Yevamot 79 - May 25, 24 Iyar

Presentation in PDF format Today's daf is sponsored by Caroline and Victor Ofstein in honor of their son Shalom's wedding to Yocheved Davidowitz today. "May their home be filled with Torah, learning and mitzvot, and bracha and simcha always". Today's daf is sponsored by Ruth Leah Kahan, Jessica Shklar, and Emily Michelson in loving memory of their mother Kadimah Michelson, Kadima bat HaRav Avraham Zvi Ben-Tzion v'Chaya, on her fourth yahrzeit. Today's daf is dedicated to the memory of all those young children murdered in the shooting yesterday in an elementary school in Texas.  The end story of the Netinim is explained and why King David forbid them to marry Jews even though they had converted. As an act of revenge against King Saul, they insist on murdering seven of his descendants. How were those seven people chosen? After they were killed, their bodies were left to hang for half a year as a kiddush Hashem - to show everyone what is done even to sons of kings who don't treat converts properly, even those who have converted for ulterior motives. Ritzpa bat Aya, the concubine of King Saul, two of whose kids were among those murdered, protected the bodies from the birds and animals. Only after the rains began did King David allow them to be buried. As a result of this incident, 150,000 people converted to Judaism. From where is this derived? Was it really David who forbade them? Wasn't it already alluded to by Moshe in the Torah or by Joshua in the book of Joshua? In the time of Rebbe, they wanted to repeal this decree against the Netinim, but they were unsuccessful - why? Two different answers are given. There were two traditions regarding a man incapable of having children, a saris,  regarding chalitza - one that he does perform chalitza and that chalitza is performed on his wife, and one that says the opposite. There are different tannatic opinions about which one refers to a man who was born like this and which one refers to a man who became this way later in life. An aylonit does not do chalitza or yibum. Rabbi Akiva holds that a man who became a saris does chalitza - but if Rabbi Akiva also holds that all negative commandments (which would include marriage to a saris - patzua daka) are like ones liable for karet, how could one possibly be obligated in chalitza or yibum? Rabbi Ami limits it to a case where the yevama was a convert and according to those who hold that a convert can also marry those who are forbidden to marry. Two questions are raised against Rabbi Ami's position. Raba brings a different answer - that he does chalitza only if he was not yet a saris when his brother died but became a saris before yibum was performed. A difficulty is raised against this position as well. A third answer is brought by Rav Yosef who rejects the question as he brings a different understanding of Rabbi Akiva's position regarding negative commandments - only those that are ones forbidden due to a close relation are like those liable for karet. Why is he even part of the mitzva of chalitza and yibum if the whole point of the mitzva is to carry on the name and he is not capable of that?