Yevamos - Dar 109
- גזרה משום יתומה בחיי האב
The Mishnah states: המגרש את האשה והחזירה מותרת ליבם – If one divorces a woman, remarries her, then dies childless, she is permitted to the yavam, but Rebbe Elazar forbids her to him. Similarly, המגרש את היתומה – if one divorces an orphan girl, remarries her, and then dies childless, she is permitted to the yavam, but Rebbe Elazar forbids her to him. The Gemara seeks to understand Rebbe Elazar’s reason for ruling strictly, and after rejecting the first three explanations, it brings Rav Ashi who said Rebbe Elazar’s reason is: דגזר הני משום יתומה בחיי האב והחזירה – that he decreed yibum is forbidden with these women because of the concern that they might be confused with an orphan in her father’s lifetime who remarried the man who divorced her. A יתומה בחיי האב is a case where a father married off his daughter who was a minor. Since it is a d’Oraysa marriage, if the man subsequently divorces her, she is no longer under the domain of her father, and he is not permitted to marry her off again. In that sense, she is an orphan while her father is still alive. Rebbe Elazar was concerned that if we permit the adult woman or the minor girl in the first two cases to do yibum, we might come to permit yibum in the case where the husband remarried the minor after he divorced her, and then died childless. Since that latter marriage is only d’Rabbanon, she is mid’Oraysa an ervah, as the brother’s wife from the first marriage, and yibum would be forbidden.
- לעולם ידבק אדם בשלשה דברים ויתרחק משלשה דברים
Bar Kappara taught the following Baraisa: לעולם ידבק אדם בשלשה דברים – A person should always cleave to three things, ויתרחק משלשה דברים – and distance himself from three things. He should attach himself to חליצה והבאת שלום ובהפרת נדרים – chalitzah, making peace between others, and annulling vows. He should distance himself from מיאון ומן הפקודונת ומן הערבונות – mi’un, from accepting deposits for safekeeping, and from acting as a guarantor. The Gemara explains that one should cleave to chalitzah, for Abba Shaul said that if one does yibum for ulterior motives, the child is considered a mamzer. One should cleave to making peace, for the passuk states, "בקש שלום ורדפהו" – Seek peace and pursue it, and Abba Shaul learned from a gezeirah shaveh, with the passuk, "רדף צדקה וחסד ימצא חיים צדקה וכבוד" – One who pursues charity and kindness, will find life, charity and honor, that just as one who pursues kindness is rewarded in both worlds, so too one who pursues peace is rewarded in both worlds. In terms of annulling vows, it was taught in a Baraisa: הנודר כאילו בנה במה והמקיימו כאילו הקריב עליה קרבן – One who makes a vow is considered as if he built a bamah, and one who fulfills his vow, instead of having it annulled, is considered as if brought an offering on it.
- כל האומר אין לו תורה אין לו תורה
It was taught in a Baraisa: Rebbe Yose says: כל האומר אין לו תורה אין לו תורה – Whoever says he has no Torah, meaning that he does not learn Torah, he has no reward to learning Torah. When the Gemara asks that this is obvious, it clarifies Rebbe Yose to mean כל האומר אין לו אלא תורה אפילו תורה אין לו - Whoever says that he only has Torah, but does not do mitzvos, does not even have the reward for learning Torah. Rav Pappa explained that the passuk says: ולמדתם ועשיתם – You shall learn them and perform them. כל שישנו בעשיה ישנו בלמידה – Whoever is in the category of doing mitzvos, is in the category of learning Torah, but one who is not in the category of doing, does not get the reward of learning. Another Baraisa teaches that the original statement means, that if one only learns, if he taught others to perform mitzvos, he gets no reward for their performance of mitzvos.
