Beth Shammai concede tzaroth ai fratelli. [Permettono che la tzarah di un'erva venga presa in yibum dal fratello, non esponendo "litzror" (vedi sopra)], e Beth Hillel li proibisce. Se loro [lo tzaroth] ricevevano il chalitzah [dai fratelli], Beth Shammai li considerava [lo tzaroth] inadatti al (matrimonio all'interno) del sacerdozio, [il loro chalitzah era valido (e un chalutzah era proibito a un Cohein)], e Beth Hillel li considera idonei, [la loro chalitza è stata superflua, e affine alla chalitzah di un gentile.] Se sono stati presi in yibum [dai fratelli], Beth Shammai li considera idonei [per il matrimonio con Cohanim se sono vedovi dai loro mariti], e Beth Hillel come inadatta, [convivendo con coloro a cui era proibito renderli "zonah" e quindi vietati a un Cohein]. Anche se questi vietano e questi permettono; considerati inadatti e adatti, Beth Shammai non ha impedito di sposare le donne di Beth Hillel e Beth Hillel non ha impedito di sposare le donne di Beth Shammai. [E anche se i figli dello tzaroth che furono presi a Yibum secondo la sentenza di Beth Shammai sono mamzerim secondo Beth Hillel, (l'interdetto contro la moglie di un fratello che si applica a loro, la punizione per la trasgressione essendo kareth e i bambini nati di un'unione di Kareth che è mamzerim), tuttavia, Beth Hillel non ha impedito di sposare donne di Beth Shammai; poiché li avrebbero informati che provenivano da Tzaroth e li avrebbero evitati.] In tutti quei casi in cui questi erano governati puri e gli altri impuri, non si astenevano dall'osservare la pulizia rituale l'uno dell'altro. [vale a dire, si presterebbero l'un l'altro le loro navi. (La gemara chiede perché Beth Shammai sta permettendo ai tzaroth i fratelli e Beth Hillel che li proibisce non dovrebbe passare sotto (Deuteronomio 14: 1): "Lo tithgodedu"— non formerai fazioni opposte ("agudoth, agudoth") — e risponde che "lo tithgodedu" si applicherebbe a un battesimo in una città, dove metà dei giudici ha governato secondo Beth Shammai e metà secondo Beth Hillel — ma non a due batei-din in una città, e certamente non a due batei-din in due città.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
בית שמאי מתירין – the rival of a woman forbidden on account of consanguinity is to be married by the levir, for they (i.e., the School of Shammai) lack this exposition/Midrashic interpretation of (Leviticus 18:18): “[Do not marry a woman] as a rival [to her sister and uncover her nakedness in the other’s lifetime].”
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English Explanation of Mishnah Yevamot
Introduction
Mishnah four teaches us that the first three mishnayoth of the tractate were all according the opinion of Beth Hillel. Whereas Beth Hillel ruled that a woman whose rival wife is forbidden to the yavam is exempt from yibbum (as is the forbidden wife), Beth Shammai ruled that she must have yibbum or halitzah. The mishnah then lists a few correlating disputes on this matter.
Finally, the mishnah sounds what is surely the most pluralistic note in the entire Mishnah: despite their many disagreements, Beth Hillel and Beth Shammai did not separate into two different sects.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
חלצו – [they performed the ritual of Halitzah] the rival/co-wives from the brothers.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Yevamot
Beth Shammai permits the rival wives to the surviving brothers, and Beth Hillel prohibits them. If they perform the halitzah, Beth Shammai disqualifies them from marrying a priest, and Beth Hillel makes the eligible. If they performed yibbum, Beth Shammai makes them eligible [to marry a priest], and Beth Hillel disqualifies them. Though these forbid and these permit, and these disqualify and these make eligible, Beth Shammai did not refrain from marrying women from [the families of] Beth Hillel, nor did Beth Hillel [refrain from marrying women] from [the families of] Beth Shammai. [With regard to] purity and impurity, which these declare pure and the others declare impure, neither of them refrained from using the utensils of the others for the preparation of food that was ritually clean. I have explained this section above in the introduction.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
בית שמאי פוסלין – the rival/co-wives from the priesthood, since their [act of] Halitzah is [considered] Halitzah.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Yevamot
If the yavam should perform halitzah with the rival wife, according to Beth Shammai, this halitzah is valid and allows this woman to marry other men. Since a woman who has had halitzah is prohibited to a priest (just as a divorcee is forbidden to a priest), this woman is now prohibited to marry a priest. According to Beth Hillel, this was an unnecessary halitzah, for the woman could have married other men even without it. Since it was not true halitzah, she can still subsequently marry a priest.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
ובית הלל מכשירין – that their [act of] Halitzah was not a necessity and she is considered as one who performed Halitzah from a heathen/foreigner.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Yevamot
If she has yibbum, full levirate marriage, Beth Shammai would consider this to be valid, as they stated in section one. Should this marriage end in the husband’s death, she could marry a priest, as can all widows. However, according to Beth Hillel, this yibbum was actually forbidden. Therefore this woman can no longer marry a priest, since all women who have engaged in forbidden sex cannot subsequently marry priests (we will learn more about this law later in the tractate).
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
נתיבמו – to brothers.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Yevamot
In Jewish law the child of many forbidden unions is considered to be a mamzer (we will also learn these laws later in the tractate). A mamzer cannot marry a regular Israelite (Jew). In the above dispute, if the rival wife did perform yibbum, the child would be a mamzer according to Beth Hillel. Since this was not a situation requiring yibbum, the woman was biblically forbidden to her dead husband’s brother. If the rival wife married another man without yibbum or halitzah, the child of this subsequent marriage would be a mamzer according to Beth Shammai. This is because this woman married “out” while still bound to her yavam. This section teaches that although this dispute would have created children considered by some to be mamzers and others not to be, neither side refrained from marrying those from the other side. This is a remarkable note of pluralism in the Mishnah, indeed it seems that this ideology is what kept the rabbis from forming splinter groups. Although Beth Shammai and Beth Hillel disagreed on many topics, they continued to live together and intermarry. Unlike other groups, specifically the Dead Sea sect, which left Jerusalem over halakhic disputes with their opponents, the halakhic disputes between the rabbis did not cause them to break into many little groups. The mishnah further teaches that despite the fact that things that Beth Hillel considered pure, Beth Shammai considered impure, and vice versa, they did not refrain from eating together and from using each other’s utensils. Again, if we look at the group that did split, the Dead Sea sect, two of the halakhic issues which they considered the most important were marital laws and purity laws (sacrificial laws were also important.) The authors of the Dead Sea scrolls are constantly accusing their opponents of not properly observing marriage laws or purity laws. Despite the fact that Beth Shammai and Beth Hillel also debated these subjects, they did not refrain from marrying each other and from eating together. In other words, they remained one society.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
בית שמאי מכשירין – [The School of Shammai validates them] to Kohanim, if they had become widowed from their levirs.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
ובית הלל פוסלים – that they had engaged in sexual relationship with those forbidden to them, and one who engages in sexual relations with one prohibited to her makes her a harlot, and a harlot is prohibited to [marry] a Kohen.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
לא נמנעו – and even though that the children of the rival/co-wives who had been married by the levir that according to the School of Shammai are Mamzerim/illegitimate according to the School of Hillel, and they are [included] in the prohibition of marrying the wife of one’s brother upon them, and the [violation of] the [marriage of the] wife of one’s brother is [liable to] extirpation, and those who are liable for extirpation are considered Mamzerim/illegitimate, nevertheless, [members of] the School of Hillel were not prevented from marrying women from the School of Shammai, because they would inform them of those women coming from the rival/co-wives and separate from them.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Yevamot
אלו על גבי אלו – they would loan their utensils one to the other. And in the Gemara (Tractate Yevamot 14a), raises an objection on that which is taught [in our Mishnah]: “The School of Shammai declares that the rival/co-wives are permitted [to enter into levirate marriage with] the brothers and the School of Hillel [prohibits] . They call it here (Deuteronomy 14:1): “You shall not gash yourselves/לא תתגדדו “ – do not form yourselves into religious [factions]. And they responded – such as the case of one Jewish court in one city – where half teach according to the School of Shammai and half teach according to the School of Hillel, but [where there are] two Jewish courts in one city, and all the more so, two Jewish courts in two towns, it does not matter.
