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Text Excerpt
חלצו — בית שמאי פוסלין מן הכהונה, ובית הלל מכשירין. נתייבמו — בית שמאי מכשירין, ובית הלל פוסלין.
If any of the rival wives of the brother performed ḥalitza, Beit Shammai disqualify her from marrying into the priesthood, as in their opinion these rival wives were fit for levirate marriage, which means that the ḥalitza was fully valid. Consequently, they are disqualified from marrying a priest, like all other women who perform ḥalitza. And Beit Hillel deem them fit, as they maintain that no legal act of ḥalitza was performed here at all. If they entered into levirate marriage, Beit Shammai deem them fit for the priesthood, as in their opinion, this is a fully legal levirate marriage. And Beit Hillel disqualify them, because they engaged in licentious sex as the rival wives of a forbidden relative.
אף על פי שאלו אוסרים ואלו מתירין, אלו פוסלין ואלו מכשירין — לא נמנעו בית שמאי מלישא נשים מבית הלל, ולא בית הלל מבית שמאי. כל הטהרות והטמאות שהיו אלו מטהרים ואלו מטמאין — לא נמנעו עושין טהרות אלו על גבי אלו.
§ The Mishnah comments: Although Beit Hillel prohibit the rival wives to the brothers and Beit Shammai permit them, and although these disqualify these women and those deem them fit, Beit Shammai did not refrain from marrying women from Beit Hillel, nor did Beit Hillel refrain from marrying women from Beit Shammai. Furthermore, with regard to all of the disputes concerning the halakhot of ritual purity and impurity, where these rule that an article is ritually pure and those rule it ritually impure, they did not refrain from handling ritually pure objects each with the other, as Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel frequently used each other’s vessels.
גמ׳ אמר רבי שמעון בן פזי: מאי טעמא דבית שמאי, דכתיב: ״לא תהיה אשת המת החוצה לאיש זר״. ״חוצה״ — מכלל דאיכא פנימית, ואמר רחמנא: ״לא תהיה״.
Talmud: R' Shimon ben Pazi said: What is the reason for the opinion of Beit Shammai? As it is written: “The wife of the dead man should not be married outside of the family to one not of his kin” (Deuteronomy 25:5). The term “outside” indicates by inference that there is a woman who is considered inside, i.e., a close relative of the yavam, who is inside his family. And God states: “should not be married” and also “to one not of his kin.” In other words, even when one of the wives is a forbidden relative, the rival wife who is outside the family of the yavam is obligated in levirate marriage.