Resources for Yevamos daf 119
1. The גמרא suggests that according to the רבנן who are not חושש למיעוטא, they only maintain their position that we follow the רוב if it is a רובא דאיתא קמן such as by the case of ten stores where nine sell kosher and one does not and we find a piece of meat and don’t know which of the ten stores it came from. However, we do not follow the רוב if the רוב is a רובא דליתא קמן (e.g. as most women don’t miscarry). The simple reading of our גמרא is that a רובא דאיתא קמן is stronger than a רובא דליתא קמן. However, the שערי יושר in the beginning of שער ג points out that theרמב"ם held that a רובא דליתא קמן is stronger. His proof is that in הלכות איסורי ביאה פּרק ט"ו הל׳ כ"ז he is discussing a רובא דאיתא קמן and he says it’s a ספק and yet by a case where someone is בא על אשת איש קטנה he says they get חנק based on a רובא דליתא קמן. So he must hold a רובא דליתא קמן is stronger. He explains this opinion as follows: we know there is a concept of בירור vs ניהוג. For example, there is a type of חזקה called המוציא מחברו עליו הראיה which is a ניהוג. In other words, possession doesn’t prove anything; it’s just the way ב"ד has to act given the circumstances. On the other hand, there is another type of חזקה called חזקה אין אדם מעיז פּניו בפני בעל חובו. That חזקה is a בירור—it is a proof that if you say you don’t owe money they you don’t. Similarly, רב שמעון זצ"ל says that there are two types of רובs. A רובא דאיתא קמן is a ניהוג. The reason it is only a ניהוג is because when we look at each store, there are nine other it might have come from. So we can say on each store that it is unlikely it came from that one, so we are really just doing a ניהוג to go after the רוב. However, by a case of רובא דליתא קמן, it is our שיקול הדעת that tells us to lean in a certain direction and that is a type of בירור which is much stronger than a ניהוג. As to how the רמב"ם learns our גמרא, the חתם סופר in סימן קמ"ז suggests that our גמרא only said רובא דאיתא קמן was better in the הוה אמינא stage, but in the מסקנא it is חוזר and a רובא דליתא קמן is really stronger.
As mentioned, the פּשוט פּשט in the גמרא is that a רובא דאיתא קמן is stronger than a רובא דליתא קמן. תוספות in ד"ה כגון as well as the ר"ן says that even ר"מ is not חושש למיעוטא by a רובא דאיתא קמן. Furthermore, רבי עקיבא איגר in שו"ת רע"א סימן ק"ו ד"ה גם הנני suggests that a רובא דאיתא קמן is so strong that we would not even say סמוך מיעוטא לחזקה (like our גמרא says) by a רובא דאיתא קמן. He uses this to explain the תרומת הדשן who says that the גמרא that says אין הולכין בממון אחר הרוב is only by a רובא דליתא קמן, but by a רובא דאיתא קמן we would follow רוב to be מוציא ממון. רע"א explains that the reason we don’t follow רוב to be מוציא ממון is because we say סמוך מיעוטא לחזקה. However, by a רובא דאיתא קמן we don’t say that so you can be מוציא ממון.
2. The גמרא says that according to the רבנן a קטן or קטנה can do יבום since we can go with the רוב that says they will not be a סריס or אילונית. The רשב"א has a fascinating הערה (I am paraphrasing in my own words): why don’t we say that we must wait for the child to grow up? Don’t we have a rule of כל היכא דאפשר לברורי מבררינן (if you can figure out the facts then you must)? He says that apparently you see from here that by a רוב we don’t say that you need to be מברר the facts even if you can. (This may be connected to what we said above in the רמב"ם that this particular רוב is a בירור).
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