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Yevamos 13:6-7

Yevamos 13:6

If a man divorced a woman and later remarried her, she is permitted to her brother-in-law in the case of yibum, though Rabbi Eliezer prohibits this. Similarly, if a man divorces a minor orphan girl and later remarries her, she is permitted to her brother-in-law in the case of yibum but Rabbi Eliezer prohibits it. If a minor girl is married off by her father and then divorced, she is legally like an orphan even though her father is still alive (i.e., an emancipated minor). If this girl remarries her husband, everyone agrees that she is prohibited to her brother-in-law in the case of yibum.

Yevamos 13:7

If two brothers were married to sisters who were minor orphans and one of the husbands died, his widow is exempt from yibum because she is the sister of the surviving brother’s wife. The same is true if brothers marry sisters with congenital deafness. (This needs to be stated because these marriages are based on rabbinic rather than Biblical law.) Let’s say that brothers marry sisters, one of whom is an adult and the other of whom is a minor. If the husband of the minor girl died, she is exempt from yibum as the sister of the surviving brother’s wife. If the husband of the adult woman died, Rabbi Eliezer says they instruct her to refuse the brother-in-law. Rabban Gamliel says that if she refuses, she refuses. If she doesn’t, then they wait until she reaches the age of majority, at which point she becomes exempt from yibum as the sister of the surviving brother’s wife. Rabbi Yehoshua says, “Woe to him for his wife” whom he must divorce because of the yibum connection of her adult sister and “woe to him for his brother’s wife,” with whom he must perform chalitzah because she is now the sister of a woman he divorced.

Author: Rabbi Jack Abramowitz