Resources for Yevamos daf 75

1.      רב יוסף ענגיל in ספר לקח טוב in כלל ט"ז אות ה has an interesting חקירה relevant to all of ש"ס: is something more חשוב when it has a greater quality even for a short time or is something not as strong but that lasts longer more חשוב (similar to the saying “making it up in volume”)? He brings many proofs. One is from our גמרא. Our גמרא makes a צריכותא from זב and יולדת. It says maybe זב is stronger because it doesn’t have the חסרון of הותר מכללו. On the other hand, יולדת might be stronger because it lasts longer. He says that צריכותא is exactly his חקירה—is length of time more paramount or quality more paramount? Another example is the גמרא in שבת דף כ"ג about חנוכה. It says that אביי used to light his menorah with sesame oil because it lasted longer. The he heard that you should use olive oil because it is clearer. That sounds like quality is more important than length of time. Another fascinating example he brings is the מחלוקת whether we say אהבה רבה or אהבת עולם. If you say אהבה רבה then its because quality is better. If you say אהבת עולם it is quantity or length of time is better.

2.      The גמרא discusses the איסור of פּצוע דכא. There is a מחלוקת ראשונים as to what the reason is for the איסור of פּצוע דכא is which may have נפקא מינאs. The ראב"ד in his השגות on הלכות איסורי ביאה פּרק ט"ו הל׳ ב says that the reason for the איסור of פּצוע דכא is that the wife of a פּצוע דכא would be מזנה since she will want to have children and it will be מרבה ממזרים. The חתם סופר in שו"ת חתם סופר אבן העזר סימן י"ז brings the obvious question on the ראב"ד: our גמרא says that a סריס בידי שמים is allowed to marry a Jewess, so how could he suggest the reason for פּצוע דכא is because the woman will be מזנה תחתיו? Someone who is a סריס בידי שמים also cant have kids and his wife may be מזנה תחתיו! The חתם סופר answers that the ראב"ד was not coming to give טעמי המצוות. Rather, he was saying that the רמב"ם  who says there that the איסור פּצוע דכא requires קידושין is not correct and the איסור is violated even with ביאה alone. The reason is that if someone was married בהיתר when they were normal and then they became a פּצוע דכא, according to the רמב"ם  they would be allowed to stay married since the קידושין was done בהיתר. The ראב"ד was saying that this isn’t מסתברא because then the wife would beמזנה תחתיו and there would be more ממזירם. The חינוך in מצוה תקנ"ט says that the reason for the איסור is that kings used to insist that their servants make themselves into a פּצוע דכא (like a eunuch). As such, people would be tempted to do this to themselves. Therefore, the תורה forbade marrying this person so the person would not be tempted to do it. The חתם סופר says that you can infer from the reason the חינוך gives for the מצוה that he must hold that if someone got sick it and as a result became a פּצוע דכא it is considered בידי שמים. The proof is that the reason he gives is that the תורה wants to convince people not to go and have this “operation”. It must be he holds that getting sick is not included in the איסור. In אגרות משה in אה"ע הלק ד סימן כ"ט, Rav Moshe זצ"ל says another reason with another נפקא מינה. He suggests that the reason for the איסור is that the תורה wants all women to be able to have children so it forbade them to marry a פּצוע דכא who can’t have children. He then says a massive חידוש: even though women are exempt from the מצוה of פּרו ורבו, Jewish womanhood as a whole is מצווה in פּרו ורבו. He adds that the reason people who are born a פּצוע דכא can marry Jewish women is because the world has 50% men and 50% women and Hashem didn’t want those women to not have husbands since they did nothing wrong. ע"ש.