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Yevamos 115a

יבמות קט״ו ע״א

Yevamot 115a

Learn Yevamos 115a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

How far a wife's report, or one witness, is trusted about a husband's death in war, fire, or at sea.

Overview

This amud asks how far we trust a report that a husband died when the danger was war, fire, or the sea. First the גמרא finishes asking whether a woman who says 'there was war and my husband died' is believed because of מה לי לשקר, or whether we worry she is only guessing (בדדמי). Two ברייתות are brought as proof, a smoke-filled house or cave and an attack by bandits, and each is pushed aside with its own special reason. Next comes a story of a fire at a wedding, where the wife cried 'Look at my husband!' and a burnt body and a hand were found. רב חייא בר אבין compares it to the smoke case, and רבא disagrees. The גמרא then shows how רב חייא בר אבין explains away the evidence. Then a new question opens: is one witness believed about a death in war? The story of נחמיה איש בית דלי is turned away by רבא's reading. The story of a sunken ship is also rejected, because the women must have seen the bodies brought up, and that discussion continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

דְּאִי בָּעֲיָא אָמְרָה:

Because if she wanted, she could have said:

״שָׁלוֹם בָּעוֹלָם״.

'There was peace in the world.'

אוֹ דִלְמָא: כֵּיוָן דְּאִיחַזְקָה —

Or perhaps: since it has become established (that there was war),

אָמְרָה בִּדְדָמֵי,

she says what she imagines happened,

The steps (16)

  1. QuestionThe two sides of the question: believe her, or worry she is guessing?
  2. ProofProof attempt: the smoke-filled house or cave
  3. RejectionRejected: in a fire, he may have been saved by a miracle too
  4. ProofSecond proof attempt: attacked by גוים or bandits
  5. RejectionRejected: a woman's 'weapons' protect her, as רב אידי taught
  6. StatementA story: fire breaks out at the end of a wedding
  7. Statementרב חייא בר אבין compares the canopy fire to the smoke case
  8. Rejectionרבא: the canopy case is not like the smoke case
  9. ResolutionHow רב חייא בר אבין explains away the evidence
  10. QuestionIs one witness believed about a death in war?
  11. Proofרמי בר חמא: רבי עקיבא's story about troops
  12. ProofReading the story as proof that one witness is believed in wartime
  13. Challengeרבא asks why he said 'this land' and not 'any place'
  14. Rejectionרבא's reading: the troops only explain why he couldn't come in person
  15. ProofProof from the sunken ship where רבי relied on women
  16. RejectionThe ship case must mean the women saw the bodies