Yevamot 86 - June 1, 2 Sivan

Presentation Today’s daf is sponsored by Don Nadel in loving memory of his mother Rhoda Nadel, Zisa Risa bat Aliya haCohen on her 25th yahrzeit. The Mishna is based on the fact that a non-levite can't eat maaser. This is according to Rabbi Meir's opinion as found in a braita. From where does he derive this? What do the rabbis, who disagree with him, derive from that verse? The Gemara, however, questions the understanding that the Mishna is based on Rabbi Meir as that does not fit with the last case in the Mishna where a levite woman is engaged to a kohen or the reverse and the wife cannot eat either truma or maaser- the kohen should be allowed to eat maaser as all kohanim are also levites. Rav Sheshet explains the last line of the Mishna to mean something else - that she cannot give permission to a messenger to take truma from the maaser. Mar son of Rabana explained it differently - that she can't collect the maaser in the granary. Does this fit with the two explanations for this issue in general - concerns for yichud in the granary or that she will continue to collect even once she is divorced? There is a debate between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria about to whom the truma and maaser are given is brought - is maaser given only to the levi or can be given also to the kohen. They disagree on how to read the verse referring to levites - does that include kohanim or not? A story is brought about Rabbi Akiva who blocked Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria (who was a kohen) from taking maaser in a particular field by moving the entrance to the side where there was a cemetery. There is a debate among amoraim about why the levites were penalized and lost the rights to eat maaser in the time of Ezra. What was the reason for this? And to whom was the maaser given instead? How does this work with the story told about Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria. The Mishna goes through a situation where a woman married men of different statuses and had children with each of them - at every given point in the story, can she eat truma, maaser or not? What happens when each of the children die? What is the situation if she was a daughter of a kohen?