Rabbinic JudaismMishnah Yevamot 1HOLYMAP · SACRED TEXTS
The MishnahMishnah Yevamot 1

The Mishnah

Mishnah Yevamot 1

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English · Joshua Kulp

Fifteen [categories of] women exempt their rival wives and the rival wives of their rival wives and so on ad infinitum from halitzah and from yibbum. And these are they: his daughter, and the daughter of his daughter, and the daughter of his son, and the daughter of his wife, and the daughter of her son and the daughter of her daughter; (7) His mother-in-law and his mother-in-law’s mother, and his father-in-law’s mother; (10) His maternal sister and his mother’s sister and his wife’s sister (13) And his maternal brother’s wife; and the wife of his brother who died before he was born, (15) And his daughter-in-law. All these exempt their rival wives and the rival wives of their rival wives, and so on, ad infinitum, from halitzah and from yibbum. If any of them died, or made a declaration of refusal, or were divorced, or were found incapable of procreation, their rivals are permitted. And you cannot say of a man’s mother-in-law, or the mother of his mother-in-law and of the mother of his father-in-law that they were found incapable of procreation or that they made a declaration of refusal.

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English · Joshua Kulp

How do they exempt their rival wives? If his daughter or any other of these forbidden relatives was married to his brother who also had another wife, and he died, then just as his daughter is exempt so is her rival exempt. If his daughter’s rival went and married a second brother of his, who also had another wife, and he died, then just as the rival of his daughter is exempt so is his daughter’s rival’s rival exempt, even if there were a hundred [brothers]. How is it that if they had died, their rivals are permitted? If a man’s daughter or any other of these forbidden relatives was married to his brother who also had another wife, and his daughter died or was divorced, and afterwards his brother died, her rival is permitted. The rival of any one who can make a declaration of refusal but did not make a declaration of refusal, must perform halitzah and may not have yibbum.

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English · Joshua Kulp

There are six relatives that are more restricted than these, in that they may be married only to strangers, marriage with their rivals is permitted: his mother and his father’s wife, his father’s sister, his paternal sister, his father’s brother’s wife and his paternal brother’s wife.

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English · Joshua Kulp

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.

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Mishnah Yevamot 1English
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Mishnah, ed. Romm (Vilna, 1913). Public domain. Digital text from Sefaria (sefaria.org). · Source ↗

Mishnah Yomit, translated by Dr. Joshua Kulp (Conservative Yeshiva, Jerusalem). CC BY. Text from Sefaria (sefaria.org). · Source ↗

English translation: Mishnah Yomit by Dr. Joshua Kulp (Conservative Yeshiva, Jerusalem), via Sefaria (sefaria.org). Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Changes: footnotes and HTML formatting removed.

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