We learn more about the specific rules regarding couples who are infertile. In yesterday's daf, the rabbis determined that couples should divorce if they have been infertile together for ten years. After her second marriage, if the woman continues to be infertile for ten years, she may or may not marry yet again. Her third groom must know that he is taking the risk of being unable the mitzvah to be fruitful and multiply.
Today's daf looks at the guidelines around divorce in these relationships. When is a woman able to dissolve the ketubah and still receive the money agreed upon in her get? When is she able to receive that money in addition to any other provisions in her get? When can a man argue that a woman is infertile and when can she counter with the argument that she is now infertile, but while she was married to him she was in her youth and would have been physically able to procreate with another man? The rabbis are very respectful of women's rights in this area; more so than in any other text that I have read. Women are given the benefit of the doubt, for what woman would wish to call herself infertile? And what woman would want no children? The rabbis are also lenient regarding remarriage. They are careful to allow women to partner with different husbands. Clearly they wish to ensure that as many couples are procreating as possible.
But is the mitzvah to be fruitful and multiply only given to men? Rabbi Yochanan ben Berocha reminds us in a new Mishna that Genesis 1:28 commands both Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. The Gemara begins with traditional arguments about the differences between men and women, including the idea that men alone are the conquerors that are described in the following verse. Rav Yosef teaches us that the mitzvah is stated in the singular rather than in the plural in Genesis 35:11, which means that it was directed at the man alone.
Sometimes situations for half-truths. For example, our matriarch Sarah states that she did not laugh after being told that she would bear a son in her old age. But she did laugh. The rabbis discuss briefly some of the merits of lying in order to deal with an accusation and in order to promote peace. I have no doubt that this concept is discussed at great length in other Talmudic conversations, but this was an interesting glimpse into the rabbis views on lying.
To end today's daf, we are told about Rabbi Chiyya's wive, Yehudit, who had two sets of twins. The first were the righteous daughters Pazi and Tavi. The second were the great rabbis Yehuda and Chizkiyya. We are told that Yehudit laboured terribly with these boys, first at seven months and then at nine months when the second twin was delivered. Yehudit disguised herself and went to Rabbi Chiyya with her question: is a woman commanded to be fruitful and multiply? He answered that she is not. Upon hearing that news, Yehudit drank an infertility potion. Rabbi Chiyya was dismayed, wishing that she could have had just one more set of twins.
We are learning about the age old necessity of family planning; the dire need for birth control. We know that women's highest value was in having children; allowing their husbands to keep their mitzvah: be fruitful and multiply. And to prevent another person from performing a mitzvah is its own category of sin. So when we learn that Yehudit went to this difficulty to learn the laws, confront her husband - albeit, as a Sage - regarding those laws, and to put herself at great risk with this infertility potion, she must have been desperate. Although some orthodox women continue to feel trapped by their in/fertility, we are so lucky to live in a time when there exist options for most Jewish women regarding family planning, birth control, and agency over our own bodies.
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