פירוש על יבמות 4:7

הרי הוא כחד מן האחין – and he did not lose his portion because he performed Halitzah for you might think that I would say that he would be fined for since he caused her to lose from [having] levirate marriage for she was disqualified on [his] brothers.

Introduction The first half of this mishnah discusses how the brothers divide the inheritance from the dead brother. The second half of the mishnah teaches that when a man performs halitzah, he is thereafter forbidden to marry his halutzah’s relatives and she is forbidden to marry his.

זכה בנכסי אחיו – and even if he would divorced her on the morrow, for the All-Merciful one stated (Deuteronomy 25:6): “[The first son that she bears] shall be accounted to the [dead] brother,” and he has stood up [and performed his duty].

He who performs halitzah with his yevamah, behold he is regarded as one of the other brothers in respect of inheritance. If the father was living, the estate belongs to the father.
The other brothers are permitted. When a man dies without children, his primary inheritor is his father. If his father is not alive, then his brothers split the inheritance. When a man performs halitzah for his dead, childless brother’s widow, he now reverts to being like one of the other brothers with respect to his dead brothers inheritance. His having performed halitzah does not acquire for him any special rights vis-a-vis the inheritance. If his father was still alive, the father inherits as usual.

נכסים של אב – as it is written (Deuteronomy 25:6): “The first son [that she bears shall be accounted to the dead brother],” just he doesn’t have a first-born son during the life of the father, even the levir doesn’t have it during the lifetime of the father, and such is the Halakha but rather, a man who marries his sister-in-law takes possession of the property of his brother, and even in the place of the father.

He who marries his yevamah acquires his brother’s estate. R. Judah said: in either case, if the father was living the estate belongs to the father. If, however, he performed yibbum, he has now taken the place of his dead brother. Therefore, according to the first opinion in the mishnah, he inherits his brother’s entire estate, even if the father is alive. R. Judah disagrees and holds that if the father is still alive, the father’s right to the inheritance trumps the yavam’s right.

אסור בקרובותיה – as if she is his wife and all of the female relations that are forbidden [to him] on account of the woman is completely his wife, are forbidden for Halitzah according to the Rabbis.

He who performs halitzah with his yevamah, he is forbidden to marry her relatives and she is forbidden to marry his relatives: He is forbidden to marry her mother, her mother’s mother and her father’s mother; her daughter, her daughter’s daughter and her son’s daughter; and also her sister while she is alive. She is forbidden to marry his father and his father’s father; his son and his son’s son; his brother and his brother’s son. Just as a man cannot marry the relatives of his wife or his divorcee, so too, our mishnah teaches, a man cannot marry his halutzah’s relatives and she cannot marry his. The mishnah now lists which relatives are forbidden. These relatives are forbidden even if the halutzah should die, just as they are forbidden to a man should his divorcee die. The list includes her mother, grandmothers, daughter and granddaughters. The yavam may not marry the halutzah’s sister, but this prohibition is only while the halutzah is alive. After she dies he may marry them, just as a man may marry his divorcee’s sister after the divorcee dies. The mishnah teaches that only the brother who performs halitzah is forbidden from marrying her relatives. The other brothers of the deceased brother are not forbidden, since once halitzah has been performed their ties to her have been severed. The halutzah is forbidden to marry his relatives as well. These include his father and grandfathers, his son and grandsons, and his brother and his brother’s son. Note that most of these relatives would have been forbidden to her because of her marriage to the first brother. For instance, she cannot marry the father of the yavam, because he is also the father of her deceased husband and a man may not marry his daughter-in-law, even after his sons death.

בזמן שהיא קיימת – it refers to her sister, and not to the rest of the women forbidden on account of consanguinity.

A man is permitted to marry the relative of the rival of his halutzah but is forbidden to marry the rival of the relative of his halutzah. Although the rabbis declared that a man may not marry the relatives of his halutzah, he may marry the relatives of the rival wife of his halutzah. For instance, if Reuven dies and leaves two wives, Rachel and Tovah (not sisters), and Shimon performs halitzah for Rachel, even though he cannot marry Tovah, for she is the rival wife of his halutzah, he may marry Tovah’s relatives. The final piece of the mishnah presents the following scenario. Reuven dies leaving two wives, Rachel and Tovah, and Shimon performs halitzah for Rachel. Leah, Rachel’s sister was married to Chaim who is not related to Shimon. Chaim has another wife named Chana. Then Chaim dies. Just as Shimon cannot marry Rachel, because she is the relative of his halutzah, so too he cannot marry Chana, for she is the rival wife of the relative of his halutzah. This is how Rashi explains this piece, but there are others who explain it differently.

מותר אדם בקרובת צרת חלוצתו – and we don’t say that the rival/co-wife is like the woman who has undergone Halitzah, that he would be forbidden with the sister of the rival/co-wife of the woman with whom he performed Halitzah, like he is prohibited [to be] with the sister of the woman with whom he performed Halitzah.

ואסור בצרת קרובת חלוצתו – Reuven who performed Halitzah with Leah and Rachel is married to a foreign (i.e. unrelated Jewish) man, and she has a rival/co-wife, and the foreign (i.e., unrelated Jewish) man died, that rival/co-wife is prohibited to Reuven. And the reason for this is at the time when Leah had the Halitzah ceremony performed, she brought Rachel her sister with her to the Jewish court, and the entire world doesn’t know to which of them had Halitzah and there are those who think that to Rachel was peformed Halitzah, and when the rival/co-wife of Rachel gets married, that is the rival/co-wife of the the relative of his Halitzah, they say that the rival/co-wife of his Halitzah married, and they think that Rachl and her rival/co-wife were the wives of his brother, because he did Halitzah to Rachel. But, the sister-in-law does not bring her rival/co-wife with her at the time that she has the Halitzah ceremony performed, therefore, when the sister of her rival/co-wife gets married, we don’t say that it the sister of the woman who had Halitzah that married.