פירוש על כתובות 5:3

היבם אינו מאכיל בתרומה – while she is a widow waiting for her brother-in-law to marry or reject her, as it is written (Leviticus 22:11): “But a person who is a priest’s property by purchase [may eat of them],” but this is the purchase of his brother.

Introduction This mishnah is a continuation of yesterday’s mishnah. It continues to discuss when a woman may begin to eat terumah.

עשתה ששה חדשים בפני הבעל – from these twelve months that are fixed for her from when the husband makes a claim upon her.

A yavam [who is a priest] does not allow [his sister-in-law] to eat terumah. If a woman is widowed while merely betrothed to her husband, her yavam does not allow her to eat terumah until he has had yibbum with her (see also Mishnah Yevamot 7:4).

או אפי' כולן בפני הבעל ואחד בפני ביבם – even though that most is in the presence of the husband, inevitably, he is not liable for her support during his life, and the same law applies also if he had been liable during his lifetime, she did not consume once e died, for the property by purchase bursts open, but rather, if all of it was in the presence of the husband, she would consume anyway during his lifetime.

If she had spent six months waiting for her husband and six months waiting for the yavam, or even [if she spent] all of them waiting for her husband less one day waiting for the yavam, or all of them waiting for the yavam less one day waiting for her husband, she may not eat terumah. Yesterday we learned that a betrothed woman is given one year to prepare herself from the time a husband requests her in marriage. If he delays any longer, she may claim maintenance from his estate, and she may eat terumah. Our mishnah teaches that if she waited part of this time for the husband and part for the yavam, she does not eat terumah, even though a full year has passed. She may only eat terumah if she waits a full year either for the yavam or for the husband. However, if she does wait a full year for the yavam and he does not marry her (or perform halitzah) she begins to eat from his estate and she may begin to eat terumah (provided, of course, that he is a priest).

או כולן בפני היבם – and one does not have to say if all of them were in the presence of the levir.

This [was the ruling according to] the first mishnah. The court that followed afterwards ruled: a woman may not eat terumah until she has entered the bridal chamber. According to yesterday’s mishnah a woman might begin to eat terumah before she enters the huppah (the bridal chamber). This would occur, if she waits for a full year and her husband does not marry her. Our mishnah says that this was an earlier position, but that later tannaim ruled that in no case may a woman eat terumah before she is fully married, an act which occurs when she enters the huppah. In the Talmud there is a debate as to why the later court disallowed a woman to eat terumah until she entered the huppah. The first opinion is that if she eats while still in her father’s home she may give some terumah to her family members who are not priests. Once she moves to her husband’s home we are not concerned with such a possibility. The second opinion is that before she enters the huppah, her husband can annul the marriage (we need not get into here how this is performed). If he were to do so, retroactively she would have been a non-priest who ate terumah. However, once the marriage is finalized, he can no longer annul the marriage and there is no such concern.

זו נשנה ראשונה – that when the time arrives, she eats priest’s due/Terumah.

אין האשה אוכלת – for we suspect lest there is found in her a defect and she is found to be a foreigner retroactively that his business transaction had been in error. And regarding the “First Mishnah,” lest they find in her a defect and we don’t take into consideration for there is no reason to fear that she would have her brothers and sisters drink it for he sets aside for a place for her; therefore, they permit her to eat Terumah/priest’s due when the time arrives.