Un hombre puede no estar solo con dos mujeres [Porque las mujeres son de voluntad débil, y las dos juntas pueden sucumbir a la tentación], pero una mujer puede estar sola con dos hombres, [porque un hombre estaría avergonzado en presencia del otro . La halajá: una mujer no puede estar sola con dos hombres y, ni que decir tiene, que un hombre no puede estar solo con dos mujeres, a menos que los dos fueran rivales (tzaroth) o yevamoth, o una mujer y la hija de su esposo, o una mujer y su suegra (o una mujer con una niña que sabe lo que significa la convivencia y no se rinde), por estos odios y temores mutuos. Del mismo modo, teme a una niña, para que no vea y cuente. Y las rayas se administran por estar a solas con una mujer soltera y por estar a solas con un arayoth, excepto con una mujer casada, las rayas no se administran en ese caso, para no desacreditar a sus hijos. Y está permitido estar solo con un animal o con (otro) macho, ya que Israel no es sospechoso de homosexualidad o zooestesia.] R. Shimon dice: Un hombre también puede estar solo con dos mujeres cuando su esposa está con él. , y él puede dormir (solo) con ellos en una posada, ya que su esposa lo guarda. Un hombre puede estar solo con su madre y con su hija, y puede dormir con ellos en contacto con la carne. Y si crecen [la hija tiene doce años y un día y el niño, trece años y un día], ella duerme en su ropa y él duerme en la suya. [Y si se avergüenza de estar desnuda delante de él, incluso si es más joven, duerme en su ropa y él en la de él.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
לא יתיחד איש אחד עם שתי נשים – because they are light-headed and they both enjoy being enticed.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
Introduction
This mishnah discusses the prohibition of “yihud” a man may not be alone in a room with a woman. Indeed, the mishnah assumes this prohibition is known and qualifies it in various ways. The reason for this prohibtion seems to be that the rabbis made two assumptions: 1) men cannot control their sexual urges and therefore they will attempt to have sex with any woman with whom they are alone; 2) women cannot stop the men from making such advances.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
אבל אשה אחת מתיחדת עם שני אנשים – for one is embarrassed from his fellow. And the Halakhic decision is that a woman should not be alone with two men, and all the more so, one man with two women, other than if there were two women who were rivals or sisters-in-law (i.e. widows of a brother who died without issue), or a woman and the daughter of her husband, or a woman and her mother-in-law, or a woman with a baby girl that knows the flavor of sexual intercourse and does not deliver herself to sexual intercourse, since these [pairs[ hate each other and are fearful one of the other, and similarly, she is afraid of the minor lest she see her and tell. And we whip on the private meeting of a free woman with a man, and on the private meeting with those [forbidden] because of incest , other than a married woman who is not whipped , in order that we would not cast suspicion on the legitimacy of her children (see Talmud Kiddushin 81a), but it is permitted to be alone with an animal and with a male, for Israelites were not suspected on pederasty and on relations with animals.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
A man may not be alone with two women, but one woman may be alone with two men. It is taken for granted that a man may not be alone with one woman. The mishnah adds that one man may not be alone even with two women. The fear is that the presence of two women will not deter the man from making advances on either or even on both of the women. However, one woman may be alone with two men, under the assumption that the presence of another man will deter each man from engaging in a prohibited and socially unacceptable act (sex with a woman not his wife).
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
הגדילו זו ישנה בבסותה וכו' – and this is case where the daughter was from twelve years of age and the boy from thirteen years of age and one day. And at the time where she is embarrassed to stand before him unclothed, even younger than this, they sleep he with his clothes [on] and she with her clothes [on].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
Rabbi Shimon says: even one man may be alone with two women, if his wife is with him, and he may sleep with them in an inn, because his wife watches him. Rabbi Shimon is more lenient and allows a man to be secluded with two women. According to the version of the mishnah which I translated above, such seclusion is only permitted if his wife is with him, for she will watch over him. However, other versions add the word “and” making this into a separate clause. They read that if a man’s wife is with him he may be alone with one other woman, and may even sleep in the same room with both of them in an inn.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
A man may be alone with his mother and his daughter, and he may sleep with them in immediate bodily contact; but when they grow up, she must sleep in her garment and he in his. Seclusion is not prohibited with one’s mother or daughter. While he is a minor he may sleep naked in bed with his mother, and while his daughter is a minor, she may sleep naked in bed with him. When they grow up they may continue to sleep in the same bed, but they must be clothed. As an aside, it seems that people normally slept without a “garment.” After all, the land of Israel is rather warm and a blanket often suffices.
