Yevamot 119 - July 4, 5 Tamuz

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Today's daf is sponsored by Shelley and Jerry Gornish in loving memory of their dear grandson, Oz Wilchek, on his sixth yahrzeit. 

Today’s daf is sponsored by Harriet Hartman in loving memory of Moshe Hartman. "In life, you expanded my horizons beyond all expectations. In your honor, I now feel my life expanding beyond all expectations through Hadran’s Daf Yomi. Thank you, and thanks to Rabbanit Michelle and Hadran for all the inspiration and insight."

Today’s daf is sponsored by Gitta Jaroslawicz-Neufeld in loving memory of her father, Philip Jaroslawicz יוסף בן מנחם מענדל ופעשי ע"ה. “My father raised us to love learning and live Torah. While he may have said "no" when we asked for a new game, he never said "no" when we asked for books. His love of learning and passion for chessed are stamped strongly in the spiritual DNA of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren."

Today's daf is sponsored by Adina Hagege in honor of Miriam Kerzner's birthday. "Your late-night dedication to learning the Daf Yomi with Hadran and Rabbanit Michelle, intellectually immersing yourself in a whole new world of Talmud, is an ongoing testament to the inspiration you've been for us all your life. We wish you many more years of learning and spiritual growth. With lots of love from your brother and sister, Barry and Elayne Greenstone, and all your nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and nephews, and great-grand nieces and nephews". 

Today’s daf is dedicated to Geelit Sommer by her children. "We wish our dear Ima a very happy birthday and a big שכויח for learning Masechet Yevamot. We are very proud of your dedication to learning and your openness to taking on this challenge, and we are inspired by you. עלי והצליחי!"

If one's husband went abroad with a rival wife and witnesses said that he died, the wife needs to wait until she finds out that his wife did not give birth to a child. She cannot do yibum or marry anyone else. Rabbi Yehoshua disagrees and permit her to marry. According to the rabbis, why don't we follow the majority and assume she got pregnant and had a child? A distinction is made between a majority of items in front of us. like "nine stores" and a statistical majority. Or is it because the Mishna holds like Rabbi Meir who is concerned for minority possibilities? The difficulty of saying the Mishna holds like Rabbi Meir is that the second case in the Mishna does not seem concerned with minority possibilities. How can this be explained? How long does the woman need to wait to see if the rival wife had a child? Why can't we allow her to perform chalitza out of doubt? Sisters-in-law who could both fall to yibum to each other's husbands are not believed regarding each other. What happens in a case where there are only two brothers and each of their wives claims that their husband has died - if we believe each one, there are no brothers left to do yibum, in which case they should be allowed to marry anyone else. What is the law? The Mishna brings a number of different scenarios within this case.