Study Yevamot folio 78A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
מצרי שני במאי יטהר? דלמא דאי עבר ונסיב. ״דאי״ לא כתיב קרא.
how could a second-generation Egyptian convert ever achieve purity, so that it is permitted for his offspring, the third generation, to enter into the congregation? He may marry neither a Jew nor a female Egyptian convert. The Talmud answers: Perhaps it means that if he transgressed and married a convert or a Jewish woman, his seed will be purified. The Talmud rejects this suggestion: A case of: That if, is not written in the verse. In other words, the Bible does not speak of situations that can arise only through the commission of a transgression.
הרי ממזר ״דאי״, וכתביה קרא! ״דאי״ לאיסורא — כתב, ״דאי״ להיתרא — לא כתב.
The Talmud asks: But isn’t there the halakha of a mamzer, which is a case of that if, as a mamzer is the child of a forbidden union, and yet the verse writes it? The Talmud answers: A case of that if that results in a prohibition, the Torah writes, but a case of that if that leads to an allowance, the Torah does not write. The Torah teaches the halakha of a mamzer, whose very existence is the result of his parents having engaged in forbidden sex, in order to render it prohibited for him to enter into the congregation. However, it would not teach the halakha of a second-generation Egyptian convert who transgressed and married a woman who was forbidden to him, in order to permit his offspring to enter into the congregation.
הרי מחזיר גרושתו, ״דאי״ להיתרא וכתביה? התם משום עיקר איסורא הוא דכתביה.
The Talmud raises an objection: But isn’t there the halakha governing one who remarries his divorcée after she had been married to another man? This is a case of that if that leads to an allowance, and yet the Torah writes it. The words “It is an abomination before YHWH” (Deuteronomy 24:4) stated with regard to this case teach that although the woman herself is forbidden to her first husband, if she nevertheless remarried him, their children are fit to enter into the congregation. The Talmud answers: There, the Torah writes that case due to the basic prohibition, i.e., that a man may not remarry his divorced wife after she has been married to another man, and the allowance with regard to their children is learned incidentally.