Kiddushin 76a

קידושין ע״ו ע״א

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Topic

Why כותים may not marry into the Jewish people, and the משנה on checking a bride's female ancestors before marriage

Overview

The amud opens by finishing the explanations of why חכמים barred כותים from marrying into the Jewish people. First reason: they read the יבום פסוק backwards, so married widows wed outsiders, and according to רבי עקיבא a child from such a לאו is a ממזר. Second reason, 'יש אומרים': כותים are not expert in the details of מצוות. רב אידי בר אבין shows that this is רבי אליעזר's view, and that here it means the laws of קידושין and גירושין. רב נחמן adds that ממזרים were mixed in among the כותים, and רבא says a slave and a maidservant were mixed in. Each time the גמרא asks why two examples are given, and answers that this is simply what happened. A new משנה then teaches which female ancestors a man must check before marrying a כהנת or another woman. It also teaches where the checking stops: at an ancestor who served at the מזבח, on the דוכן, in the סנהדרין, or in other trusted roles. The גמרא explains why only the mothers are checked, and why the woman need not check the man, citing רב. It then brings other counts of the mothers, twelve and sixteen, and starts comparing them. That comparison continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (27)

1. StatementThey exempt fully married widows from יבום
2. QuestionHow did they get this reading?
3. ResponseReading the word 'outside' as describing the widow
4. StatementWhy this makes them ממזרים: רבי עקיבא's rule
5. StatementA second reason: not expert in the details of מצוות
6. QuestionWho is 'some say'?
7. Responseרב אידי בר אבין: it is רבי אליעזר
8. ProofProof from the מצה of a כותי on פסח
9. QuestionWhat details are they not expert in here?
10. ResponseNot expert in the laws of קידושין and גירושין
11. Statementרב נחמן: ממזרים were mixed in among the כותים
12. ChallengeWhy mention two kinds of ממזר?
13. ResolutionThat is simply how it happened
14. Statementרבא: a slave and a maidservant were mixed in
15. ChallengeOnly the maidservant causes the problem
16. ResolutionAgain, that is how it happened
17. StatementNew משנה: which mothers must be checked
18. StatementWhen checking can stop
19. StatementWitnesses in the old court of ציפורי need no checking
20. StatementMen in the king's army list need no checking
21. QuestionWhy check the mothers but not the fathers?
22. ResponseMen's quarrels bring lineage problems into the open
23. ChallengeWhy doesn't the woman check the man?
24. ResolutionFit women may marry flawed men, as רב says
25. Statementרב אדא בר אהבה counts twelve women
26. StatementA ברייתא counts sixteen women
27. QuestionStarting to explain the twelve count