Sotah 6A

מי קא רמינן לה עליה בעל כרחיה?

Do we impose on him an obligation to marry her against his will? Unlike levirate marriage, there is no obligation for another man to marry her. Therefore, the verse is not instructing him to do so.

ואיכא דאמרי, אמר רב יוסף: הכתוב קראו ״אחר״, שאין בן זוגו של ראשון. שזה הוציא רשעה מביתו, וזה הכניס רשעה לתוך ביתו, ואת אמרת תתיבם נמי יבומי?!

And there are those who say that Rav Yosef said differently: The verse calls a man who marries a woman after she was divorced from her first husband due to suspicion of adultery “another man,” as the verse states: “And she departs out of his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife” (Deuteronomy 24:2). This indicates that one who subsequently marries her is not a peer of her first husband because this one, the first husband, removed an evil woman from his house, and that one brought an evil woman into his house. There is an implied criticism of the second husband in the verse; and yet you say that the verse instructs that she should also enter into levirate marriage.

אמר ליה אביי: אלא מעתה, נשאת לאחר ומת בלא בנים ⁠— לא תתיבם, דהכתוב קראו ״אחר״! גביה דהאי מיהא בשם טוב הוה קיימא.

Abaye said to him: If that is so, then if she married another man and he died without children, then she should not enter into levirate marriage with the brother of her second husband even if she did not commit adultery during the second marriage, since the verse calls the second husband “another man,” which excluded the possibility of levirate marriage. Rav Yosef answered Abaye: With regard to that one, i.e., this second husband, at least she remained with a good name. Since she did not engage in illicit behavior during her second marriage, she can enter into levirate marriage with the brother of her second husband.