Kiddushin, Daf Ayin Heh, Part 2

Introduction

Today s sugya explains the difference between R. Yossi and Rabban Shimon b. Gamliel in the baraita we learned yesterday. For ease of reference, I am reproducing it here.

Our Rabbis taught: A male aged nine years and a day, [whether he be] an Ammonite, Moabite, Egyptian or Edomite convert, or a Samaritan, Natin, halal or mamzer, who has intercourse with the daughter of a priest, a Levite or an Israelite, he disqualifies her [from the priesthood].

R. Yossi said: He whose seed is unfit [for the priesthood] disqualifies [the woman from the priesthood] but he whose seed is not unfit does not disqualify.

R. Shimon b. Gamaliel said: One whose daughter you [i.e., a priest] may marry, you may marry his widow; but one whose daughter you may not marry, you may not marry his widow.

רשב"ג אומר כל שאתה נושא בתו אתה נושא אלמנתו וכל שאי אתה נושא את בתו אי אתה נושא אלמנתו מאי איכא בין ר’ יוסי לרשב"ג

R. Shimon b. Gamaliel said: He whose daughter you, [i.e., a priest] may marry, you may marry his widow; but he whose daughter you may not marry, you may not marry his widow. What do R. Yossi and R. Shimon b. Gamaliel differ over?

אמר עולא גר עמוני ומואבי איכא בינייהו ושניהם לא למדוה אלא מכהן גדול באלמנה דר’ יוסי סבר כי כ"ג באלמנה מה כהן גדול באלמנה שזרעו פסול ופוסל אף כל שזרעו פסול פוסל

Ulla said: They differ in respect to an Ammonite and a Moabite convert; and both learn it from a High Priest with a widow. For R. Yossi holds: It is like a High Priest with a widow: just as a High Priest with a widow, the offspring is disqualified, and he disqualifies [the widow]; so all whose offspring is disqualified, disqualify.

The halakhic difference between R. Yossi and Rashbag is over an Ammonite or Moabite convert whose seed is never allowed to marry an Israelite. Here too the comparison is with a High Priest and a widow. Just as in the former case, the offspring is disqualified as is the woman, so too with the Ammonite and Moabite, just as the seed is disqualified, so is the woman.

ורשב"ג ככהן גדול באלמנה מה כ"ג באלמנה שכל זרעו פסול אף כל שכל זרעו פסול אפילו נקבות לאפוקי גר עמוני ומואבי דנקבות הוו כשרות לבא בקהל דאמר מר עמוני ולא עמונית מואבי ולא מואבית

While R. Shimon b. Gamaliel holds, It is like a High Priest with a widow; just as a High Priest with a widow, all his offspring is disqualified,so everyone, all whose offspring, even the females, are disqualified [disqualifies his wife], thus excluding Ammonite and Moabite converts, whose females are fit to enter into the assembly; for a Master said: An Ammonite [. . . shall not enter, etc.], but not an Ammonitess; a Moabite [shall not enter, etc.], but not a Moabitess.

R. Shimon b. Gamaliel contrasts the case of the Ammonite or Moabite with the High Priest and widow. In the latter case, both male and female offspring are disqualified from marrying into the priesthood and therefore the woman is also disqualified from subsequently marrying a priest. But in the case of the Ammonite or Moabite, only males are disqualified from marrying into Israel, the females are not. Therefore, the woman who has sex with an Ammonite or Moabite is not disqualified from marrying into the priesthood.