Sotah 8:3-4

Sotah 8:3

The following do not return home from the front: one who builds a guard’s booth, a gazebo or a porch, one who plants four fruit trees or five non-fruit trees, and one who remarries a woman he divorced. If a Kohein Gadol marries a widow, a regular kohein marries a divorcee or a woman who performed chalitzah, a Yisroel marries a mamzeress or a Gibeonite woman, or a mamzer or a Gibeonite man marries the daughter of a Yisroel, they do not get sent home. Rabbi Yehuda says the same is true of one who rebuilds a house. Rabbi Elazar says that one who builds a house of bricks in Sharon does not go home (because such a house is not expected to last).

Sotah 8:4

The following people did not have to be sent home from the front because they never left home in the first place: one who built a house and dedicated it, planted a vineyard and redeemed it, or betrothed a woman and consummated the marriage, or married his deceased brother’s widow. Deuteronomy 24:5 says, “he will be free for his house for one year” – “for his house” means a house and “he shall be” includes a vineyard. “He shall gladden his wife” means a wife, “whom he has taken” includes his brother’s widow. These people do not even perform the public service of providing food and water to the troops and maintaining the roads.