Yevamot II 99: Hidden and Confused Identities; Slaves, Maidservants and the Family Structure

The rabbis continue to present case after case of far-fetched examples that might challenge the practice of yibum.  A reminder: yibum is the practice of levirate marriage, whereby a husband who dies without children renders his wife a yevama.  A yevama is bound either to marry one of her brothers-in-law or to participate in the ritual of chalitza, which releases her from this obligation.  In normal circumstances, marriage is forbidden between close family members, and so the rabbis are spending much energy on specifying the circumstances that permit yibum.

Although I am tempted to transcribe these bizarre family structures here, I recognize that each holds only a slightly different challenge to yibum. The larger structure of yibum as a philosophy and a practice is only minimally better understood through the study of each example.  And I am not prepared to repeat each of today's cases in this format. Let's just say that in these cases, each family intermarries closely and in very strange circumstances.

A couple of these cases focus on the idea that two women are in hiding when their babies are born.  This causes confusion - neither woman knows which baby belongs to which mother.  This causes problems when those babies grow up.  They might be forbidden to participate in some rituals - whether these regard the halachot of kohanim or whether these regard yibum and the practice of chalitza or levirate marriage.  Certainly we would not want someone marrying a close relative that is not in fact a brother to the deceased.

The notion of being in hiding is interesting to me.  Was this something that actually happened with some frequency?  Were Jewish women in danger and secluded in homes or caves somewhere?  Or are these examples as fantastic as some of the other unusual circumstances suggested by our rabbis?  If being 'in hiding' was a relatively common experience, how did that work?  What were the women facing when they were not in hiding?  How did they eat, sleep, care for their children, clean themselves and their families and their belongings?  How did they communicate with the outside world?

Amud (b) reintroduces the question of who is permitted to partake of teruma.  We already know that only priests are allowed to claim teruma on behalf of their families.  However, today's daf asks questions about slaves, maidservants, converts, and other 'outsiders' in the priestly world.  When and how are these marginalized groups excluded from the world of the kohanim?   What about when a slave or a maidservant is freed?  We are reminded that the rabbis argued about whether or not a slave could claim teruma on behalf of his owner.  One argument against this practice notes that claiming teruma is in itself a proof of priestly status.  If a slave claims teruma, leaves town and then says he is a priest, any witness who noticed him claiming teruma would erroneously affirm that he is in fact a priest, himself. 

The notion of 'family' is brought into the spotlight in amud (b), as well.  It would seem that maidservants and slaves are considered to be part of the larger family.  This learning is based on cases in Yevamot that ask how a family can have children of five different statuses.  Such a thing is only possible if slaves and maidservants, for example, marry and have children.  Since their children are considered to be part of the family, they must be part of the family, too.  Is 'family' the same things as 'household'?  It would be interesting to learn more about the definitions of 'family' two thousand years ago.