Day: March 28, 2022
Yevamot 21
We are taught in Massechet Moed Katan 28a that Rav Chisda was blessed with good Mazal, and this is affirmed in today’s daf (Yevamot 21b) where we are told that Rav Chisda was – seemingly proactively – informed by astrologers that he would be a teacher.However, this prediction was somewhat vague, and Rav Chisda was…
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Yevamot 20
As part of its discussion about the various biblically and rabbinically prohibited relationships, today’s daf (Yevamot 20a) quotes a remarkable statement of Abaye that, כל המקיים דברי חכמים נקרא קדוש – which literally translates as ‘whoever fulfils the words of the Sages (i.e. rabbinic law) is called holy’.Clearly, Abaye wished to stress the importance of…
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Yevamot 19
As we know, almost all of Massechet Yevamot is about relationships, and specifically, the closeness or distance of relationships that demand or forbid the fulfilment of Yibum or Halitzah.However, today’s daf (Yevamot 19b) contains an altogether different conversation about relationships. Specifically, what is the relationship of ma’amar – which is the rabbinically demanded ceremony that…
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Yevamot 18
A week ago the Jewish world lost a beacon of Torah dedication and Torah scholarship, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky zt’l, who died aged 94 and whose love of Torah and of people was powerfully reflected by the huge number of people who attended his funeral and who have since spoken and written about him. Rav Chaim…
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Yevamot 17
Today’s daf (Yevamot 17a) contains a brief teaching which, depending on how it is interpreted, has radical implications.The question posed by the Gemara is whether the children born of women from the ten exiled tribes who then intermarried should be considered Jews, and by extension, whether Jewish status should be accorded to those descendants of…
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Yevamot 16
Today’s daf (Yevamot 16a) records an exchange between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yonatan ben Harkinas – who was a student of Shammai and who was described by his older brother Rabbi Dosa as being an extremely sharp adversary.In terms of the purpose of the exchange, it related to the question of whether the co-wife of…
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Yevamot 15
It is possible that you have an accent that clearly informs those who speak with you about the location where you grew up. For example, those from Glasgow have a particular accent, as do those from Liverpool, and in terms of the US the New York accent is very distinct, as is the accent of…
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Yevamot 14
As we know, the Gemara is replete with over 300 disagreements between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai. However, what we often forget is that while these two schools disagreed on many fundamental aspects of Jewish law, the fact is – as noted in today’s daf (Yevamot 14a) – that בית שמאי מחדדי טפי, meaning that…
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Yevamot 13
Within its discussion about the different Yibbum and Halitzah policies of Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai as recorded in the Mishna (Yevamot 1:4), today’s daf (Yevamot 13b) references the Torah prohibition of לֹא תִתְגֹּדְדוּ (Devarim 14:1) and it then explains that beyond its basic meaning of ‘do not cut yourself’, which prohibits self-harming of the…
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Yevamot 12
Today’s daf (Yevamot 12a) contains a teaching of Rebbi which, though said with respect to the laws of Yibbum and Halitzah, can be applied to many other realms of life. Specifically, Rebbi’s teaching states that: לא ישפוך אדם מי בורו ואחרים צריכים להם – ‘a person should not spill out extra water [from their pit]…
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