Resources for Yevamos daf 76
1. The גמרא says that if we need to test someone to see if they are a כרות שפחה or not, they should put פּת חמה on him which will cause him to be מוציא קרי or to pass בגדי צבעונין in front of him which will cause him to be מהרהר באשה and be מוציא קרי. The ים של שלמה here says that the person can’t know who the lady is whose clothes it is if she is an אשת איש but it might be permissible if she is a פּנויה. What is certainly אסור he says is for them to bring an actual woman in front of him since the גמרא says in סנהדרין דף ע"ה that it is יהרג ואל יעבר. He also points out that the גמרא doesn’t suggest that he be מוציא זרע ביד since that is a חיוב מיתה. In אגרות משה in אה"ע חלק א׳ סימן ע Rav Moshe says this last point as well and explains as follows: this entire procedure would normally be forbidden since it is a violation of ונשמרת מכל דבר רע and the איסור of הוצאת זרע לבטלה is very חמור. However, here it is not לבטלה as he needs it in order to be allowed to get married and have children. It is true that even if he is a כרות שפחה he could technically marry a גירות but that is a big ספק. Therefore, if someone is having fertility issues they would certainly be allowed to do a test like this. However, there is a separate איסור of ניאוף ביד mentioned in the גמרא in נדה which is אסור even if it isn’t לבטלה so the גמרא only allowed פּת המה or בגדי צבעונין. Rav Moshe is clear that we pasken that both options are acceptable. The ערוך לנר points out that this test is not brought in the רמב"ם and שולחן ערוך even though the other tests חז"ל mentioned regarding טרפות and the like are brought in the רמב"ם and שולחן ערוך. It would seem therefore that we don’t pasken that this test is allowed. However, he doesn’t know why we should have been דוחה our גמרא and acknowledges that the ים של שלמה does pasken that way.
2. The גמרא says that a מואבי and עמוני man cannot marry a Jew but a מואבית and עמונית lady can. The reason the גמרא gives is that the פּסוק in דברים פּרק כ"ג פּסוק ה says the reason we cannot marry the עמוני ומואבי is because they didn’t bring us bread and water in the מדבר. Therefore, we cannot blame the ladies for not doing this since it isn’t the דרך for women to go out to give food to the men. דואג asked that the women should have given bread to the women and no one had an answer. There are a few very strong questions on this. First, the פּסוק in דברים פּרק ב פּסוק כ"ט says אוכל בכסף תשבריני ואכלתי ומים בכסף תתן לי כאשר עשו לי בני עשו...והמואבים היושבים בער. The פּסוק is explicit that the מאובים did give them bread and water. Even if you somehow get out of that question, there is another strong question: how can we give the בנות מואב a pass because it isn’t צניעות for the ladies to have brought bread—these were the same בנות מואב who did came out to the בני ישראל to offer זנות! The מאירי answers the first question by saying that it was only the מאובים in the city of ער which the פּסוק mentions that brought them food, but most of the מואבים did not. The ריטב"א and רשב"א here and the רמב"ן in חומש as well give an answer that answers both questions: The פּסוק really says two reasons not to marry the עמוני ומואבי. One is because they didn’t bring food and the other is because they hired בלעם to curse us. Therefore they suggest that the part of the פּסוק about not bringing us food refers to עמון alone and the part of the פּסוק that refers to hiring בלעם was referring to מואבים. In fact, the ירושלמי in our פּרק at the beginning of הלכה ג says that the reason the מואבי women are allowed to marry Jews is because it’s not the דרך of women to hire (בלעם ). That seems to follow the explanation of the רמב"ן. The רשב"א asks though that this doesn’t seem to fit with our גמרא because what would דואג’s question have been? דואג’s asked that the women should have been מקדים to the women? How would that fit with hiring בלעם? He answers that it must be that it refers to עמון but that if the עמוני women were forbidden then the מואבי women would have been forbidden as well since it is all in one פּסוק.
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