Yevamot 40: Eating to Excess on Yom Kippur; More on Inheritance; Fences Around Relationships

We begin with the continuing discussion about things that revert back to their original status.  The rabbis use examples including leavened bread for Pesach, and overeating on Yom Kipur.  Because the mitzva is to afflict oneself, and an example of that is fasting, some rabbis argue that we should be permitted to eat to excess - to the point of repulsion.  I know a whole lot of Jews who would prefer eating until they were sick to fasting.

A new Mishna reminds us that any inheritance due to a yevama and thus her yavam reverts back to its original status once chalitza is performed.  If yibum is enacted, the yavam is entitled to the inheritance.  If his father is alive, he is entitled to the inheritance as his son has died.

Another new Mishna teaches us that a chalutza cannot engage in sexual relations with any of the yavam's relatives, nor can he do similarly with hers.  The yavam is forbidden to the chalutza's relatives' rival wives, as well.  He is not restricted from her rival wives.  And his brothers are not restricted at all.

The Gemara discusses these permitted and forbidden relationships intently.  One of the issues that arises repeatedly is the different directives of rabbinic and Torah law.  The rabbis are keenly aware of the fences that have been built around Torah law to protect the people from transgression.  On the one hand, those fences keep us somewhat safe.  On the other hand, we push people away from Jewish halachic observance where we ask them to adhere to laws that inconvenience us above and beyond Torah instruction.

Although levirate marriage is no longer a pressing topic of debate. the tension between rabbinic and Torah law continues to stretch between the more and less observant members of our larger community. The Kutim, or Samaritans, interpreted only Torah law; they did not create this vast network of interpretations and consequences like the rest of Jewish community.  They were outlawed.  The growth and development of Jewish tradition has been shaped very consciously by this political decision to require adherence to rabbinic law.  It is tough to imagine Kutim practice today as another form of Jewish practice.  And yet that is what it is - a different interpretation of Torah.