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Shevuos 48a

שבועות מ״ח ע״א

Shevuot 48a

Learn Shevuos 48a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Shevuos 48a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Contradicting new-moon witnesses, the storekeeper and money changer cases, and רב and שמואל's rule that a person cannot pass an oath down to his heirs, with the challenges to it.

Overview

The amud opens by finishing a challenge to רב חסדא from a ברייתא about witnesses who disagree on the new moon's height. רבא explains that 'joining another testimony' means only another ראש חודש testimony, where it becomes two against one. Next the גמרא returns to the משנה's customer cases: רבי יהודה limits the oath to when the produce is still lying there, and the גמרא shows why the storekeeper case and the money changer case are both needed. Then the גמרא explains that orphans need an oath when they collect a debt from the borrower's orphans. רב and שמואל add that if the borrower died first, the lender's heirs cannot collect at all, because a person cannot pass an oath down to his children. רבי אלעזר disagrees, and רבי אמי tries to split the cases by whether the lender already stood in court. רב נחמן rejects that split and says the rule is all-or-nothing, a statement made within רבי מאיר's view. The rest of the amud brings משניות about a widow's heirs, a second wife's heirs, and a husband's heirs, all answered in line with רב and שמואל. A new challenge from רב נתן בר הושעיא begins at the end and continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

אֶחָד אוֹמֵר גָּבוֹהַּ שְׁתֵּי מַרְדְּעוֹת

One witness says: it was two oxgoads high

וְאֶחָד אוֹמֵר שָׁלֹשׁ –

and the other one says: three

עֵדוּתָן קַיֶּימֶת.

their testimony stands.

אֶחָד אוֹמֵר שָׁלֹשׁ וְאֶחָד אוֹמֵר חָמֵשׁ –

If one says three and the other says five,

The steps (26)

  1. ChallengeA ברייתא about witnesses who disagree on the moon's height
  2. ChallengeDoes 'another testimony' mean money cases?
  3. Resolutionרבא: it means another new-moon testimony
  4. StatementBack to the משנה: the customer and the storekeeper
  5. Statementרבי יהודה limits the customer's oath
  6. ResolutionWhy the משנה needs the money changer case too
  7. ResolutionFinishing why both cases are needed
  8. StatementQuoting the משנה about orphans collecting
  9. ChallengeFrom whom do the orphans collect?
  10. ResolutionOrphans collecting from orphans
  11. Statementרב and שמואל: only if the lender died first
  12. QuestionAsking רבי אלעזר about this oath
  13. Responseרבי אלעזר: heirs swear and collect
  14. Statementרבי אמי prepares to say something
  15. Responseרבי אמי splits the cases by whether they already stood in court
  16. Challengeרב נחמן: the court does not create the oath
  17. Statementרב נחמן: either accept רב and שמואל or don't
  18. ChallengeBut רב נחמן ruled in a real case that they divide
  19. ResolutionHe spoke according to רבי מאיר, but did not hold that way himself
  20. Challengeרב אושעיא challenges from a widow's heirs collecting her כתובה
  21. ResolutionThe widow had already sworn before she died
  22. ChallengeThe second wife's heirs collect first
  23. ResolutionHere too, she swore before she died
  24. ChallengeThe husband's heirs can make her heirs swear
  25. ResolutionTwo separate cases: widow and divorcée
  26. ChallengeA son's power can be greater than his father's