Yevamos 120a

יבמות ק״כ ע״א

Yevamot 120a

Learn Yevamos 120a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

רבי אלעזר's reason for permitting the צרה, and the rules for identifying a dead man by his face and by סימנים

Overview

The amud opens by asking what difference it makes which reason stands behind רבי אלעזר's ruling. One possible reason is צרה מעידה לחברתה. The other is that the woman would not ruin herself by marrying if her husband were alive. The difference is whether her צרה may marry before she herself marries. Two proofs are brought from רבי אלעזר's words, and both are pushed away. The first is answered with 'לדבריהם קאמר'. The second is answered by reading 'permitted and married', and that reading is then defended by placing the case where she married a כהן. The רבנן reject the whole idea, because she might act like שמשון: 'תמות נפשי עם פלשתים'. A new משנה then teaches that one may testify that a man died only after seeing his face with the nose, seeing that he actually died, and seeing the body within three days. רבי יהודה בן בבא disagrees with the fixed three-day limit. The גמרא explains the face requirement with a ברייתא, a פסוק and the story of אבא בר מרתא. It then asks whether סימנים are valid by Torah law. אביי answers that this is a מחלוקת תנאים about a mole, and רבא gives several versions explaining that מחלוקת differently, which continue on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (22)

1. ResponseThe practical difference: may the rival wife marry first?
2. QuestionSo which reason is right?
3. ProofProof from רבי אלעזר's wording: they already married
4. Rejectionרבי אלעזר was arguing on the רבנן's own terms
5. StatementWhy the רבנן still disagree: 'Let me die with the Philistines'
6. ProofA ברייתא where the rival is permitted as soon as the wife is permitted
7. RejectionRead it as permitted and already married
8. ChallengeMaybe she was really divorced and wants to trap her rival
9. ResolutionShe married a כהן, so she must be a widow
10. StatementNew משנה: identification needs the face with the nose
11. StatementHe must have truly died, and the body must be seen within three days
12. Statementרבי יהודה בן בבא: bodies change at different speeds
13. Statementברייתא: forehead, face and nose are all needed
14. ProofThe verse that shows the face is the way to recognize someone
15. Proofאבא בר מרתא hides his forehead and is not recognized
16. QuestionDoes the משנה mean identifying signs are not from the Torah?
17. ChallengeA lost גט identified by signs is valid
18. Resolutionאביי says the two sources follow different תנאים
19. ProofThe מחלוקת about testifying based on a mole
20. Rejectionרבא says the question is whether such a mole is common
21. RejectionSecond version: does a mole change after death?
22. RejectionA third version: everyone holds סימנים are rabbinic, and the argument is about a mole