Un homme peut ne pas être seul avec deux femmes [car les femmes ont une volonté faible, et les deux ensemble peuvent succomber à la séduction], mais une femme peut être seule avec deux hommes, [car un homme aurait honte en présence de l'autre . La halakha: Une femme ne peut pas être seule avec deux hommes, et, il va sans dire, qu'un homme ne peut pas être seul avec deux femmes, à moins que les deux ne soient rivales (tsaroth) ou yevamoth, ou une femme et la fille de son mari, ou une femme et sa belle-mère (ou une femme avec une jeune fille qui sait ce que signifie la cohabitation et ne s'y abandonne pas), car elles se haïssent et se craignent. De même, elle craint une jeune fille, de peur de voir et de dire. Et les galons sont administrés pour être seul avec une femme célibataire et pour être seul avec arayoth, sauf avec une femme mariée, les rayures n'étant pas administrées dans ce cas, afin de ne pas discréditer ses enfants. Et il est permis d'être seul avec un animal ou avec (un autre) mâle, car Israël n'est pas suspect d'homosexualité ou de zooerastie.] R. Shimon dit: Un homme aussi peut être seul avec deux femmes lorsque sa femme est avec lui. , et il peut dormir (seul) avec eux dans une auberge, car sa femme le garde. Un homme peut être seul avec sa mère et avec sa fille, et il peut coucher avec eux en contact de chair. Et s'ils grandissent [la fille ayant douze ans et un jour, et le garçon, treize ans et un jour], elle dort dans son vêtement et il dort dans le sien. [Et si elle a honte de se tenir nue devant lui, même si elle est plus jeune, elle dort dans son vêtement et lui dans le sien.]
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.
