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Yevamos 63b

יבמות ס״ג ע״ב

Yevamot 63b

Learn Yevamos 63b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Good wives and bad wives, the "vile nation" and the חברים, sayings of בן סירא, and the great importance of פריה ורביה

Overview

The amud opens with the end of a statement that wives save us from sin. רב יהודה calls his own wife both "more bitter than death" and a source of peace of mind. The גמרא explains that she was quick to anger but also quick to calm down. אביי and רבא describe a bad wife, and רבא teaches that it is a מצוה to divorce one, and that if her כתובה is too large to pay, the husband may take a second wife. Several אמוראים read harsh פסוקים as hints to a bad wife with a large כתובה, and others explain the "vile nation" as מינים, naked nations, or the חברים, Persian priests whose three decrees matched three sins of the Jews. After quotes from בן סירא about wives, temptation and life advice, the גמרא turns to פריה ורביה. רבי אסי says משיח comes only when all souls are born. A ברייתא compares not having children to spilling blood and lessening God's image. בן עזאי explains why he himself never married. A new ברייתא begins with a פסוק from במדבר, and its lesson continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

מִן הַחֵטְא.

from sin.

מַקְרֵי לֵיהּ רַב יְהוּדָה

Rav Yehuda was teaching

לְרַב יִצְחָק בְּרֵיהּ

to Rav Yitzchak, his son,

״וּמוֹצֶא אֲנִי מַר מִמָּוֶת אֶת הָאִשָּׁה״.

"And I find more bitter than death the woman."

The steps (39)

  1. ConclusionFinishing the previous statement: wives save us from sin
  2. Statementרב יהודה points to his own wife as the bitter woman
  3. ChallengeBut רב יהודה also used her as the example of a wife who brings peace
  4. ResolutionShe was hot-tempered but calmed down quickly
  5. QuestionWhat counts as a bad wife?
  6. Responseאביי: she sets the table and sets her mouth too
  7. Responseרבא: she sets the table and turns her back
  8. StatementMarriage makes a man's sins crumble away
  9. StatementThe custom in ארץ ישראל: "מצא" or "מוצא"?
  10. StatementIt is a מצוה to divorce a bad wife
  11. StatementWhen her marriage contract is too large, take a second wife
  12. StatementA bad wife is like a day of steady rain
  13. StatementHow good a good wife is, whichever way the verse is read
  14. StatementHow bad a bad wife is, whichever way the verse is read
  15. StatementAn evil they cannot escape is a bad wife with a large כתובה
  16. StatementGiven into hands I cannot rise from
  17. StatementIn the West: one who must buy all his food
  18. StatementChildren given to another people is a stepmother
  19. StatementA vile nation is a bad wife with a large כתובה
  20. Statementרבי אליעזר: the vile nation is heretics
  21. StatementA ברייתא: the vile nation are people who walk naked in public
  22. Statementרבי יוחנן: the vile nation are the חברים
  23. Statementרבי יוחנן falls in fear, then sits up when he hears they take bribes
  24. StatementThree decrees of the חברים: meat and bathhouses
  25. StatementThe third decree: digging up the dead
  26. Statementרבה בר שמואל: the פסוק means digging up the dead
  27. Challengeרבא asks: how can death be chosen if the dead lie unburied?
  28. Resolutionרבה בר מארי: death is better for the wicked so they stop sinning
  29. Statementבן סירא on good, bad, and beautiful wives
  30. StatementWarning to stay away from another man's attractive wife
  31. Statementבן סירא's advice on worry, guests, and secrets
  32. Statementמשיח comes only after all souls are born
  33. StatementNot having children is like spilling blood
  34. Statementרבי יעקב: Not having children lessens God's image
  35. Statementבן עזאי: It is both shedding blood and lessening the image
  36. ChallengeThe חכמים challenge בן עזאי for not practicing what he teaches
  37. Resolutionבן עזאי: My soul longs for תורה
  38. StatementAnother version of the same ברייתא
  39. StatementNew ברייתא opens: 'Return, ה׳, to the myriads of thousands of Israel'