Study Yevamot folio 94B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
לו. ומותר בקרובות שניה, ושניה מותרת בקרוביו. ואם מתה ראשונה — מותר בשניה.
to him, as his erroneous marriage to her sister is considered licentious sex, and one who has sex with his wife’s relatives has not rendered his first wife forbidden to himself. And he is permitted to the relatives of the second woman, e.g., her daughter, and this second woman is permitted to his relatives, e.g., his son, as the marriage was entirely invalid. And if the first woman died he is permitted to the second woman, despite the fact that he has already engaged in forbidden sex with her.
אמרו לו: מתה אשתו, ונשא את אחותה. ואחר כך אמרו לו: קיימת היתה, ומתה. הולד ראשון — ממזר, והאחרון — אין ממזר. רבי יוסי אומר: כל שפוסל על ידי אחרים — פוסל על ידי עצמו, וכל שאין פוסל על ידי אחרים — אינו פוסל על ידי עצמו.
If they said to him that his wife is dead, and he married her sister, and afterward they said to him that she was alive when he married the sister and only later died, in this case the first child, born to the sister while his wife was still alive, is a mamzer, as he was born from the union of a man and his sister-in-law, and the last one is not a mamzer. R' Yosei says: Whoever disqualifies others also disqualifies himself, and whoever does not disqualify others does not disqualify himself either. R' Yosei’s obscure statement will be explained by the Talmud.
גמ׳ ואף על גב דאזול אשתו וגיסו למדינת הים, דאהני הני נשואים דקמיתסרא אשת גיסו אגיסו, אפילו הכי: אשת גיסו אסירא, אשתו שריא,
Talmud: With regard to the case of a man who married his wife’s sister after he was informed that his wife was dead, the Talmud comments: And even if his wife and his brother-in-law both went overseas and he was told that they had died, the halakha is that this marriage he performed is effective only to the extent that his brother-in-law’s wife is forbidden to his brother-in-law. The reason for this prohibition is that he performed a marriage ceremony with a married woman by mistake, and one who erroneously weds a married woman has thereby rendered her forbidden to her husband. The Talmud adds: Even so, it is only his brother-in-law’s wife who is forbidden to her husband, whereas his own wife remains permitted to him.