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Yevamos 26a

יבמות כ״ו ע״א

Yevamot 26a

Learn Yevamos 26a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Yevamos 26a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

When the men who freed a woman may marry her, and the start of the chapter on two sisters who fall to the same brothers for יבום.

Overview

The amud opens by finishing a point from the previous page: a rumor alone is not enough to take a woman away from her husband. Then a משנה teaches when the men who helped free a woman to remarry may marry her themselves. They may do so if their own wives died, or if she married someone else in between. She may also always marry their sons or brothers. The גמרא first discusses whether divorcing one's own wife also lifts the ban. It answers that this depends on whether there was a quarrel, or on who started it. Next it reads the 'married someone else' case as one death and one divorce, so the משנה fits רבי's view of חזקה after two times. It then explains why his sons and brothers may marry her, and why the משנה does not bother to mention his father. Then the chapter כיצד אשת אחיו ends, and a new משנה teaches that two sisters who fall to the same brothers for יבום must do חליצה, except when an ערוה cuts the bond. The גמרא asks whether this proves that זיקה is real, suggests another reason based on not losing the מצוה of יבום, and begins a new challenge that continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

בִּרְנָנָה — לָא מַפְּקִינַן,

Because of a rumor, we do not remove her,

הָכָא נָמֵי — בִּרְנָנָה לָא מַפְּקִינַן.

here too, because of a rumor we do not remove her.

מַתְנִי׳

MISHNA:

וְכוּלָּם שֶׁהָיוּ לָהֶם נָשִׁים וּמֵתוּ —

And all of them who had wives, and the wives died,

The steps (29)

  1. ConclusionNo removing a wife because of a rumor
  2. StatementIf their own wives died, they may marry her
  3. StatementIf she married someone else in between, they may marry her
  4. StatementShe may marry their sons or brothers
  5. StatementOnly if the wife died, not if she was divorced
  6. ChallengeA teaching says even divorce is allowed
  7. ResolutionIt depends on whether there was a quarrel
  8. ResolutionIt depends on who started the quarrel
  9. StatementFirst assumption about the next line of the משנה
  10. ChallengeDoes the משנה go against רבי?
  11. RejectionThe משנה can mean one death and one divorce
  12. StatementThe suspected women may marry the man's sons or brothers
  13. ChallengeWhy is this different from a suspect being forbidden to the woman's relatives?
  14. ResolutionWomen often stay at each other's homes, but men do not
  15. ResolutionMen watch each other closely, women do not
  16. ChallengeWhy not list the father too?
  17. ResolutionThe father is obvious; the son is the real news
  18. Conclusionהדרן — Closing כיצד אשת אחיו
  19. StatementTwo sisters fall to the same brothers
  20. Statementרבי אליעזר reports a dispute
  21. StatementWhen one sister is an ערוה to one brother
  22. StatementLighter prohibitions still require חליצה
  23. StatementEach sister is an ערוה to a different brother
  24. StatementThis is the case of 'her sister who is her יבמה'
  25. ProofProof from the משנה that זיקה is real
  26. RejectionMaybe there is no זיקה, only a worry that the מצוה will be lost
  27. ChallengeThen why not teach the case with three brothers?
  28. ResolutionThe משנה teaches 'not only three, but even four'
  29. ChallengeOpening a new challenge