Yevamos - Daf 21
- חליצה במקום ייבום לאו מצוה היא
On the bottom of Daf 20b it was taught that Reish Lakish said: כל מקום שאתה מוצא עשה ולא תעשה – Wherever you find an aseh and lo sa’aseh in conflict with one another, אם אתה יכול לקיים שניהם מוטב – if you can fulfill both of them, it is preferable, ואם לאו יבא עשה וידחה את לא תעשה – but if not, let the aseh be docheh the lo sa’aseh. On this Daf the Gemara discusses a case where a Kohen Gadol did yibum to an almanah, and the question whether this exempts her tzarah. The Gemara brings a proof that if the Kohen took the widow from a state of erusin, then the yibum is valid and her tzarah would be exempt. Since the Kohen Gadol could have done the aseh of chalitzah instead, this seems to refute the opinion of Reish Lakish who holds that an aseh is not docheh a Io sa’aseh when there is an alternative way to fulfill the mitzvah. The Gemara answers that Reish Lakish would reply that his principle only applies היכא דמקיימי מצוה – where a mitzvah aseh is fulfilled through the alternative way. But here, if he does chalitzah the mitzvas aseh will not be fulfilled since חליצה במקום ייבום לאו מצוה היא – chalitzah is not a mitzvah in the place of yibum. The mefarshim explain that the Torah provided the lesser mitzvah of chalitzah in cases when the yavam does not want to marry the yevamah.
- The source for שניות
Rava said: רמז לשניות מן התורה מנין – Where in the Torah is there a remez to shniyos for arayos? For it was stated in the passuk at the end of parshah of arayos:"כי את כל התועבת האל עשו אנשי הארץ" - For the people of the Land committed all these (ha’eil) abominations. The word ה"אל" קשות – the word ha’eil – “these” indicates that the arayos mentioned earlier are severe, מכלל דאיכא רכות – which implies that there are less severe arayos, ומאי ניהו שניות – and what are they? Shniyos. Rav Yehudah said that shniyos are derived from Koheles, where Shlomo HaMelech writes about himself: – And besides being wise, Koheles also taught knowledge to the people, "ואזן וחקר תקן משלים הרבה" - and he made “handles” and sought out and made many mashalim. And Ullah said in the name of Rebbe Elazar regarding the word “handles”: קודם שבא שלמה היתה תורה דומה לכפיפה שאין לה אזנים – Before Shlomo came the Torah was like a basket without handles; עד שבא שלמה ועשה לה אזנים – until Shlomo came and made handles for it. Rashi explains that just as handles prevent a basket from falling from one’s hands, so too shniyos distance one from the arayos. Two more sources for shniyos are brought.
- אשת אחי האם מן האם מהו
The Gemara inquires: אשת אחי האם מן האם מהו – Is the wife of the mother’s maternal brother considered a shniyah? Do we say that with regard to the wife of the father’s maternal brother and the wife of the mother’s paternal brother, דאיכא צד אב – where there is an element of a “father” in each relationship, that the Rabbanon were gozeir these women as shniyos, but here they would not be gozeir, or perhaps once they were gozeir on the paternal brother they included the wife of a maternal brother as well? The Gemara comes to conclude דכל שבנקבה ערוה בזכר גזרו על אשתו משום שניה – that wherever a female of any degree of relationship is a d’Oraysa ervah, the Rabbanon prohibited the wife of a male in the same degree of relationship as a shniyah. Since the passuk prohibiting a mother’s sister includes both the paternal and maternal sister, the Rabbanon were gozeir on the parallel male relation, which is the wife of the mother’s brother, either paternal or maternal.
