Lenient to prevent agunot

With today’s daf TB Yevamot 122 we finish we finish massekhet Yevamot!

Being an agunah is a horrendous position for a woman to be in. Because we don’t know the fate of her husband whether he is alive or dead, she is anchored to him. She can’t remarry nor may she mourn her husband; she is in limbo. To prevent women from becoming agunot (the plural of agunah), the rabbis relaxed the classical law of testimony. According to classical Jewish law, a court needs to male witnesses to establish a fact. We have already learned that a single man’s testimony, a single woman’s testimony, and even the wife testimony that the man has died, is acceptable testimony allowing her to remarry.

Pagans’ testimony concerning an aspect of Jewish law was never accepted in a Jewish court. Today’s daf even allows a pagan under certain circumstances to provide information that a Jew died that would allow the wife to remarry. “One may rely on a gentile’s statement when he speaks offhandedly (מֵסִיחַ לְפִי תּוּמּוֹ), without any intention to testify” (Sefaria.org translation) The Gemara provides a case example. “Abba Yudan of Sidon said: An incident occurred involving a Jew and a gentile who traveled on the road, and later the gentile came and said: Alas for the Jew who was with me on the road, for he died, and I buried him. And the Sages relied upon this statement and allowed his wife to marry.” (Sefaria.org translation)

A Mishnah provides other cases where the rabbis relaxed the laws of testimony so a woman would not become an agunah. “Witnesses may testify that an individual died even if they saw his corpse only by candlelight or by moonlight (usually courts for only in session during daytime hours to hear testimony-gg). And the court may allow a woman to marry based on the statement of a disembodied voice proclaiming that her husband died. There was an incident with regard to a certain individual who stood at the top of a mountain and said: So-and-so, son of so-and-so, from such and such a place died. They went and found no person there, but even so they relied upon the statement and allowed the wife of the individual declared dead to marry.

And there was another incident in Tzalmon, a city in the Galilee, where a particular man said: I am so-and-so, son of so-and-so. A snake bit me and I am dying. And they went and found his corpse but could not recognize him, yet they went ahead and allowed his wife to marry based on what he said in his dying moments.” (Sefaria.org translation)

The penultimate Mishnah shows the evolution of Jewish law. At one time allowing a woman to remarry based on the testimony of one person was a minority opinion. Over a period of time the consensus changed and allowed a woman to remarry based on the testimony of one witness.

“Rabbi Akiva said: When I descended to Neharde’a, in Babylonia, to intercalate the year, I found the Sage Neḥemya of Beit D’li. He said to me: I heard that the Sages in Eretz Yisrael do not allow a woman to remarry based on the testimony of a single witness, except for Yehuda ben Bava. And I told him: That is so. He said to me: Tell the Sages in my name: You know that the country is confounded by army troops, and I cannot come myself. I declare that I received this tradition from Rabban Gamliel the Elder, that the court may allow a woman to remarry based on the testimony of a single witness.

“Rabbi Akiva continues: And when I came and presented the matter before Rabban Gamliel of Yavne, the grandson of Rabban Gamliel the Elder, he rejoiced at my words and said: We have found a companion who agrees with Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava, and since his lenient opinion is no longer the opinion of a lone Sage, it may now be relied upon.

“As a result of this event, Rabban Gamliel remembered that people were murdered in Tel Arza, and Rabban Gamliel then allowed their wives to remarry based on only one witness. And from then onward they established as protocol to allow a woman to remarry based on hearsay testimony, a slave’s testimony, a woman’s testimony, or a maidservant’s testimony.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Tomorrow we begin massekhet Ketubot!