Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Yevamos 118a - "Tamus Nafshi Im Plishtim"

The gemara says that 2 women that are tzaros, one says the husband is dead and the other says the husband is alive, we do not allow the one who claims her husband is alive, I would have thought that we assume the husband is actually dead, and the reason that one is claiming he is alive is simply to try to prevent her tzara from getting remarried. Although by making such a claim she will prevent herself from getting remarried as well, we are concerned that "tamus nafshi im plishtim", meaning that she is willing to sacrifice her own ability to remarry just to mess up her tzara.
From the gemara we see that a woman is willing to be me'agen herself and refrain from remarriage to mess up her tzarah, but we don't necessarily see that she is willing to be mekalkel herself (by getting remarried even though she have no knowledge of her husband being dead) in order to ruin her tzarah. However, Rashi 118a d.h. tza'arah, says that the reason that one tzara cannot testify for the other even if she gets married, is that we are afraid she is willing to be mekalkel herself and risk all the penalties of the mishna in 10th perek in order to ruin her tzarah.
What if one tzara would testify that her husband died and remarry so that she cannot go back to her first husband (even if he would return), so that she wil no longer be a tzara to the other woman. Can she now return to court after getting remarried and testify once again that this man is dead to allow the tzara to remarry since at this point they are not longer tzaros? See Tosafos 117b d.h. la'av, who may hold that even if the daughter in law would return to court after remarrying (and is no longer going to be a daughter in law), cannot return to court to testify about her ex-mother in law that her ex-father in law died.

1 comment:

Yossie Schonkopf said...

baruch shekivanti