Yevamot 18: The Power of Minors Regarding Yibum

Today's daf walks us through what happens when a woman's husband dies who has more than one brother.   More specifically, the rabbis share their ideas regarding infants who are born to a man's parents either while he is married or after he has died.  The rabbis are concerned about the two competing obligations of yibum and forbidden relations.  

Interestingly, an infant boy - if born while the yevama's husband was still alive - can be obligated in yibum.  In practical terms, would this mean that a yevama - let's say she was 25 years old - would have to wait, betrothed to this infant, until she is 38 years old and he can legally marry her at age 13?  This seems extremely impractical.  It also seems ridiculous, particularly if the rabbis intended to ensure procreation within the family.

Another short passage in our daf notes that girls are allowed to be married out by their fathers before the age of 12.  If the father has died, her mother and brothers can marry her out before the age of 12 but only with her consent.  But consent cannot be given until age 12!  And so at age 12, such a girl has the right to refuse this marriage.  Refusal, me'un, grants her an annulment of her marriage without any consequences. In fact, me'un allows such a girl to have the same status as one who was never married.

How would this work when the girl remarried at age 16, for example, and did not bleed during her first cohabitation?  Would her husband have the right to divorce her and forfeit her ketubah?  Or were provisions made for girls who were in marriages at age 11 and younger?

We learn that yibum is considered to represent a significant bond between the yevama and her husband's family.  Yibum is only terminated when there is cause, and an action is necessary to complete that ending.

Our daf looks at cases where multiple sisters marry multiple brothers; where people die before their time.  The arguments are complex, and some of today's daf focuses on which rabbis argue which points.  

It continues to amaze me that the rabbis can continually speak about complex legal issues with such insight and reason while completely ignoring the emotional implications of their words.