Yevamos - Daf 84
- כהן הדיוט שנשא את האלמנה ויש לו אח כהן גדול
The opening Mishnah of the ninth perek presents four categories of women, some who are permitted to their husbands and prohibited to their yavams, some who are prohibited to their husbands and permitted to their yavams, some who are permitted to both, and some who are forbidden to both. The first example of מותרות לבעליהן ואסורות ליבמיהן – those permitted to their husbands and forbidden to their yavams, is כהן הדיוט שנשא את האלמנה ויש לו אח כהן גדול – A Kohen hedyot who married an almanah and he has a brother who is a Kohen Gadol. The Gemara asks why the Mishnah said he was married to a widow, when it could have said he did kiddushin with her, and she would still be forbidden to the yavam who is a Kohen Gadol? After the first couple of answers are rejected, the Gemara explains it is because of the next case in the Mishnah, which stated: חלל שנשא כשרה – A chalal who married an eligible woman, where she is permitted to her husband and forbidden to her yavam who is a Kohen. The reason she is forbidden to her yavam דנשא שוייה חללה – is that her husband married her, making her a chalalah, but if he was just mekadesh her, she would not become a chalalah. Therefore, the first case is presented as one of marriage.
- Why the Mishnah presented the case of an almanah and not a besulah
The Gemara continues to challenge the first example in the Mishnah, and asks why the first case is that of an almanah, ליתני בתולה – let it state she was a besulah who had never been married, since she will become an almanah when the ordinary Kohen dies? The Gemara concludes that is because of the third part of the Mishnah which deals with cases where the woman is forbidden to her husband and to her yavam. There it presented the case of כהן גדול שנשא את האלמנה ויש לו אח כהן גדול או כהן הדיוט – A Kohen Gadol who married an almanah and he has a brother who is a Kohen Gadol or a Kohen hedyot. In this case, she is forbidden to the yavam who is an Kohen hedyot, because she was an almanah when she married the Kohen Gadol, rendering her a chalalah. If she had been a besulah at the time she married the Kohen Gadol, she would not have become a chalalah and would have been permitted to the yavam who was a Kohen hedyot. This is why the Mishnah presented the case of an almanah.
- Daughters of Kohanim are not prohibited from marrying chalalim
Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav: לא הוזהרו כשרות להנשא לפסולין – Eligible women, referring the daughters of Kohanim, are not prohibited to be married to pesulim, such as chalalim. Ravin bar Yitzchak challenged Rav’s ruling from a Baraisa, that taught: In the passuk listing the women which a Kohen may not take, the words לא יקחו – they shall not take, are repeated twice. מלמד שהאשה מוזהרת על ידי האיש – The repetition teaches that the woman is prohibited because of the man, meaning, that just as the Torah forbids a Kohen from marrying a chalalah, so too it forbids a Koheness from marrying the male version of a chalalah, which is a chalal? Rava answered that what the Baraisa means is כל היכא דהוא מוזהר היא מוזהרת – Wherever a man is forbidden to marry a woman, she is also forbidden to marry him, וכל היכא דהוא לא מוזהר היא לא מזדהרא – and wherever he is not forbidden to marry a woman, she is not forbidden to him. Therefore, Ravin bar Yitzchak’s challenge is not successful.
