Kiddushin, Daf Yod Daled, Part 3

 

Introduction

Here we need to prove that a yevamah whose yavam died may marry anyone whom she wants.

 

ובמיתת היבם : מנלן ק"ו ומה אשת איש שהיא בחנק מיתת הבעל מתירתה יבמה שהיא בלאו לא כל שכן

 

Or the yavam s death. How do we know this?

It can be learned from an all the more so argument: If a married woman, who is [forbidden to others] by the penalty of strangulation, is freed by her husband’s death; then a yevamah, who is [forbidden only] by a negative commandment, is surely [freed by the yavam’s death].

 

The penalty for regular adultery is execution by strangulation (for both the man and woman). But a woman waiting for yibbum who has sex with another man has transgressed a negative commandment, but it is not penalized with the death penalty. Therefore, the rabbis argue, if the former can remarry at the death of her husband, all the more so can the latter.

 

מה לאשת איש שכן יוצאה בגט תאמר בזו שאינה יוצאה בגט

 

As for a married woman, [it may be asked] that is because she goes free by divorce! Will you say [the same] of this one [a yevamah], who does not go free by a divorce?

 

The Talmud argues that a married woman is different from a yevamah because the former goes out through divorce whereas the latter does not.

 

הא נמי יוצאה בחליצה

 

She too is freed by halitzah.

 

The Talmud responds that the yevamah also has another means of being released from marraige halitzah.

 

אלא מה לאשת איש שכן אוסרה מתירה

 

Rather as for a married woman, that is because he who binds her frees her!

 

A married woman goes out at the death of her husband because he is the one who married her. But the yavam is not the one who married her. So how can his death free her?

 

אמר רב אשי הא נמי אוסרה מתירה יבם אוסרה יבם שרי לה

 

R. Ashi said: In her case too, he who binds her frees her: the yavam binds her, the yavam frees her.

 

R. Ashi points out that the yavam does in a sense bind her had there not been any yavam, she would have gone free at the death of her husband. So the comparison is valid just as a regular wife goes free at the death of her husband, so too the yevamah goes free at the death of her yavam.