Yevamos - Daf 88
- One witness is believed to permit a woman to remarry because of the concern of an agunah
After numerous attempts were made to bring a source that one witness is believed to permit a woman to remarry, the Gemara now explains that the source is a d’Rabbanon, for Rebbe Zeira said: מתוך חומר שהחמרת עליה בסופה הקלת עליה בתחלה – Because of the severity with which you were severe at the end, by imposing so many penalties on her in the event that she remarries and her first husband reappears, you were lenient with her at the beginning and allowed her to remarry based on the testimony of one witness. When the Gemara asks: לא ליחמיר ולא ליקיל – Do not be severe with her at the end and do not be lenient with her at the beginning, and instead just require two witnesses as is Biblically mandated, it answers: משום עיגונא אקילו בה רבנן – out of concern that the woman will be left as an agunah, the Rabbanon were lenient with her and permitted her to marry based on the testimony of a single witness.
- כל מקום שהאמינה תורה עד אחד הלך אחר רוב דעות
The Mishnah on 87b stated that if a woman remarried based on a single witness, she must leave both husbands if her original husband reappears. Shmuel said that she must only leave the second husband where she did not dispute him, referring to the man who came claiming to be her original husband, אבל מכחשתא לא תצא – but where she disputes him, and claims that he is an imposter, she does not leave the second husband. The Gemara clarifies that if two witnesses came to support the man’s claim that he is the original husband, she is not believed against two witnesses. Therefore, the case must be where there is only one witness, and she is believed because she disputes him. This implies that if she was silent, she would have to leave the second husband. The Gemara asks why this is so, since Ulla taught: כל מקום שהאמינה תורה עד אחד הרי כאן שנים – Wherever the Torah believes a single witness it is as though there are two witnesses here. Therefore, the first witness, who claimed her husband was dead, should be treated as two witnesses, and the testimony of the single witness, claiming the man is her husband, should not be believed against two witnesses? The Gemara answers that we are dealing with פסולי עדות – two passul witnesses who support the original husband’s claim, and Shmuel holds like Rebbe Nechemyah: כל מקום שהאמינה תורה עד אחד הלך אחר רוב דעות – Wherever the Torah believes one witness, follow the majority of opinions. Therefore, in a case where two women testify against one man, they are treated like two men testifying against one man. The Gemara brings a second variation of Rebbe Nechemyah’s teaching.
- Why the woman requires a get from the second husband
The Mishnah had taught that if her husband returns after she remarried based on the testimony of one witness, she requires a get from both husbands. The Gemara asks, that while it is understandable that she certainly requires a get from her first husband since she was married to him, why does she require a get from the second husband? זנות בעלמא הוא – Her relationship to him was one of z’nus. Rav Huna answered: גזירה שמא יאמרו גירש זה ונשא זה – It’s a gezeirah to require a get from the second husband, lest people say that the first husband divorced her and then the second husband married her afterward, ונמצאת אשת איש יוצאה בלא גט – and it will result that people will mistakenly think that a married woman is walking away from a marriage without a get. Rashi explains that people will think that ending a marriage does not require a get.
