Yevamos - Daf 23
- The exclusion of a daughter from a shifchah and gentile woman
On the bottom of Daf 22b, we learned that Rebbe Yose holds that one who has relations with his father’s daughter from a proper marriage, is only chayav for transgressing the lav against taking your sister, but not for the lav against taking your father’s wife’s daughter. Rebbe Yose learns from the second passuk that one is only chayav for having relations with a paternal sister when her mother is מי שיש לו אישות לאביך בה – someone with whom your father can be halachically married to, to the exclusion of a daughter from a שפחה ועובדת כוכבים – a maidservant and a gentile woman. On this Daf, the Gemara teaches that the Rabbanon learn this halachah from the passuk regarding a shifchah: "האשה וילדיה תהיה לאדניה" – the woman and her children shall belong to her master. The Gemara asks what Rebbe Yose does with this passuk, and answers that one passuk excludes the daughter of a shifchah and the other excludes the daughter of a gentile, and both are needed. If the Torah only taught the case of a shifchah, one would think her daughter is excluded משום דאין לה חייס – because she has no yichus in family relationships, whereas the gentile woman does have yichus in her relationships. And if the Torah had only taught the case of the gentile woman, one would think her daughter is excluded because she is not shayach to mitzvos, but the daughter of a shifchah would be included because she is shayach to mitzvos.
- The source for patrilineal descent
The Gemara asks where the Rabbanon learn that a daughter from a gentile woman is excluded from the lav of a father’s daughter and brings Rebbe Yochanan who said in the name of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai: The passuk states regarding the prohibition of intermarriage: "כי יסיר את בנך מאחרי" – For he, referring to a gentile father married to a Jewish woman, will turn your son away from Me and they will serve other gods. From here we learn, בנך מישראלית קרוי "בנך" ואין בנך מן העובדת כוכבים קרוי "בנך" אלא בנה – a son from a Jewish woman is called your son, but a son from a gentile woman is not called your son, but rather he is considered her son. The child follows the non-Jewish status of his mother. From here we see that a daughter from a non-Jewish woman is considered a gentile and would not be considered a legal sister to her father’s Jewish son. Therefore, she is excluded from the prohibition of a sister.
- מי שקידש אחת משתי אחיות ואין יודע אי זה מהן קידש
The next Mishnah begins: מי שקידש אחת משתי אחיות ואין יודע אי זה מהן קידש נותן גט לזו וגט לזו – If one was mekadesh one of two sisters but does not know which one of them he was mekadesh, he must give a get to each one. If he died childless and he had one brother, the brother must do chalitzah to both. If he had two brothers, אחד חולץ ואחד מייבם – one must do chalitzah to one of the sisters, and afterwards, the other brother may take the other sister in yibum. The Gemara clarifies that the Mishnah is not introducing anything novel in the first two cases but is coming to teach in the latter case of two surviving brothers, דוקא מיחלץ והדר יבומי – the order must be that the first brother does chalitzah and then the second one can do yibum, and it cannot be that the first brother does yibum, דקא פגע באחות זקוקתו – for then he would be possibly violating the prohibition of marrying the sister of his zekukah.
