Yevamot 16a — the Talmud in English

But concerning your question about

the co-wives

who went out and married in the marketplace without halitza, like Beit Hillel, and your question was what is their status according to Beit Shammai with regard to the offspring: are they disqualified from the priesthood or not, so that you could resolve the law of the offspring of one who remarries his divorced wife according to Beit Hillel—

concerning this

I testify to you

that they are not disqualified, for there were among them High Priests.

And the Gemara now brings another proof that Beit Shammai acted in accordance with their words:

Ta shma

from what we learned in a beraita:

In the days of Rabbi Dosa ben Horkenos—

the co-wife of the daughter was permitted to the brothers.

Learn from it

that

they acted

in accordance with the words of Beit Shammai.

And we conclude: Indeed,

learn from it.

The matter itself: In the days of Rabbi Dosa ben Horkenos—

they permitted the co-wife of the daughter to the brothers!

For Rabbi Dosa ben Horkenos’s brother was among the students of Beit Shammai, and he permitted the co-wife of the forbidden relative to perform yibbum, because that was his opinion, and the people acted in practice according to him.

And the matter was difficult for the Sages, because

Rabbi Dosa ben Horkenos

was a great Sage,

and they thought that Rabbi Dosa ben Horkenos had permitted it on the basis of his words.

And his eyes

of Rabbi Dosa ben Horkenos

rose

—they became dim so that he could not see—and therefore he refrained

from coming to the beit-midrash,

and they could not ask him in the beit-midrash about this ruling.

They said

in the beit-midrash:

Who will go and inform him

Rabbi Dosa ben Horkenos that they had been acting permissively concerning the co-wife of the daughter?

Rabbi Yehoshua said to them: I will go.

And who after him

will go?

Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya.

And who after him?

Rabbi Akiva.

They went and stood at the entrance of his house

of Rabbi Dosa ben Horkenos.

His maidservant entered and said to him: Rabbi, the Sages of Israel are coming to you!

He said to her: Let them enter! And they entered.

He grasped

Rabbi Dosa ben Horkenos

by Rabbi Yehoshua and seated him on a golden bed.

He said to him

Rabbi Yehoshua:

Rabbi, tell your other student, and let him sit!

He said to him: Who is he?

Rabbi Yehoshua said to him:

Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya!

Rabbi Dosa said

Rabbi Dosa:

And

does

our colleague Azarya have a son!?

He cited this verse concerning him [

Psalms 37]:

“I was young, and I also grew old, and I have not seen a righteous man forsaken, or his offspring seeking bread”

He grasped him and seated him on a golden bed.

He said to him

Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya:

Rabbi, tell your other student, and let him sit,

He said to him: And who is he?

He said to him:

Akiva ben Yosef.

He said to him: You are Akiva ben Yosef, whose name travels from one end of the world to the other?

Sit, my son, sit! May those like you multiply in Israel!

They began to surround him with questions about the halakhot, until they reached the matter of the co-wife of the daughter.

They said to him: The co-wife of the daughter—

what is

her law?

He said to them: It is a dispute between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel.

And they asked him:

The halakha—

according to whose words is it?

He said to them: The halakha is according to Beit Hillel!

They said to him: But was it not said in your name

that

the halakha is according to Beit Shammai!?

He said to them:

This halakha that you heard, did you hear it in the full name of

Dosa

ben Horkenos,

hear

it,

or

in the name of

ben Horkenos

alone, without Dosa,

did you hear

it?

They said to him: By the life of the Rabbi,

in the name of ben Horkenos

alone, we heard

it. And we thought that you had said it.

He said to them: I have a younger brother, the firstborn of Satan [

sharp, and he does not take the opinion of the majority into consideration, but rules the halakha according to his own opinion]

he is, and Yonatan is his name.

And he is among the students of Shammai.

And he rules the halakha like them, and therefore the report went out that I rule in this way.

And beware lest he defeat you with halakhot, for he has three hundred refutations concerning the co-wife of the daughter, that she is permitted.

But, I call Heaven and earth as witnesses for me, concerning this matter the prophet Haggai sat and said three things:

a.

The co-wife of the daughter—

is forbidden!

b.

Ammon and Moab—

they separate the tithe of the poor in the Sabbatical year.

c.

And they accept converts from the Karduim and from the Tarmodim,

and they are not mamzerim, contrary to the opinion of the Sages, who hold that once gentiles came upon them, through the intercourse of gentiles with Jewish women the sons become mamzerim.

And these halakhot will be explained in the Gemara below.

A tanna taught: When they entered—

they entered through one entrance.

But

when they left—

they left through three entrances.

Yonatan encountered

Yonatan

Rabbi Akiva. He raised difficulties against him

Yonatan his difficulties,

and he established it,

and Rabbi Akiva resolved them.

He said to him

Yonatan: Are

you Akiva, whose name travels from one end of the world to the other?

And he added, saying to him derisively:

Fortunate are you that you merited a name

of renown,

and you have still not reached

the level of

cattle herders!

Rabbi Akiva said to him

humbly:

And even to

the level of

shepherds

I have not reached!

And the Gemara now explains the two additional halakhot that he told them:

In the territories of

Ammon and Moab,

which were conquered by Moses our teacher and those who came out of Egypt, and were then sanctified with the sanctity of the Land of Israel,

they separate

in them

the tithe of the poor in the Sabbatical year,

even though in the other territories that were sanctified with the sanctity of the Land of Israel they do not separate tithes at all in the Sabbatical year, because all the produce in the seventh year is ownerless, and ownerless property is exempt from tithes.

For the Master said,

for so we learned in a beraita:

Many fortified cities were conquered by those who came up from Egypt, but

however

those who came up from Babylonia did not conquer

them

who came up from Babylonia.

And they intentionally left them without conquering them, so that they would not be sanctified with the sanctity of the Land when they returned from Babylonia, and would not become obligated to observe the laws of the Sabbatical year there.

And

the sanctity of the Land of Israel did not apply in these fortified cities, since the

sanctity

the

first

with which the Land of Israel was sanctified at the time of the first conquest by those who came up from Egypt

sanctified

only

for its time,

as long as the Children of Israel dwelled on their land; but it ceased when the land was conquered by the gentiles, and the people of Israel were exiled from the Land of Israel.

And it did not sanctify

that sanctity

for the future,

but when they returned from Babylonia they needed to sanctify again the places in the Land of Israel through conquest. And every place that was not conquered by those who came up from Babylonia remained without the sanctity of the Land.

And since this was so, there is no sanctity in the places that those who came up from Babylonia did not sanctify.

And

when they returned from Babylonia,

they left

the cities of Ammon and Moab without conquering them, and did not sanctify them,

so that the poor could rely on them in the Sabbatical year.

So that the laws of the Sabbatical year would not apply to them, and they would not be ownerless for every person as in the Land of Israel, where everyone’s hand is equal in them.

That is, the Sages took care that there would be places in which the mitzva of the Sabbatical year would not apply, and the poor would be able to work there and earn their livelihood.

And likewise, the produce would not be ownerless for everyone, but the poor would be able to receive the gifts for the poor from there, such as the tithe of the poor, the corner, the gleanings, and the forgotten sheaf.

And although these cities were not sanctified with the sanctity of the Land of Israel, the Sages obligated them in the tithe of the poor, since they enacted that the places adjacent to the Land of Israel should observe the separation of tithes.

And they accept converts from the Karduim and the Tarmodim

and they are not concerned that there may be mamzerim among them.

And we challenge this:

Is that so!

But didn’t Rami bar Yehezkel teach: They do not accept converts from the Karduim

because there are mamzerim among them!?

He said

—he explained—

Rav Ashi: “

They do not accept converts

from the Kartuyim,” it was stated.”

And

as people say: Kartuyim—

are disqualified

they!

And there are those who say,

this is what

Rami bar Yehezkel taught: They do not accept converts from the Kartuyim.

Is it not that the Kartuyim are the same as the Karduim!?

He said

—he explained—

Rav Ashi: No.

Kartuyim are one thing,

and they are disqualified.

And Karduim are another thing

and they are fit.

And

as people say: Kartuyim—

are disqualified.

Rabbi Yohanan and the Elder, both of them said: They do not accept converts from the Tarmodim.

And we challenge this:

But did Rabbi Yohanan say this?

But didn’t we learn:

According to Torah law, a woman who sees menstrual blood: that blood is not impure, and it does not render her impure with the impurity of menstruation, unless she felt the blood emerge.

But the Sages decreed concerning all blood stains found on garments that they have the status of impure. And they made this decree only concerning blood stains of Jewish women, and not those of gentile women, because the menstrual blood of gentile women is not impure, but only that of Jewish women.

And therefore,

all the stains

of blood found on garments

that come from the

city

of Rekem—

are pure,

because it is certain to us that they are blood stains of idolaters, and the Sages did not decree that the blood stains of gentile women should render impure.

And Rabbi Yehuda renders impure

the blood stains,

because

the inhabitants of Rekem

are converts,

and their menstrual blood renders impure,

and they are mistaken,

for they changed their religion and do not conceal their stains so that they should not render impure.

But the stains

among

places of

the idolaters,

where no Israelites live—

are pure!

And we considered it: