Yevamot 44: Supporting Yevamot; Who is In and Who is Out

We begin with a Mishna that concluded daf 43: When four brothers are married to four women and the brothers died childless, the eldest brother can consummate the yibum with all of his yevamot if he wishes.  If one man was married to two women and died childless, intercourse or chalitza with one of those wives will release the other, rival wife from yibum and she does not require chalitza.

The Gemara shows us that the rabbis want to amend this Mishna to accord with other established halachot.  Four brothers could not be all of the brothers!  Who would be left as the yavam?  And why four women?  Perhaps we are meant to understand that a yavam takes on only as many yevamot as he can comfortably support.  Further, notes go into some depth regarding the conjugal rights of each wife, which for Torah scholars should be once each week. That could be stretched to once each month without angering the women, the rabbis suggest.  More wives that that would be onerous for a Torah scholar to sexually satisfy.  Workers in other professions could take on as many yevamot as they could support - both financially and sexually.  Finally, the rabbis consider how many 'houses' a yavam must build for his brother in the case of two yevamot.  

One of the expression used is "a person should not spill out water collected in his pit.. when others are in need of it."  This principal teaches that we cannot perform an action that might disadvantage another person at some point in the future.  A debate between the rabbis and Rabbeinu Yerucham (Beit Yosef) questions whether this is an ethical guideline or a halacha.  If it is the latter, Rabeinu Yerucham suggests that a person should be excommunicated and flogged for such behaviour.

A new Mishna teaches the words of Rabbi Akiva: a person who remarries his divorcee (following her marriage to another person) or his chalutza should divorce that woman for all of their children will be mamzerim. The Rabbis say that those children are not mamzerim - only the relatives of his divorcee are forbidden in marriage by Torah law.  Thus only those children would be mamzerim; the children of chalutzot in this case would be considered fully Jewish.

The rabbis walk through this Mishna to deconstruct its foundations.  Do all rabbis agree on who should be called a mamzer?  Does everyone agree on who is said to have "flawed lineage", rather than being called mamzerim?  And do the rabbis agree that girls with 'flawed lineage' are not allowed to marry priests?  

The Gemara  looks at how status may carry on from one generation to another.  For example, a divorcee is considered to be an abomination (Deuteronomy 24:4)  if she remarries her ex-husband.  However, her children are not tainted in any way by that status - their lineage is unquestioned.  The Gemara considers the notion of being 'fit': women can be fit to marry into the priesthood; they can also be considered fit to marry into the congregation of Israel.  The rabbis consider which rabbis agree upon the status of women who have married and then engaged in intercourse with another man.  Who says that she is a zona?  Who believes that she is disqualified from marrying a priest?  And, as important, who agrees that her children should be considered as having 'flawed lineage'?

We can see the rabbis' determination to identify who is 'in' and who is 'out'.  They are reflecting - and creating - a strictly boundaries society.  Make it too exclusive and no-one can join or even maintain their membership.  Make it too inclusive and the essence of Jewish practice - practice that is distinguishable from that of our neighbours - loses all meaning.  And that tradition of debate over "who is a Jew" continues today.