Kiddushin 76A

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Text Excerpt

ופוטרים את הנשואות. מאי דרשי? ״לא תהיה אשת המת החוצה לאיש זר״⁠ – הך דיתבה חוצה, היא לא תהיה לאיש זר, אבל הך דלא יתבה חוצה ⁠– תהיה לאיש זר.

and they would exempt married women from ḥalitza and levirate marriage. The Talmud elaborates: In what way would they expound the verse to lead them to this conclusion? The verse states: “The wife of the dead man should not be married outside of the family to one not of his kin; her brother-in-law will have sex with her and take her to him to be his wife, and consummate the levirate marriage” (Deuteronomy 25:5). They understood the word “outside” to be a description of the woman: She who sits outside, i.e., one who is only betrothed; she should not be married to one not of his kin, and it is with her that the obligation of levirate marriage applies. But she who is not sitting outside, but who has already married, should marry one not of his kin. Consequently, the concern with regard to the Samaritans is that their descendants include the children of a widow who unlawfully wed one who was not her brother-in-law.

ורבי עקיבא לטעמיה דאמר: יש ממזר מחייבי לאוין.

After having explained which prohibition the Samaritans violated, the Talmud explains how this accounts for the prohibition with regard to marriage with Samaritans. And R' Akiva conforms to his standard line of reasoning, as he says: The offspring of sex for which one is liable for violating a prohibition is a mamzer. Therefore, the descendants of a yevama who had transgressed the prohibition of: “The wife of the deceased should not be married outside of the family to one not of his kin,” have the status of mamzerim.

Text data via Sefaria: William Davidson Edition - English and William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic, CC-BY-NC; edition provenance: Koren. Display terminology has been modernized for readability.