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Yevamos 108b

יבמות ק״ח ע״ב

Yevamot 108b

Learn Yevamos 108b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

When a קטנה's מיאון cancels a גט, and who may marry her afterwards

Overview

The משנה teaches that when a young girl (קטנה) leaves a man, what counts is how she left him. If she left him with a גט, she may not go back to him. If she left him by מיאון, she may. The גמרא finds two parts of the משנה that seem to clash over whether a מיאון cancels an earlier גט. שמואל says the two parts come from different תנאים. רבא instead explains that a girl's מיאון against the same man is different from a מיאון against another man. רבא then shows a real clash between two cases about another man. רבי אלעזר answers that the משנה has two authors, and עולא answers that the strict case is a girl divorced three times, who looks like an adult. A story about questions sent to רבי עקיבא in prison names the strict תנאים. רבי ישמעאל ברבי יוסי tells the story differently, as a question about מיאון after a death for the sake of יבום. Two versions of רב יצחק בר אשיאן disagree about whether she may marry the ex-husband's brother. A new משנה about a remarried divorcee and the יבם then begins and continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

זֶה הַכְּלָל:

This is the principle:

גֵּט אַחַר מֵיאוּן —

If the bill of divorce came after the refusal,

אֲסוּרָה לַחְזוֹר לוֹ,

she is forbidden to return to him;

מֵיאוּן אַחַר גֵּט —

if the refusal came after the bill of divorce,

The steps (25)

  1. StatementThe basic rule: which came last, the divorce or the refusal?
  2. StatementA girl married to four men in a row
  3. StatementThe גמרא's reading: a refusal cancels a divorce
  4. ChallengeThe second case seems to say the opposite
  5. Resolutionשמואל: Two different authors wrote these two rulings
  6. Rejectionרבא: There is no contradiction. Her refusal of the same man is different
  7. ChallengeChallenge: The same worry should apply to both cases
  8. ResolutionAnswer: He already tried to sway her and failed
  9. Challengeרבא: The real contradiction is between two other-man cases
  10. ChallengeThe משנה's closing rule says a later refusal does not undo the earlier divorce
  11. Resolutionרבי אלעזר says the משנה comes from two different authors
  12. Resolutionעולא says the strict case is one where she was divorced three times
  13. QuestionWhich תנא holds the strict view?
  14. Responseרב reads a פסוק about paying for water, and introduces the question asked in a time of danger
  15. Responseרבי עקיבא and רבי יהודה בן בתירה both forbid her
  16. RejectionThe question about returning to the first husband was never asked
  17. QuestionThe real question: may she refuse after a death so that יבום can happen
  18. Responseרבי עקיבא and רבי יהודה בן בתירה forbade it
  19. Statementרב agrees she may marry the brother of the man she is forbidden to
  20. ChallengeWhy say the brother is permitted? It is obvious
  21. ResolutionWe might have made a decree banning the brother too
  22. StatementSecond version: she is forbidden to the brothers too
  23. ChallengeBut she does not know the brothers' signals
  24. ResolutionA decree on the brothers because of the ex-husband
  25. StatementNew משנה: a remarried divorcee may go to the יבם