Yevamot 17a (יז.) — the Talmud in English

And Habor —

This is Hadayev.

The Gozan River —

This is Ginzak.

And the cities of Media —

This is Hamadan and its surrounding cities.

And some say: This is Nihar and its surrounding cities.

“Its surrounding cities” —

which

are they?

Shmuel said: A city

named

“Mushkhei,”

and a city named

“Hidkei,”

and a city named

“Dumekya.” [

See the version in Kiddushin 72a.]

Rabbi Yohanan said: And all of them are disqualified.

For most of the people in these places are mamzerim. Since the daughters of the Ten Tribes became intermingled among the nations, and their sons were Israelite mamzerim.

Because, as their sons did not conduct themselves as Israelites, they married their relatives who were forbidden to them by karet, and fathered mamzerim through them.

And Rav Yehuda added:

When I stated it before Shmuel,

when I told Shmuel the statement of Rav Asi, that if a gentile betrothed an Israelite woman nowadays, there is concern regarding his betrothal, because perhaps he is from the Ten Tribes, Shmuel understood that the concern was for mamzerut, since the sons of the Ten Tribes fathered children with gentile women, and because of this they were mamzerim.

Therefore

he said to me:

They are not mamzerim! Since these sons are not Israelites, but gentiles, and gentiles cannot be mamzerim.

For the verse prohibiting marriage with gentiles says: “For he will turn away [the gentile who takes your daughter] your son.”

And from here we learn that only

your son born of an Israelite woman is called ‘your son,’ but your son born of a gentile woman is not called your son, but her son!

You might say:

But there are daughters

who were taken captive by the gentiles, and their sons are Israelite mamzerim, because:

And Ravina said: Infer from

the verse:

“The son of your daughter born of a gentile is called ‘your son’”!? [

See below, 23a, for its explanation.]

The answer is:

It is known by tradition

that

the daughters

of

that generation

of the generation of the Ten Tribes

were rendered infertile:

their wombs ruptured, and the semen was not absorbed there.

Some say:

Rav Yehuda said:

When I stated it before Shmuel, he said to me: They did not move from there until they rendered them complete gentiles,

as it is stated [Hosea 5]:

Hosea 5]:

“They betrayed the Lord, for they fathered foreign children.”

Rav Yosef sat behind Rav Kahana, and Rav Kahana sat before Rav Yehuda, and he was sitting and saying: In the future, the Israelites will make a festival when

Tarmod is destroyed,

Tarmod.

Since they are mamzerim and become assimilated among the Israelites, disqualifying them.

And we object:

But

it has already

been destroyed,

Tadmor!

And we answer:

That —

it was Tamod,

not Tadmor.

Rav Ashi said: Tarmod is identical with Tamod.

And this difficulty, that it has already been destroyed, is not difficult:

For

it was destroyed repeatedly:

Tarmod was destroyed and then rebuilt.

It was destroyed on this side

of the city;

it was resettled

and rebuilt

on that side,

on its other side.

And if it was destroyed on this side —

it was resettled on that side.

Rav Hamnuna sat before Ulla, and he was

raising difficulties

concerning the teaching

of Ulla.

Ulla said

to him:

What a man, and what a man!

How great Rav Hamnuna is;

if only Harpanya were not his city,

if only Harpanya, which is a place of people of impure lineage, were not his city!

He was embarrassed,

Rav Hamnuna was ashamed.

Ulla said to him,

to Rav Hamnuna:

The head tax money

of the poll tax

to whom do you give it?

He said to him:

I give my poll tax

to Pum Nahara!

He said to him: If so, you are from Pum Nahara.

What is “Harpanya

that Ulla mentioned?

Rabbi Zeira said: A mountain to which everyone

of impure lineage

turns

to find women of their own kind.

A tanna taught in a beraita: Anyone who does not know his family or his tribe —

turns there.

Rava said: And it —

is deeper

in evil

than Sheol.

For those who descend to Gehinnom have a remedy, but those of impure lineage have no remedy.

As it is stated: [Hosea 13, concerning those who descend to Sheol]

Hosea 13, concerning those who descend to Sheol,]

“From the hand of Sheol I will redeem them; from death I will deliver them.”

But as for their disqualification —

they have no remedy.

Those of impure lineage from Harpanya —

because of those of impure lineage from

the city of

Mishon,

which is nearby, and the people of impure lineage from Mishon become intermingled with the people of Harpanya.

And those of impure lineage from Mishon —

because of those of impure lineage from Tarmod,

which is nearby.

Those of impure lineage from Tarmod —

because of Solomon’s slaves.

And this is what people say,

as a proverb:

A large kav and a small kav,

both a large measure and a small measure —

roll

downward

and go,

becoming increasingly distorted as they roll down.

The analogy is to those of impure lineage, who roll down and descend from place to place.

At first, those of impure lineage descend

to “Sheol.”

And from Sheol,

which is a high place, they descend and roll down

to Tarmod.

And from Tarmod

they descend

to Mishon, and from Mishon to Harpanya.

We have returned to you, chapter “Fifteen Women.”

In the first chapter, the forbidden relationship of “the wife of his brother who was not in his world” was taught among the fifteen women who are exempt from halitza and from yibbum, and who likewise exempt their co-wives from halitza and from yibbum.

Our Mishna came to explain:

Mishna:

How

is the forbidden relationship of

“the wife of his brother who was not in his world”

—she may not undergo yibbum, and she also exempts her co-wife from halitza and from yibbum?

For example, there were

two brothers

who lived together in the world,

and one of them died, and there was born to them

after the death of the first brother

a brother

who was the third.

The brother who was born is forbidden to perform yibbum with the wife of the first brother, because they did not both live in the world at the same time, and the Torah says, at the beginning of the passage concerning yibbum: “When brothers dwell together.”

And afterward he performed yibbum with

the

wife of his brother

the first,

and

the second brother died.

Now two yevamot fall before the third brother: one, who had already been married to the first brother, who was not in his world, and is therefore forbidden to him like the wife of a brother who has children; and the other, who had been married only to his second brother, with whom he had lived together in the world.

Thus,

the first,

who had been married to his first brother,

is released

from him without requiring halitza,

because of

the forbidden relationship of

the wife of his brother who was not in his world.

And the second—

because of her co-wife,

the co-wife of the forbidden wife of a brother with whom yibbum is not permitted.

And if

he performed

the second brother

a maamar

—a rabbinic betrothal, instituted by the Sages so that the yavam should betroth his yevama before having relations with her—

and

the second brother died, then the wife of the second brother becomes the co-wife of the wife of the first brother by rabbinic law, as a result of the second brother’s maamar. Thus both of them fall from the second brother before the third brother [the first falls before him by rabbinic law, and the second by Torah law].

Thus, the

second,

the wife of the second brother,

performs halitza

by Torah law, since by Torah law the betrothal of the second brother did not take effect, and she is not the co-wife of a forbidden woman.

But she may not undergo yibbum,

by rabbinic law, since by virtue of the betrothal of the maamar she is considered, by rabbinic law, the co-wife of the wife of his brother who was not in his world. [See Rashi’s wording!]

Gemara:

We learned in the first clause of our Mishna that if the second brother performed yibbum with the wife of the first brother and then died, the first is released because she is the wife of his brother who was not in his world, while the second is released because she is her co-wife.

However, some switch the reading of “the first” to “the second,” and teach as follows:

The second

is released because she is the wife of his brother who was not in his world.

And the first

is released because she is her co-wife.

Rav Naḥman said: The one who teaches

the version appearing in our Mishna,

“the first

is released because she is the wife of his brother who was not in his world” —

is not mistaken!

His version is correct and is not an erroneous corruption.

Likewise,

the one who teaches

the other version,

“the second

is released because she is the wife of his brother who was not in his world,” is also

not mistaken!

That is to say, both versions are correct as a matter of halakha. The difference between them lies in the meaning of the words “the first” and “the second,” as will be explained below: