Talmud Tips

For the week ending 11 October 2014 / 17 Tishri 5775

Yevamot 9 - 15

by Rabbi Moshe Newman
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Rabbi Yosef said in the name of Rebbie, "One should not pour out water from his well even if he doesn’t need the water since others may have a need for it."

  • Yevamot 11b

Our Rabbis taught, “Even though Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel argued about… (a number of matters regarding permitted and forbidden marriages)… they did not refrain from marrying the offspring of the different opinion, to teach their dearness and friendship for each other, to fulfill the verse ‘Love truth and peace’ (Zech. 8:19).”

Although it would seem that if one side prohibited what the other permitted, there can be only one truth, and it would seems that their familial consolidation does not fulfill love of “truth”. However, the words of both Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel all have the same “Source” — as being the words of the living G-d (Mesechta Chagiga 3b) — and both opposing opinions are the truth. Therefore, the verse written in the book of the Prophet Zecharia instructs that “peace” should be preserved despite the difference of opinion — because both of the rulings are true (Maharsha).

  • Yevamot 14b

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