Reviewing four important concepts TB Yevamot 50

With today’s daf TB Yevamot 50 we begin the fifth chapter of our massekhet. This chapter is short, but complicated. All the mishnayot are frontloaded and the remaining 3 dappim will explicate them. To understand all the permutations that the Mishna and Gemara present, I want to review four different terms.

Yibum (יִבּוּם) is a levirate marriage. When a man dies childless, his surviving brother takes the widow as his wife. All he has to do is have intimate relations with the widow. As soon as he does, she is his wife. This is a Torah law.

Halitza (חֲלִיצָה) is the ceremony of separation when the surviving brother does not want to perform yibum at all. This too is a Torah law.

Ma-amar (מַאֲמָר) is a rabbinic institution. Yibum is a fast track to marriage without the first stage of kiddushin, betrothal. The sages want to make this process more like a regular marriage. Ma-amar is a quasi-form of betrothal, kiddushin. Beit Shammai that the connection form by ma-amar with a yevamah is very strong. Beit Hillel holds that the connection form by ma-amar is less strong, but still important.

Get (גֵּט ) is a bill of divorce. A get does nothing to impact a levirate marriage according to the Torah. The sages recognize that if a person does give a get to a yevamah, he is signaling that he does not want to perform yibum. Rabbinically the get starts the halitza process.

The Mishnah goes into all the permutations. I’ll with share you the first example of one surviving brother and one yevamah. “The mishna elaborates: How do these laws work in practice? If a yavam performed levirate betrothal (ma-amar-gg) with his yevama, and he later gave her a bill of divorce (get-gg), she nevertheless requires ḥalitza from him. The bill of divorce does not fully exempt her from levirate marriage, as the levirate bond remains intact. If he performed levirate betrothal and then ḥalitza, she requires a bill of divorce from him in order to cancel the levirate betrothal. If the yavam performed levirate betrothal and then engaged in intercourse with the yevama, this is the way to perform levirate marriage in accordance with its mitzva, as the Sages instituted this as the proper procedure for a yavam to perform levirate marriage.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Once you understand how the principles work in concert with one another, the rest of the Mishnah makes sense.