Study Yevamot folio 112B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
״מבקשין״ מיבעי ליה. הכא במאי עסקינן, באשה שיש לה בנים, דכולי האי לא מסקה אדעתה.
the Mishnah should have said that the court asks the yavam to perform ḥalitza rather than forces him. The court would not force him to perform ḥalitza in a case where she deliberately attempted to avoid fulfilling the mitzva of levirate marriage. The Talmud answers: With what are we dealing here? With a woman who has children with her husband when she vows, so that it did not enter her mind to the extent that her children would die, and later her husband would also die, and she would happen before his brother for levirate marriage.
אבל אין לה בנים, מאי — מבקשין? אדתני ״אם נתכוונה לכך, אפילו בחיי בעלה מבקשין ממנו שיחלוץ לה״, ליפלוג וליתני בדידה: במה דברים אמורים — בשיש לה בנים, אבל אין לה בנים — מבקשין!
The Talmud asks: But if she has no children, what is the halakha? Is it that we ask him to perform ḥalitza, but do not force him? If so, then instead of teaching the more remote case that if she intended to do so, to avoid levirate marriage in the event of her husband’s death, even if she vowed during her husband’s lifetime, the court merely asks him to perform ḥalitza with her, let the Mishnah distinguish and teach the distinction within this halakha itself, as follows: In what case is this statement said? When she has children, but if she does not have children, the court merely asks him.
אלא שמע מינה: לא שנא יש לה בנים, ולא שנא אין לה בנים — כופין אותו כרב, שמע מינה.
Rather, learn from it that there is no difference between when she has children and when she does not have children. Either way the court forces him to perform ḥalitza, in accordance with the opinion of Rav, as there is no assumption that the woman planned to avoid levirate marriage unless she says so explicitly. The Talmud concludes: Indeed, learn from it that the halakha follows Rav’s opinion.