Yevamos - Daf 85
- Does an issur lav, such as an almanah to a Kohen Gadol, receive mezonos?
Rebbe Elazar asked Rebbe Yochanan: If an almanah married a Kohen Gadol, or a gerushah or chalutzah married a Kohen hedyot , יש להן מזונות או אין להן מזונות – do they have the right to sustenance or not? The Gemara clarifies the question. If she is living with him, בעמוד והוצא קאי – he is in a position where he must divorce her. How could she have the right to sustenance? The mefarshim explain that receiving sustenance would encourage her to stay with him. Rather, the question is regarding when the husband went overseas, and she borrowed money and used it support herself. What is the halachah? On one hand, מזונות תנאי כתובה נינהו – sustenance is a tannai in the kesubah, so since she has the kesubah, she also has the right to mezonos. Or perhaps, כתובה דלמשקל ומיפק אית לה – the kesubah itself, which is collected upon leaving the marriage, she can claim, whereas מזוני דלמא תיעכב גביה לית ליה – mezonos, which might cause her to stay with him, she does not have the right to claim. Rebbe Yochanan responded that she does not receive mezonos. A Baraisa that taught that she does, was referring to after the husband’s death. Rashi explains that now that she is an almanah, there are no grounds to deprive her of her right to support lest it encourage her to stay with him.
- Why an almanah to a Kohen Gadol receives her kesubah and a sheniyah does not
It was taught in a Baraisa: An almanah to a Kohen Gadol or a gerushah or chalutzah to a Kohen hedyot, יש לה כתובה פירות מזונות ובלאות – she receives the kesubah, produce, sustenance and worn-out garments, referring to garments she brought into the marriage, she may take with her when the marriage ends. Whereas sheniyos receive none of them. The Baraisa brings three explanations for the distinction. Rebbe Shimon ben Elazar said that the almanah married to a Kohen Gadol has a kesubah, מפני שהוא פסול והיא פסולה – because he is passul since he cannot do the avodah and she is passul because she is now a chalalah. Whenever they both become passul, the Rabbanon penalized him by requiring him to pay the kesubah. Rashi explains that his being prevented from doing the avodah, will lead him to divorce her. Whereas in the case of the sheniyah, where they both remain kosher, they penalized her by depriving her of a kesubah. This will lead her to want a divorce in order to marry someone else. Rebbe says the distinction is that the case of the almanah to a Kohen Gadol is a d’Oraysa, ודברי תורה אין צריכין חיזוק – and d’Oraysa law does not require chizuk, whereas a d’Rabbanon does require chizuk.
- A third explanation based on who persuades who to marry
The Baraisa brought a third explanation why the almanah to a Kohen Gadol receives a kesubah, whereas the sheniyah does not. In the case of the almanah to a Kohen Gadol, זה הוא מרגילה – it is the man who persuades the woman to marry him. A woman would not want to enter a marriage which disqualifies her, her husband, and her children, and where her husband would be angry with her that she caused a pesul for him and his children. The Meiri explains that it must have been the man who gave into his physical desires, who persuaded her to marry him. In the case of the sheniyah, זו היא מרגילתו – it is she that persuades the man to marry her. Since the marriage will not disqualify her, her husband, or her children, she has nothing to lose, and therefore persuades him. Rashi later on explains that a woman wants to get married more than a man. The Gemara asks whose opinion is this, and answers that it is either Rebbe Shimon ben Elazar, providing the rationale for his position, or it is Rebbe, who retracted his first explanation because a chalutzah to a Kohen is only a d’Rabbanon and yet she does receive her kesubah.
