We gathered yesterday for a Siyyum in honor of Micha Ben Tzvi Aryeh, David Schlesinger’s uncle from Israel. It so happened that David and those participating in the Daf Yomi program, were finishing tractate Yevamos, at around the same time as the shloshim of David’s uncle Micha. The shloshim marks the end of the initial 30 day mourning period. So we held a learning of the last page of tractate Yevamos, and then had a siyum, all of this in memory and honor of David's uncle Micha.
Before our learning, David spoke about his uncle Micha. David spoke about the extraordinary kindness and love that Micha exhibited towards him - David, and also towards his family and community. David spoke about how his uncle was very helpful in shul – especially with keeping the services moving. And how his uncle possessed such a great knowledge of Torah and halahkuh which he often shared with others.
Before making the siyum we studied the last Daf of Mesechta Yevamos. A Daf is a page of Talmud study. David led discussion. We discussed to what extent testimony about a husband’s death would be considered good enough to allow a woman to remarry. Testimony could come from several different sources. We discussed the different cases, which include testimony from the wife herself, another Israelite, or a non-Jew.
We discussed how in many cases, we go lenient, which means we take the witness at their word, and do not cross examine them. We do not want a woman to have to wait “forever” to be able to remarry. One of the issues we discussed is whether or not the deceased husband was actually seen by the witness. A man can give his name and say he is dying. If a witness testifies that this man said he is dying is this good enough? These are some of the questions that we discussed, that are contained in the Talmud.
One of the issues we discussed is how many witnesses we can rely on. Rabbi Eliezer’s opinion is that we can not remarry based on one witness. Rabbi Akiva says we can not rely on one witness if it is a slave or family member. There is a lot of discussion in the gemara that goes back and forth between these 2 rabbis.
The other main issue we discussed is whether or not we can interrogate the witnesses. Rabbi Tarfon seems to believe that interrogation is necessary. We discussed how we do not interrogate in monetary cases, because this would discourage people from lending money. Does this mean we should not interrogate in these issues involving a husband's death?
We also discussed the ketubah and what this agreement means. And we discussed the issues surrounding receiving dishes from a non Jew. In some cases it is fine to accept the dishes as is. In other cases we need to wash the dishes, and in still other cases we may need to apply fire to the dish.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
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