Study Yevamot folio 21B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
דאורייתא היא, דכתיב: ״ערות כלתך לא תגלה״! אימא כלת בנו. וכלת בנו יש לה הפסק? והא תניא: כלתו ערוה, כלת בנו שניה, וכן אתה אומר בבנו ובן בנו עד סוף כל הדורות. אלא אימא: כלת בתו.
The Talmud asks: Is this relationship not forbidden by Torah law? As it is written: “You should not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law” (Leviticus 18:15). The Talmud emends: Say instead his son’s daughter-in-law. The Talmud asks: And does the prohibition against having a relationship with his son’s daughter-in-law indeed have a conclusion? Isn’t it taught in a baraita: His daughter-in-law is a forbidden relation by Torah law, his son’s daughter-in-law is a secondary forbidden relation, and similarly, you say the daughter-in-law of his son and the daughter-in-law of his son’s son until the end of all generations are secondary forbidden relationships. Rather, say instead that Rav was referring to his daughter’s daughter-in-law.
דאמר רב חסדא: הא מילתא מגברא רבה שמיע לי, ומנו — רבי אמי: לא אסרו כלה אלא מפני כלה. ואמרו לי כלדאי: מלפנא הוית.
As Rav Ḥisda said: I heard this matter from a great man, and who was that great man? It was R' Ami, and he said: They prohibited a daughter-in-law only due to the daughter-in-law. Rav Ḥisda heard this in his youth but did not understand the meaning. The Chaldean astrologers said to me: You will be a teacher.
אמינא: אי גברא רבה הוינא — אסברא מדעתי, אי מקרי דרדקי הוינא — אשיילה מרבנן דאתו לבי כנישתא. השתא סברתה מדעתי: לא אסרו כלת בתו אלא משום כלת בנו.
Rav Ḥisda further said: I said to myself: If the astrologers meant that I will become a great man and one who teaches the public, I will certainly be able to reason and understand this matter with my knowledge. If the astrologers meant that I will become the teacher of children, I will ask it of the rabbis who come to the synagogue and in that way I will learn the meaning of R' Ami’s teaching. Now I understand the matter on my own. R' Ami meant: They prohibited his daughter’s daughter-in-law only due to his son’s daughter-in-law, to avoid confusion between these daughters-in-law. The rabbinic decree prohibited one’s daughter’s daughter-in-law but did not extend to subsequent generations.