Yevamos 121b

יבמות קכ״א ע״ב

Yevamot 121b

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Topic

Confirming a husband's death: certain-death cases, miracles in the great pit, and trusting overheard talk and a גוי's casual report

Overview

This amud continues the discussion of when we may accept that a missing husband has died, so his wife can remarry. It first finishes a disagreement about a man who fell among snakes and scorpions. Then it brings a ברייתא about a man who fell into a furnace or a boiling cauldron. Next it discusses רבי מאיר's story of a man who survived three days in the great pit. The חכמים answer that we do not learn from miracles, and the גמרא explains that staying awake for three days is the miracle. A related story tells how the daughter of נחוניא חופר שיחין was saved from the same pit, and how ה׳ judges the righteous very strictly. A new משנה then allows even overheard talk of women or children to count, and it trusts a גוי only when he speaks casually (מסיח לפי תומו). Through stories of reports about חיואי, a horseman, and חסא who drowned, the גמרא teaches that a wife whose husband fell into מים שאין להם סוף may not remarry from the start, but stays married if she already did. A final story about a גוי's boast continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (39)

1. StatementThe worry that he may be a snake charmer
2. ResolutionWhy the first opinion is not worried about charmers
3. StatementFalling into a furnace or a boiling cauldron
4. Statementרבי אחא: oil is fatal, wine might not be
5. RejectionThe answer: wine feeds the fire in the end
6. StatementQuoting רבי מאיר's story from the משנה
7. ChallengeThe חכמים: we do not learn from miracles
8. QuestionWhat was the miracle?
9. ChallengeNot eating or drinking is not a miracle
10. ResolutionThe miracle was going without sleep
11. Proofרבי יוחנן: no one can stay awake three days
12. QuestionWhat is רבי מאיר's reason?
13. ResponseThere were arches inside the cistern
14. RejectionThe חכמים say the arches were marble
15. Resolutionרבי מאיר: he must have dozed a little
16. Statementנחוניא's daughter falls into the Great Cistern
17. StatementHow she was saved, and how רבי חנינא בן דוסא knew
18. Statementרבי אבא: Yet נחוניא's son died of thirst
19. Statementרבי חנינא learns the same idea from a different פסוק
20. StatementEven overheard talk of women or children is enough
21. StatementA Jew may testify on purpose, a non-Jew only casually
22. ChallengeMaybe the children never went
23. ResolutionThe children say they are coming back from the burial
24. ChallengeMaybe they buried a grasshopper
25. ResolutionThe children name the rabbis and eulogizers who were there
26. Statementשמואל narrows the rule about a non-Jew who means to testify
27. QuestionHow can we tell what the non-Jew intended?
28. Responseרב יוסף: it depends on what he asks the court
29. Statementריש לקיש says the same as שמואל
30. Challengeרבי יוחנן: the Sages already rejected this view
31. ChallengeThen when is a non-Jew ever believed?
32. ResolutionAnswer: when he speaks casually
33. ProofExample: the man calling out about חיואי
34. ProofExample: the brave horseman of פומבדיתא
35. StatementThe story of חסא who drowned
36. Conclusionרב אשי: endless water forbids her only from the start
37. StatementSecond version: רב נחמן himself let חסא's wife remarry
38. RejectionRejecting the 'great man' reasoning
39. StatementA non-Jew boasts that he killed a Jew, and the widow comes to אביי