Gemara Clarity

Sanhedrin 76a

סנהדרין ע״ו ע״א

Learn Sanhedrin 76a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Sanhedrin 76a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Learning a man's forbidden relatives from his wife's, and the source for his daughter from a woman he raped.

Overview

The amud opens by testing whether a man's own relatives (הוא) can be learned from his wife's relatives (היא). The גמרא knocks the comparison down in several ways, using the two views on whether סקילה or שריפה is the harsher death. רבא then shows that the ban on his wife's daughter-in-law cannot be learned from his own daughter-in-law under either method of comparison: דון מינה ומינה or דון מינה ואוקי באתרה. Next, the גמרא asks for the source that a man's daughter from a woman he raped is forbidden. It brings three answers: אביי's קל וחומר, רבא's double גזירה שוה, and the teaching of אבוה דרבי אבין from ובת איש כהן. It then looks for the matching אזהרה, and רבי אילעא brings 'אל תחלל את בתך להזנותה'. That פסוק leads to teachings about a father who marries his daughter to an old man or delays the marriage of his grown daughter. The amud ends as אביי begins to explain רבי עקיבא's saying about who is truly 'poor'. His answer continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

מָה לְהִיא –

What about her relatives?

שֶׁכֵּן אִמָּהּ בִּשְׂרֵפָה,

they are special, since her mother is punished by burning;

תֹּאמַר בְּהוּא –

will you say the same about his relatives,

שֶׁאִמּוֹ בִּסְקִילָה?

where his mother is punished by stoning?

The steps (35)

  1. RejectionHer side is more severe because her mother gets burning
  2. RejectionHer side punishes all the same, his side does not
  3. ConclusionEven for the view that stoning is more severe, the comparison fails
  4. ChallengeThen her daughter-in-law should be forbidden too
  5. Resolutionאביי: The Verse Limits It to Your Own Son's Wife
  6. Resolutionרבא: Under Either Method of Comparison, It Does Not Follow
  7. StatementWhat Full Comparison Would Teach: Prohibition and Stoning
  8. RejectionThe Comparison Is Refuted: His Mother Gets Stoning, Hers Only Burning
  9. ChallengeA second objection: her daughter burned but her daughter-in-law stoned?
  10. RejectionHis own relatives prove that this pattern can happen
  11. RejectionThe real problem: her daughter-in-law should match her mother
  12. ConclusionEven if burning is more severe, this difficulty blocks the derivation
  13. StatementThe other method: learn the ban but keep her side's own punishment
  14. RejectionIf stoning is more severe, his side is stricter and the comparison fails
  15. RejectionAnother refutation: his side separates daughter from daughter-in-law
  16. ConclusionEven the view that burning is harsher cannot derive the law
  17. QuestionWhere do we learn the prohibition of his daughter from a woman he raped?
  18. Responseאביי: a קל וחומר from his granddaughter
  19. ChallengeWe do not punish based on a קל וחומר
  20. ResolutionIt only reveals what the פסוק already includes
  21. Statementרבא: learned through הנה–הנה and זמה–זמה
  22. StatementA new source from the פסוק of a כהן's daughter
  23. ChallengeMaybe only the daughter is burned, as with a כהן's daughter
  24. Resolutionאביי: the פסוק itself leaves out a case where the father is the sinner
  25. Resolutionרבא: the father has no other punishment to fall back on
  26. QuestionWhere is the prohibition for one's daughter from a raped woman?
  27. Responseרבי אילעא brings the verse 'Do not profane your daughter'
  28. ChallengeThat verse is needed for a different lesson
  29. ResolutionThe long word 'תחלל' teaches both lessons
  30. QuestionWhat do אביי and רבא learn from this verse?
  31. Responseרבי מני: marrying one's daughter to an old man
  32. ProofA ברייתא backs up רבי מני's reading of the פסוק
  33. Statementרבי עקיבא lists who counts as the truly 'poor' in ישראל
  34. ChallengeIsn't the delaying father himself a sneaky wicked person?
  35. Resolutionאביי begins his answer