Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 2 If Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel acted according to their conflicting opinions, factions would have formed among the Jewish people, and yet they didn’t. One answer is that Beis Shammai didn’t act according to …

Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 2 Beis Hillel and Beius Shammai disagreed on the obligation or exemption of co-wives to perform yibum/chalitzah. If Beis Shammai followed their own minority opinion, this would lead to marriages considered illegitimate by one segment …

Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 1, 2 Some challenging laws with respect to minors, marriage, and contraceptives. Some widows have a family relationship with a surviving brother that precludes them from yibum with any of the brothers. Her co-wife, however, …

Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 1 How does the prohibited marriage of one who remarried his divorcee after she married/divorced another man affect the status of her co-wife? Why should one be careful to perform chaltzah with the co-wife who …

Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 1 Does yibum/chalitzah apply if the brother and woman violated a prohibition by marrying in the first place? This could happen because the surviving brother performed chalitzah with the widow, and then married her anyway, …

Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 1 In debating whether our mishna was formulated correctly, our Sages posit some extreme cases of fathers, brothers and sisters that lead to rare combinations of permitted sisters, prohibited sister-in-law and other liminal examples of …

Chapter 1, Mishna 1 What is the connection between co-wives prohibited in a yibum situation and unwitting idolatry? Why did Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (Rebbi) snap at the sage who asked why our mishna was not written a different way? The …

Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 1 Three different rationales for when and why we exclude a widow from yibum, and likewise her co-wife. What if yibum does not apply? Does a co-wife then become permitted even if her co-wife is …

Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 1 The Gemara challenges one proof after another for the principle that a positive commandment overrides a negative commandment, even in the case of negative commandment bearing a kares penalty (death at the hands of …