Yevamos 88a

יבמות פ״ח ע״א

Yevamot 88a

Learn Yevamos 88a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Yevamos 88a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Why one witness is believed that a husband died (ending with רבי זירא and the concern for an עגונה), and רב's limit on the rule that she must leave both men.

Overview

The גמרא is looking for the reason one witness (עד אחד) is believed that a woman's husband died, so she may remarry. First it rejects a proof from a case about חלב: there the person brings a קרבן because his silence counts as admitting, not because one witness is believed. Next it tries plain logic, comparing the case to a doubtful piece of meat. It then argues that since two witnesses could free her, one should be believed too, like with טבל, הקדש and קונמות. But it checks each of those examples and finds that the witness is believed only because he could fix the item himself, or else the case has no source of its own. So רבי זירא gives a new reason: because she is punished so harshly if the husband returns, she will check carefully, and the רבנן could be lenient with one witness to keep her from being an עגונה. The גמרא then turns to the משנה's rule that she must leave both men. רב limits that rule to a woman who remarried on one witness, and the case is narrowed to a returning man people don't recognize, with proof from יוסף's brothers. The amud ends with a challenge: in the two-witness case it is two against two, so why may she stay?

Opening lines

The steps (22)

1. QuestionWhy do the רבנן obligate a קרבן?
2. ChallengeEven two witnesses are not enough when he denies it
3. RejectionThe real reason: silence counts as admitting
4. ProofIt is logic, like a doubtful piece of meat
5. ChallengeA married woman already has a forbidden status
6. ChallengeThe better comparison: meat that is surely חלב
7. ResolutionIf two would be believed, one is believed too
8. QuestionWhat exactly is the case of untithed produce?
9. ChallengeSomeone else's produce gives no real source
10. ChallengeThe same problem with consecrated property
11. ChallengeThe same problem with קונמות
12. ChallengeThe last comparison fails, so the original question is back
13. Resolutionרבי זירא: strict at the end, so lenient at the start
14. ChallengeWhy not skip both the strictness and the leniency?
15. ResolutionThe leniency is to prevent an עגונה
16. Statementרב: she must leave both only if she married on one witness
17. Challengeארץ ישראל laughs: the husband is standing right here!
18. Resolutionרב means a case where we don't recognize the man
19. ChallengeIf we don't know him, why must she leave even with one witness?
20. ResolutionTwo people say they were with him the whole time
21. ProofProof from יוסף that a person's looks can change
22. ChallengeIn the end it is two witnesses against two