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Resources for Yevamos daf 23

מראה מקומות

1.      The גמרא brings רבינא who says that we see from the דרשה of כי יסיר את בנך that a son from a Jewish mother and non-Jewish father is considered Jewish. רש"י’s גירסא is that based on that the גמרא says that רבינא must hold that the child from such a union is a ולד כשר or at worst a ישראל פּגום. However, תוספות in ד"ה קסבר asks that there is no way for the גמרא to prove that the child is a ולד כשר just because he is Jewish--maybe he is a ממזר? In fact, just the opposite is true: ממזירות is only applicable to a Jew, so if you can prove anything it would be that he is a ממזר because a נכרי can’t be a ממזר! Therefore, תוספות says that the correct גירסא is that the child from this union is a ממזר. It comes out that according to תוספות if you pasken that a child from a Jewish mother and non-Jewish father is ולד כשר (which we do), it means that he was נתייחס after the father which means he isn’t Jewish and needs גירות. While that isn’t a question in and of itself, the גמרא that תוספות brings in בכורות דף מ"ז seems unreadable: The גמרא there says that if a non-Jewish man married a לויה, whether you hold "אין מזהמין את הולד" (which means according to תוספות that the child is a ממזר) or whether you hold "מזהמין את הולד" (which means the child is a נכרי), there is no חיוב פּדיון הבן since the child is considered a לוי פּסול. It’s משמע that if the mother had been a ישראלית the child would be חייב in פּדיון הבן. How can there be a חיוב פּדיון הבן be if the kid is not Jewish? There are many answers given by the אחרונים. The חידושי ר׳ שמואל in סימן י"ב gives an amazing answer: he says that תוספות never meant that the child isn’t Jewish. According to all opinions the child is Jewish. What he meant was that if we pasken הוולד כשר, it means that to an extent the child is also נתיחס אחר אביו in the sense that his קדושת קהל is impacted. What the גמרא meant by "מזהמין את הולד" was that the child has a טומאת עכו"ם (from the word זוהמא) in addition to his קדושת ישראל. Therefore, his טומאת עכו"ם prevents him from marrying a Jew but also prevents him from being a ממזר. However, he is still חייב במצוות and would only be פּטור from פּדיון הבן if his mother is a לויה. This would also mean that our גמרא that that derived from בנך הבא מישראלית קרוי בנך that the child is a ממזר must have understood the דרשה to be saying he is only בנך and not connected to the נכרי at all.


2.      The גמרא says that even though the פּסוק of כי יסיר את בנך refers to the ז׳ אומות, the words כי יסור are מרבה כל המסירין which include all the אומות. The גמרא says this only works if you hold like ר׳ שמעון who is דורש טעמא דקרא. The explanation רש"י gives is that the words כי יסיר are only extra according to ר׳ שמעון because he would have said that was the reason anyway. According to the רבנן we need those words to let us know that is the reason in which case we would limit it to ז׳ אומות which were bigger מסירין. The אבני מילואים in סימן ט"ז ס"ק א brings the ר"ן who learns our סוגיא differently. He says that ר"ש is simply דורש טעמא דקרא so he learns from the words כי יסיר that the reason not to marry someone from the ז׳ אומות is because they will take you away to do ע"ז in which case you shouldn’t marry any נכרי whereas the רבנן aren’t דורש טעמא דקרא so they will limit it to what the פּסוק was walking about which is the ז׳ אומות. The אבני מילואים brings several אחרונים who wonder why רש"י didn’t learn like the ר"ן which seems like a much simpler way to read our גמרא. He also brings the שער המלך who says the exact opposite! Only רש"י makes sense! The reason is that the גמרא tells us elsewhere that even the רבנן agree that you are דורש טעמא דקרא where the reason is said explicitly in the פּסוק. Our פּסוק says “don’t marry them because they will take you away to do ע"ז” so even the רבנן would agree you are דורש טעמא דקרא. The אבני מילואים just points out the following important point: the reason listed in the פּסוק has nothing to do with our סוגיא. Our סוגיא is not discussing whether you are allowed to marry people from other nations. Our סוגיא is discussing if the child of a non-Jewish mother from שאר האומות is Jewish or not. So the פּסוק adding the reason of not marrying a man from another nation because they will take your son away from Yiddishkeit is not relevant to a non-Jewish mother who will not take your child away since it isn’t considered your child. Therefore, רש"י had to learn that the words כי יסיר were just available for a דרשה since according to ר"ש he doesn’t need reasons to be written in the פּסוק. 

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