbi Yehudah says, She is never believed -- when she says that her husband died, unless she came weeping and her garments were rent -- because of her mourning for her husband.

They -- the Sages, said to him -- Rabbi Yehudah, It is all one, -- whether she is weeping and her garments are rent, or she is not weeping and her garments are not rent, she may marry -- when she says that her husband has died. The Gemara quotes a baraita: "They said to Rabbi Yehudah, According to your opinion, the shrewd woman (who knows how to act and come weeping and with rent garments, so that they will believe her) may marry, and an ingenuous woman (who does not take care to corroborate her words by coming weeping and with rent garments -- Tosefot Yom Tov) may not marry? Rather, it is all one, and she may marry."

Return to Mishna Yomit Index

Visit the Mishna Yomit Archives