Talking Talmud

Chapter 12! On chalitzah. The process of what happens before the court, and what kind of shoe the yavam needs to be wearing, and even what happens if he's an amputee. Also: Real life examples of chalitzah (in marked contrast to the absence of real life examples of yibum) || The video of crafting the chalitzah shoe: youtube.com/watch?v=6QzT_li3moE&ab_channel=AllDaf

More on how people received their terumah. Specifically, the different categories of people who can eat terumah, but can't get it in the standard way - something in their status holds each of these people back... Also, a long mishnah: What if a woman doesn't wait 3 months after the death/divorce from a previous husband to remarry, and she conceives and delivers. Which raises questions whether the...

Chalitzah, "just in case" - when it's not clear that everyone's relationship is what it appears to have been. Also, a long mishnah: the cases of the "mixed-up children" - which is makes it really difficult to know who needs yibum and who is prohibited from doing yibum. Plus, who got to pick up their terumah at the threshing floor.

A child born to non-Jews is understood halakhically to be not related to his father. To the extent that identical twins are not considered related. Plus, the story of Niftayim the convert, who didn't have to be concerned about the illicit sexual familial relations. Among several proofs that make the same point. Plus, 2 statements by R. Akiva, including one point about converts and one about Jonah...

First, a story about R. Yochanan, about attribution in his name. A concern that goes back, as it were, to King David and Psalms. Also, a new chapter, with its opening mishnah: a man who rapes or seduces a woman is not knocked out of the running of marrying her relatives. Was this leniency a good thing? Plus, riddles (mind benders).

3 mishnayot on the daf... Mishnah 1: Complicated scenarios to explore the parameters of testimony on a spouse's death that is determined to be incorrect. Including multiple marriages, and multiple reported deaths. Plus, the case of a woman who needs yibum and a 9-year-old brother sleeps with her (ahem) before other (older brothers), and he negates his brothers as possible yavamim. Mishnah 2: More...

A dispute between R. Yehudah and R. Yosei on a dispute between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai over cases of a husband who believes his wife to be dead, and sleeps with either the mother-in-law or the sister-in-law, and how those scenarios would impact his marriage, in the event that the wife turns up alive, after all. Plus, the rationales for the approach to permit the couple to return to each other...

A serious challenge to the validity of one witness - but not because it's only one person, but because of who it is. Also, the opposite case - where the wife travels, is testified to have died, he marries her sister, and then she comes back. What do they do? Because he's not allowed to marry his wife's sister!

First, a brief comment on Daf 91: the reading of the woman's get. Next: Establishing a vow or acquiring something that is not yet in existence in the world, which seems like R. Akiva's position. Except that R. Nachman bar Yitzchak presents a contradictory opinion in the name of R. Akiva himself (after a long chain of names of Tannaim). Which leads to other examples of treating that which does not...

The Gemara addresses what it means for the court to have an opinion - for example, if the court stipulates that the woman who has one witness testifying that her husband has died can remarry. A comparable example is brought with regard to the time that Shabbat ends, based on the darkness of the day - which might be the fault of clouds. In both cases, as it turns out, the court's ruling is in error...

In the case of the woman who has remarried after the testimony that her first husband has died, but not with the consent of the court - she can go back to her first husband, once it is determined that he is alive. Which leads to a debate about the way to talk about the halakhah, and how one should not appropriate another's opinion without naming him. Plus, a comparison to rape that sounds difficul...

The case of a man nullifying a bill of divorce in the presence of the court, while a messenger was bringing the wife the get - he can't do this (she won't know about it!), but if he did it, does it count or not? The court's ability to decide whether his nullification takes effect seems dependent on kiddushin taking place with kesef, money, or an item of monetary value. The question of rabbinic pow...

Why did the rabbis decide that women need a ketubah in marriage to begin with? And when is the absence of a ketubah helpful? Also, a new understanding of our mishnah, specifically with regard to a child born being a mamzer - in the context of terumah, impure produce, and improper designation of sanctity. Plus, to what extent is there a human component even in the determination or designation of ma...

How stringent are the standards of accepting the testimony of those who testify that a woman's husband has died? There are advantages and disadvantages to being "lenient" and accepting one witness's account, for example, depending on whether complications develop later, like that testimony turning out to have been wrong. Which leads to a discussion about witnesses in general, and their reliability...

A series of marriage, a series of children, and how the status changes in her relationship to kohanim change her permissions, as it were, for terumah. Also, introducing the 10th chapter, and the cases that leave the relevant parties in limbo. But the mishnah presents this as pretty serious, even if the people didn't worry too much about it. Plus, the details that fray the marital bond, while the i...

Revisiting: Who can eat terumah? Specifically, the women who may have a relationship with a kohen, in various stages (including pregnancy), or various considerations of his status as a kohen. Plus, Ma'aser Rishon, which is the tithing that goes to the leviim. Can the comparable women re terumah eat ma'aser rishon? Note also that those who are excluded from terumah or ma'aser respectively are calle...

R. Pappa and R. Hina arrived in Hintzvu, where R. Idi bar Avin lived. When they got there, they were asked: Can the daughters of kohanim who are eligible to marry kohanim marry those who have been disqualified from the priesthood? R. Pappa and R. Huna answer differently, with different inferences, and R. Idi bar Avin gives his own answer (where was he when the other rabbis first arrived?). [Who's...

Chapter 9! A very long mishnah... Categories of women who were permitted to their husbands and prohibited to the yavam. And the reverse: prohibited to the husband and permitted to the yavam. Including kohanim and mamzerim as possible complications... Also, forbidden relationships that are prohibited on a rabbinic level - "Divrei Sofrim," secondary prohibitions that come to protect the Torah prohib...

More from Rabbi Yosei. [Who's Who: R. Yosei Ben Halafta] On prolonged labor, and how it relates to grafting, from a halakhic perspective. Plus, the tumtum, one who has indeterminate sexual organs, or ambiguous genitalia. Note skepticism regarding a tumtum's 7 children's paternity. And again, are all tumtums to be concluded to be male?

More on whether terumah in this day and age (post-Temple) is d'Orayta or deRabbanan. [What's What: Seder Olam (Rabbah), here, unusually, used to support p'sak.] Also, a discussion on the sanctity of the Land of Israel, and how it doesn't lapse. Plus, more on the androgynous, with the implications for an androgynous kohen's spouse, in terms of eating terumah. The Gemara seems to treat androgynous a...

More on terumah, in a new mishnah: a saris chamah kohen who marries the daughter of a Yisrael... Can she eat terumah?! Or if he's an androgynous. Or a tummy who is considered male.... What if the food is cakes of dried figs? Can you count them separately?

Returning to a baby born in the 8th month, which is considered a danger to the child, and perhaps the mother. Can such a child survive? Plus, the prolonging of a fetus in the womb. [Who's Who: Rava Tosfa'a] Also, defining and determining a "saris chamah," and why it's all moot nowadays.

More on King David and the Givonim. Also, the disturbing story of the sons of King Saul and their maltreatment of converts. Also, more on the men whose injured or damaged genitalia won't let them father children. And an unusual mishnah, where a tanna's inquiry gets two responses and an example before the mishnah returns to the details of halakhah.

Converts and their subsequent generations. What happens when a second-generation Egyptian convert marries a first-generation Egyptian convert? Is their child considered third generation or second generation? It seems to depend which party is the father and which the mother - whom does it follow? It's a machloket. With the example of an animal designated as a korban chatat that is pregnant, and how...

More on Ammon and Moav. Why are they excluded? Plus, why is a Jewish woman supposed to say within? Also, King David's prayers in Psalms, and some of the placement of the Ammonite and Moavite women, and his own lineage. Also, the complications that can result for an Ammonite family, though the women are kosher to marry those who are born Jewish. But when the halakhah contradicts the authoritative v...