פירוש על יבמות 2:6

ואינו יודע איזו קדש – and he is prohibited to both of them because each one of them is able to say, this is the wife’s sister.

Introduction Our mishnah deals with the situation where a man has married one of two sisters but does not know which one he has married. The Mishnah mentions situations such as these quite frequently, not because they were realistic, but because they are useful for teaching law. In order to understand the mishnah, we need to know that a man cannot have relations with a sister of a woman with whom he is liable to have yibbum or halitzah. A woman with whom he is liable to have yibbum or halitzah is called his “z’kukah”. He can’t have relations with the sister of his z’kukah, just as he can’t have relations with the sister of his wife.

חולץ לשתיהן – because she is the sister of the woman engaged in Halitzah, and she is prohibited to him [during her lifetime] according to the Rabbis, but also not to perform levirate marriage in the first clause. For perhaps this is not his widow of the deceased husband who died without issue, and when he came in contact with the sister of his levirate relation, it is like she is his wife.

If a man betrothed one of two sisters and does not know which of them he has betrothed, he must give a get (a bill of to this one and a get to this one. If he died, and he had a brother, the brother must perform halitzah for both of them. If he had two brothers, one is to perform halitzah and the other may have yibbum. If they both preempted and married them they do not take [the women] away from them. If a man betrothed one of two sisters and does not know which he betrothed, he must divorce both. He cannot divorce one and marry the other because it is forbidden to marry your wife’s sister, even after you have divorced your wife. In other words, if he divorces one and marries the other, he may have divorced the one that he betrothed and therefore it would be forbidden for him to marry the other.

היו לו שנים אחד חולץ – at first to the first [woman] and the second, if he wants to engage in levirate marriage with the second, he does so, for if this [one] is his deceased brother’s widow, fine, and if she is her sister, he did not approach the sister of his levirate relation because Halitzah for that one removes her from being a levirate relation.

If he dies, both sisters become liable for yibbum or halitzah to his brothers. If he has one brother, that brother cannot have yibbum with either because it is forbidden to have relations with the sister of a woman with whom you are liable to have yibbum (z’kukah). In other words, if he were to have yibbum with one of them, it could be that the other was the one who was really betrothed. Therefore, he must perform halitzah for both.

קדמו וכנסו – prior to the Jewish court took counsel.

If there are two brothers, the first brother performs halitzah for one of the women and then the second brother can have yibbum with the other sister. The first brother should do halitzah because if he were to have yibbum he might be having relations with the sister who was not betrothed, and therefore he is having relations with the sister of his z’kukah (as in the above situation). However, after the first brother has halitzah with one of the sisters, there can be no problem for the second brother to have yibbum with the second sister. If she is the one who was betrothed to the dead brother, then he has yibbum with her, which is perfectly okay. If the other woman was the one betrothed, she has already had halitzah, and her ties to the brother are severed. Therefore, this woman is not the sister of his z’kukah.

אין מוציאין אותן מידם – that we don’t remove them from their hands because each one said I am best to marry; alternatively, it is the opposite, that the first who performed a levirate marriage, married the sister of his levirate relation, at that hour he performed a prohibited action and when his brother came and performed a levirate marriage with the second, who is the widow of the deceased brother who died without issue, her levirate relationship has ceased retroactively from the other one.

If both brothers have yibbum with the two sisters, the court does not force them to separate, even though the first brother should have had halitzah. Although the brother who first performed yibbum may have originally had yibbum with the sister of his z’kukah, since her sister has now had yibbum, her ties to the other brother have been severed and neither brother is currently married to the sister of his z’kukah.