Yevamot II 116: The Credibility of Women

The Gemara deepens its discussion of witnesses who claim that a husband has died, which would allow his widow to remarry or to enter yibum/perform chalitza.  Can the wife herself be trusted?  What about other witnesses to the death?  What if the couple was witnessed in a fight where the woman said, "you divorced me"?  What of promissory notes or gets, divorce contracts, that are found?  Are they proof of anything at all?

The rabbis walk through the example of a man whose get is found.  They search the city that was named to ensure there is no other man of the same name.  However, there are witnesses who claim that this man was in another nearby city on the day that the get was composed.  Thus how could he have written that get in that city?  The rabbis introduce  a number of far-fetched possibilities, including his transportation from one city to another on a flying camel (a racing camel).  

The rabbis consider the possibility that the woman might lie to her husband about his divorcing her, which is almost unthinkable to them.  A woman lie to her husband?!  They note that if she might lie to her husband then she is not credible in any way.  Rabbi Yehuda suggests that a woman is a credible witness on her own regarding her husband's death only if she arrives at the court crying, in torn clothing.  The rabbis counter this, saying that she might learn from her friends to present herself in this way.  Further, a crafty woman might take advantage of this expectation while a 'foolish' woman might not, and the wrong women would be allowed to remarry.

A new Mishna teaches us about an argument between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai where Beit Shammai's ruling carries - and is more lenient.  Beit Hillel suggests that a woman is deemed credible only if she came from the grain harvest and if she is in the same country where her husband's death took place.  Beit Shammai suggests that any harvest would do, and that she could be in any country comported with that of her deceased husband.   The harvest stands as a time marker for the rabbis.

Finally, the Gemara considers the case where people travelled over the Jordan River on a boat carrying the waters of purification and the ashes of the brown heifer.  Should the subsequent ritual impurification that resulted (from an ollve bulk of dead carcass son the boat floor) teach us never to take such valuable things across water, etc.?  The rabbi veer off course, but they find their footing again.  I am hopeful that they will come back around shortly.