Resources for Yevamos day 39
מראה מקומות
1. The גמרא says that we don’t wait for a יבם to come from מדינת הים and we don’t wait for a יבם קטן to become a גדול to do יבום because of the principle of שיהוי מצוה לא משהינן. There are three similar notions to this in ש"ס. One is זריזין מקדימין למצוות, another is אין מעבירין על המצוות, and a third is חביבה מצוה בשעתה. רב אשר וויס שליט"א in מנחת אשר, בראשית סימן כ"ב explains that while all four concepts are all similar, they are all somewhat unique. זריזין מקדימין למצוות is an ענין of חביבות המצוה which says to do a מצוה as soon as you can to show you can’t wait to do רצון ה׳. However, this principle only applies to מצוות where the purpose of the מצוה is the מצוה itself and not the outcome of the מצוה. Therefore, we apply זריזין מקדימין למצוות to מילה and תפילה but not to קידושין or חליצה since the latter two are just to allow something else. The concept of שיהוי מצוה לא משהינן is that a person whenever there is a fear that a מצוה might never happen, then we apply the principle of שיהוי מצוה לא משהינן. In our גמרא, if you wait till the יבם comes something might happen and the מצוה might not ever take place so we don’t wait. A proof to this is the ב"ח in סימן קס"א ס"ק ג who explains that the משנה that says the יבם is in מדינת הים and the רמב"ם in הלכות יבום פּרק ב הל׳ ט that says he is in מדינה אחרת are both trying to tell you that if he is just in another state or city but not another country you would wait for him (since it is unlikely that the מצוה won’t happen if he is nearby. This is in contrast to זריזין מקדימין where we don’t wait at all.) Another example is the תרומת הדשן in סימן ל"ה who was asked if one should say קידוש לבנה on מוצאי שבת when it is more מהודר or during the week because of זריזין מקדימין? He answers that הידור מצוה trumps זריזין מקדימין and one should wait for מוצ"ש. However, in the winter where cloudy days are common and it is later in the month one should not wait since שיהוי מצוה לא משהינן. As far as חביבה מצוה בשעתה, that refers to a מצוה that has a main time to do it that one must do it in that time and אין מעבירין על המצוות refers to when there are two מצוות or two times or two places that one cannot pass over one מצוה to do another.
2. The גמרא says that one doesn’t need עדים כשרים to say who the יבם is since it’s just a גילוי מילתא בעלמא. The רי"ף explains that since the person isn’t being מעיד directly on a חליצה or חיוב ממון but rather on a side point as to who is the יבם, he is believed. The ריב"ש in סימן קפּ"ב asks that the גמרא in ב"ב דף קל"ה says that if one brother says that a certain other person is also a brother, he is not believed to make that a person a יורש. Why is this not a similar גילוי מילתא בעלמא? The קובץ שיעורים in ב"ב סימן תר"כ answers (based on a גמרא in בבא מציעא) that if we know that there is another brother in the world but we don’t know who it is, then we call it a גילוי מילתא בעלמא and you are believed. However, if we don’t know there is another brother and someone claims there is, then we do not believe him without עדות כשרה. The רמב"ם inהלכות יבום פּרק ד׳ הל׳ א gives a different explanation of גילוי מילתא בעלמא. He says that since it is something that we can find out on our own eventually, no one would ever lie about it. It sounds like a type of אנן סהדי. In חידושי רע"א he says that according to the רמב"ם it should come out that עד מפּי עד would not work in our case of חליצה since by עד מפּי עד the person is just quoting someone else and there is no way to know if that person lied. However, according to the רי"ף it would be believed since it is still just a גילוי מילתא בעלמא.
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