Une femme qui est partie à l'étranger avec son mari —s'il y avait la paix entre lui et elle, et la paix dans le monde, et qu'elle vint et dit: Mon mari est mort, elle peut se remarier. [("S'il y avait la paix entre lui et elle" :) Car s'il y avait des conflits entre lui et elle, (nous avons l'appréhension que) peut-être est-elle motivée par la haine pour s'interdire à lui. ("et la paix dans le monde" :) Car si c'était une période de danger, peut-être, quand elle vit qu'il tardait à revenir, elle supposait qu'il avait certainement été tué par des bandits. Ou bien, elle l'avait vu abattre au combat et supposait qu'il avait certainement été tué. Mais, en temps de paix, si elle ne l'avait pas vu tué, elle appréhenderait certainement l'obloque de son retour après s'être remariée (afin qu'elle ne se remarie pas à moins d'être certaine qu'il était mort.)] S'il y avait la paix entre lui et elle, et la guerre dans le monde, ou les conflits entre lui et elle et la paix dans le monde, et elle est venue et a dit: Mon mari est mort, on ne la croit pas. R. Yehudah dit: On ne la croit jamais à moins qu'elle ne vienne pleurer avec ses vêtements loués. [La halakha n'est pas conforme à lui.] Ils lui dirent: [Faut-il donc permettre à un pikachath (qui est assez intelligent pour dissimuler le deuil) de se remarier, et qu'un shotah (qui n'est pas un pikachath) ne soit pas autorisé à se remarier? Au contraire,] l'un et l'autre peuvent se remarier.
Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
האשה. שלום בינו לבינה – for if there had been a dispute between him and her, perhaps on account of hatred, she intended to prohibit herself with him.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Yevamot
Introduction
Chapters fifteen and sixteen deal with the acceptability of testimony concerning a woman’s husband’s death in a case where the death occurred abroad. The consequence of accepting such testimony is that she is allowed to remarry; in cases where the husband had no children she would be allowed to have yibbum with her husband’s brother.
The first few mishnayoth of this chapter deal with the wife’s own testimony as to her husband’s death. Generally speaking a woman’s testimony is unacceptable and a person cannot testify concerning their own matters. Nevertheless, in this case the wife’s testimony about her own husband’s death is acceptable because the rabbis did not want the woman to be unable to remarry. We should note that even in our days it is often difficult to ascertain whether someone died. This was a problem during the Shoah (the Holocaust) when nearly all witnesses to a person’s death were also dead. Recently, we witnessed this phenomenon in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Verifying victim’s deaths took months and to a large degree relied on the testimony of those who saw them in the building or those who knew they should have been there that day. Imagine how much more difficult this must have been in the ancient world.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
ושלום בעולם – for if there had been a time of an interdiction of travel, perhaps when she saw that he delayed a long time and did not return, she said; “certainly thugs killed him.” Alternatively, if she saw that he was wounded in war and she thought that the certainly would die, but when there is peace in the world, if she did not see that he died, certainly there is suspicion of disgrace lest he come after she marries married, and she will be disgraced by immorality.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Yevamot
If a woman and her husband went to a country beyond the sea [at a time when there was] peace between him and her and [when there was also] peace in the world, and she came back and said, “My husband is dead”, she may marry again; and if she said, “My husband is dead [and he had no children]” she may contract yibbum. If at the time the couple traveled abroad there was no discord between the two of them and there were no wars being waged in the area to which they might have traveled, then she is believed to say that he died. The rabbis are suspicious that she might lie if there was discord, because by receiving permission to remarry when the husband was still alive, she would be causing herself to be prohibited to him when he returns. In such a way she could force him to divorce her. In other words, she might have a motive to lie. The reason that the rabbis are suspicious in a case where there is war, is that he might have been taken captive and she mistakenly assumed that he was dead. Therefore, if there was either discord between them or war in the world, she is not believed.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
רבי יהודה אומר כו' – and the Halakha is not according to his view.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Yevamot
If there was peace between him and her, but war in the world, [or if there was] discord between him and her, but peace in the world, and she came back and said, ‘My husband is dead”, she is not believed. Rabbi Judah says: she is never believed unless she comes weeping and her garments are rent. They said to him: she may marry in either case. This section contains the opposites of those in section one. Rabbi Judah disagrees with the first opinion. He holds that unless she exhibits physical signs of mourning, she is never believed, even if there was peace between her and her husband and peace in the world. The sages respond to Rabbi Judah and state that whether or not she is crying and she shows physical signs of mourning she is believed. Such external signs would be easy to fake in any case and are therefore not material to the verity of her words.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
אמרו לו – to Rabbi Yehuda, he should marry a bright/smart woman, an imbecile woman, he should not marry, but rather, all are the same.
