Yevamos 121a

יבמות קכ״א ע״א

Yevamot 121a

Learn Yevamos 121a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

When we can be sure a husband has died: identifying a body, a man lost in water with or without an end, and falls into dangerous pits.

Overview

The amud opens by finishing a line from the previous page about why an attacker is not fully responsible for a death. Either the wind or the victim himself hurried it, and the גמרא shows a case where only one of these reasons applies. Next the גמרא asks whether רבי יהודה בן בבא disagrees with the three-day limit for identifying a body in order to be lenient or to be strict. Two drowning cases seem to prove he was lenient, but the גמרא answers that water is different: it keeps a body without a wound tight and recognizable, as long as it is seen right when it is pulled out. A new משנה rules that if a man falls into water and is not seen again, his wife may not remarry. רבי מאיר and רבי יוסי each bring stories to illustrate. The ברייתא shows that the חכמים permit the wife when the water has an end, meaning all its shores can be seen, and אביי defines that term. The story of רב שילא, who wrongly permitted a wife in the lake of סמקי, and several survival stories, including רבי עקיבא and רבי מאיר at sea, show why the rule for water with no end is strict. The amud ends with a ברייתא about a man who fell into a lions' den or a pit of snakes, and רבי יהודה בן בתירא's reason for his opinion continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (36)

1. QuestionWhat difference is there between the two reasons?
2. ResponseMarble house versus open field
3. QuestionIs רבי יהודה בן בבא more lenient or more strict?
4. ProofA drowned man found after three days
5. ProofA second drowned man found after five days
6. ProofThe drowning stories seem to show רבי יהודה בן בבא was lenient
7. RejectionWater is different because it shrinks the body
8. ChallengeBut we said water makes a wound worse
9. ResolutionWater swells a wound, but shrinks a body with no wound
10. StatementOnly if the body is seen right after it is pulled out
11. StatementA man who fell into water: his wife may not remarry
12. Proofרבי מאיר: a man came out of a pit after three days
13. Proofרבי יוסי: the blind man and his guide in the cave
14. ProofThe man in עסיא whose leg came back: above or below the knee
15. Statementרבי מאיר and the חכמים argue about water with and without an end
16. QuestionWhat counts as water with an end?
17. Responseאביי: you can see the shore on all four sides
18. Statementרב שילא permits a wife, and רב wants to put him in נידוי
19. QuestionFirst question to רב שילא: what is the law in endless water?
20. Responseרב שילא: in endless water, the wife is forbidden
21. QuestionSecond question: is the lake of סמקי endless water?
22. Responseרב שילא: the lake of סמקי has no end
23. ChallengeSo why did רב שילא permit her?
24. Responseרב שילא admits his mistake about the lake
25. Conclusionרב and שמואל praise each other with verses
26. ProofThe fisherman in the fish cave in the Jordan
27. ChallengeWhy not worry about a fish cave in water with an end too
28. ResolutionFish caves are uncommon in water with an end
29. Statementרב אשי: A Torah scholar would be known if he survived
30. RejectionNo difference between scholar and ordinary person
31. Proofרבן גמליאל sees רבי עקיבא survive a shipwreck
32. StatementSide lesson: bow your head before the wicked
33. Proofרבן גמליאל praises the חכמים' rule
34. Proofרבי עקיבא sees רבי מאיר survive at sea
35. StatementLions' den versus a pit of snakes and scorpions
36. Statementרבי יהודה בן בתירא: not even the snake pit