Kiddushin 80: בִּשְׁעַת אֲנִינוּת תְּבִיר יִצְרֵיהּ

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Steinsaltz (OBM) writes:

The Mishna on our daf introduces the concept of yihud – that a man and woman who are not married to each other should not be in a secluded place together, for fear of sexual impropriety between them. According to the Tanna Kamma, a man should not allow himself to be alone with a woman, or even with two women; a woman cannot be alone with a single man, but if there are a number of men, then there is no problem of yihud. According to the Gemara, we fear that the two women will allow sexual relations to take place between the other man and woman, but that men would be embarrassed about engaging in relations in front of one another.

We start the exploration of this law of seclusion.

Kiddushin 79: להְבִָיא רְאָיהָ עלַ הבַּנָיִם , וְאֵין צרִָי

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Our Mishnah claims that if a father said, “This son of mine is a mamzer,” he is not believed (since the father is related to his son, he is therefore disqualified from testifying about him). And even if both of them (the father and the mother) admit regarding the fetus in her womb (that she became pregnant from some other man), they are not believed. Rabbi Yehudah said: They are believed.

The Gemora explains the Mishna: The father is not believed for he is not certain from whom she became pregnant. And even the mother (who is certain) is also not believed. And even in a case where the son does not have any presumption of legitimacy (in a case where he has not yet entered this world), they are still not believed.

We explore the testimony of parents vs children and the nature of eidus.

Kiddushin 78: “נֶאֱמָן אָדָם לוֹמַר: ״זֶה בְּנִי בְּכוֹר

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Our Mishnah claims that if a father said, “This son of mine is a mamzer,” he is not believed (since the father is related to his son, he is therefore disqualified from testifying about him). And even if both of them (the father and the mother) admit regarding the fetus in her womb (that she became pregnant from some other man), they are not believed. Rabbi Yehudah said: They are believed.

Believing the father

The Gemora explains the Mishna: The father is not believed for he is not certain from whom she became pregnant. And even the mother (who is certain) is also not believed. And even in a case where the son does not have any presumption of legitimacy (in a case where he has not yet entered this world), they are still not believed.

We explore the testimony of parents vs children and the nature of eidus.

Kiddushin 77: מִקְוֵה טׇהֳרָה לַחֲלָלוֹת

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The Torah forbids a kohen from marrying the following women:

a gerusha (a divorced woman)

a halala (the child of a relationship forbidden to a kohen, e.g. the child of a kohen and a divorced woman)

a zona (usually translated as a harlot, in this context it means someone who has had sexual relations with a man who is forbidden to her, e.g. an incestuous relationship)

In addition, the kohen gadol cannot marry an almana (a widow).

Our Mishnah discusses priests who marry or betroth or have intercourse with women who are not allowed to them. These women might be widows, as suggested in the Torah. They might be chalalot, or mamzerot, chalutzot, or other women who are forbidden to priests by rabbinic law.

We explore the legal status of the chalal and priests unfit …

Kiddushin 76: כׇּל מִשְׁפָּחוֹת בְּחֶזְקַת כְּשֵׁרוֹת

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The Mishna on our daf teaches that there are many families about which we can be certain that they are reliably Jewish and that there are no issues with their family histories. For example, if we trace a family tree and discover that the patriarch was a kohen who performed service in the Temple, or that the patriarch served on the Sanhedrin, there is no need to check any further, since those positions were only given to individuals who were known to be from reliable families.

We explore the notion of racial purity both from a Jewish perspective as well as the dark racial laws enacted by the NAZIS…

Kiddushin 75: בְּדוּקִי, שֶׁבּוֹדְקִים אֶת אִמּוֹ

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The Gemara wonders whether or not mamzerim are born from a number of different unions. These unions seem to be examples of sexual intercourse outside of marriage, which was already a serious transgression for women.

The rabbis seem to be struggling with themselves about the seriousness of intermarriage.

We explore the thorny issue of civil marriage from differing viewpoints in and out of Israel.

Kiddushin 74: כָּרֵת בִּידֵי שָׁמַיִם

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In the context of discussing family backgrounds, our Gemara discusses how we can be certain that a child is a bekhor – the first-born child to his father – a status that would give him certain advantages with regard to inheritance, for example.

The Gemara supplies a source for the father’s believability with regard to declaring his son a bekhor. The passage in Devarim (21:17) that forbids the father from transferring the advantage of the bekhor to the first-born of his beloved wife (if there was an older child from a different wife), requires him to acknowledge the status of the oldest son.

We explore the challenges raising sons in the context of marriage.

Kiddushin 73: אֶחָד גֵּר וְאֶחָד עֶבֶד מְשׁוּחְרָר

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Our Daf comments: The Tosefta states that a convert, and an emancipated slave, and a ḥalal are all permitted to marry the daughter of a priest supports the opinion of Rav, as Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: Women of unflawed lineage who are daughters of priests were not prohibited from marrying those disqualified from the priesthood due to flawed lineage [ḥalalim], since that prohibition applies only to male priests.

Meshuchrarim are a Jewish community of freed slaves, often of mixed-race African-European descent, who accompanied Sephardic Jews in their immigration to India following the 16th-century expulsion from Spain. The Sephardic Jews became known as the Paradesi Jews (as "foreigners" to India.They were also sometimes called the White Jews, for their European ancestry).

The descendants of the meshuchrarim were historically discriminated against in India by other "White Jews." They were at the lowest of the Cochin Jewish informal caste ladder. We explore this history of a Jewish caste system.

Kiddushin 72: וְזָרַח הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וּבָא הַשָּׁמֶשׁ

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Mamzerut is as old as the Torah but remains shrouded in stigma, secrecy, and shame.

It is so taboo that people don’t utter the word mamzer in polite company outside of Torah study. It’s used as a curse word, roughly equivalent to bastard.

The Torah mentions the word only twice, in passages that fail to define who a mamzer is or the prohibitions he or she faces.

For the last few pages, the Talmud has been focussed on the status of various classes of Jews, Gentiles, and those in-between.

The last Mishnah of the previous chapter detailed a method devised by Rabbi Tarphon (who lived between the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE) to allow the descendants of a mamzer to marry into the Jewish people, and the laws of genealogy continue in this, the last chapter of the last tractate of Nashim.

Mamzerut is as old as the Torah but remains shrouded in stigma, secrecy, and shame.

Deuteronomy 23:2 states that “a mamzer shall not enter the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord.” Zachariah 9:6 states that “a mamzer shall dwell in [the port city of] Ashdod and will cut off the pride of the Philistines.”

We explore the work of Prof Meir Bar Ilan in his cultural analysis of Mamzerut and the Late Antique Period.

Kiddushin 71: הַנּוֹשֵׂא אִשָּׁה לְשׁוּם מָמוֹן

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The fourth chapter of Massekhet Kiddushin, Perek Asarah Yuhasin, began on daf 69a with a Mishna that discussed the levels and characteristics of the families that returned to Israel from Bavel at the beginning of the Second Temple period. Specifically, the Mishna focused on which types of families were permitted to marry other families, and which were limited regarding the families that they were allowed to marry.

Converts are like Sapachas Rabbi Chelbo said: Converts are as harmful to the Jewish people as sapachas (a type of tzara’as). Rashi explains that this is because converts are not so meticulous in the performance of mitzvos, and those Jews who observe this behavior will become influenced by them.

We explore the notion of yichus and genealogy with specific focus on the convert.

Kiddushin 70: הַנּוֹשֵׂא אִשָּׁה לְשׁוּם מָמוֹן

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The fourth chapter of Massekhet Kiddushin, Perek Asarah Yuhasin, began on daf 69a with a Mishna that discussed the levels and characteristics of the families that returned to Israel from Bavel at the beginning of the Second Temple period. Specifically, the Mishna focused on which types of families were permitted to marry other families, and which were limited regarding the families that they were allowed to marry.

Converts are like Sapachas Rabbi Chelbo said: Converts are as harmful to the Jewish people as sapachas (a type of tzara’as). Rashi explains that this is because converts are not so meticulous in the performance of mitzvos, and those Jews who observe this behavior will become influenced by them.

We explore the notion of yichus and genealogy with specific focus on the convert.

Kiddushin 69: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל גְּבוֹהָה מִכׇּל אֲרָצוֹת מְנָלַן

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Our new Perek begins with Ten different genealogical classes went up from Bavel (in the times of Ezra): Kohanim, Leviim, Yisroelim, chalalim, converts, and freed Canaanite slaves, mamzeirim, nesinim, shetukim (someone whose father is unknown) and asufim (his mother and father are unknown).

The Gemora asks: Why does it say, “They came up from Bavel”? It should have said, “They went to Eretz Yisroel”!? The Gemora answers: It is teaching us a point in passing. This is as the braisa states: “And you will arise and ascend to the place that Hashem, your God, will choose.” This teaches us that the Beis Hamikdash is higher than the rest of Eretz Yisroel, and that Eretz Yisroel is higher than all other lands.

We explore the notion of Israel being higher than all others lands as well as the use of Jewish genealogy in Timothy (by Prof Sandmel).

Kiddushin 68: בִּנְךָ הַבָּא מִיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית קָרוּי בִּנְךָ

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The Gemora had cited the verse You shall not make marriage with them as the source which teaches us that kiddushin does not take effect with a gentile.

The Gemora asks: But that verse is discussing the Seven Nations of Canaan. How do we know that kiddushin does not take effect with members of the other nations? The Gemora answers: It is written (with respect to marrying them): For he will turn your son away. This would include all those who would turn the Jewish people away from Hashem.

We explore the halachot of marrying out or extra marital relations.

Kiddushin 67: בָּאוּמּוֹת הַלֵּךְ אַחַר הַזָּכָר

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Steinsaltz says:

The Mishna (66b) offers guidelines for determining the family and legal status of a child. If a child is born from a union of two people who can marry each other, the child’s status follows the father (e.g. if he is a kohen or a levi). If the relationship that produced the child is a forbidden relationship, sometimes the child is defined by the relationship itself (e.g. a kohen who marries a divorcee, where the child is a halal – he is not a kohen and cannot marry into a priestly family), sometimes it follows the status of the mother (e.g. a shifha kena’anit – a non-Jewish maidservant’s child would be a slave), and sometimes the child is a mamzer.

We explore the history and switch between patrilineal and matrilineal descent and how it informed the liberal and conservative movements in their deliberations.

Kiddushin 66: וָיו דְּשָׁלוֹם קְטִיעָה הִיא

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In our sugya we encounter a particularly strange dispute. The Gemara cites a difference of opinion about how to write the vav in the word shalom in the pasuk, “Behold I give him My covenant of peace” (Bamidbar 25:12).

Some maintain that this vav should be a vav katia, meaning that it is it is not written exactly like other vav’s in the Torah. However, others are of the opinion that it is written just like any other vav.

We explore the nature of this curious deviation from the usual scribal practice and the implications for a fractured barbaric world where shalom has been forever fractured.

Kiddushin 65: כּוֹפִין וּמְבַקְּשִׁין

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The Mishna on our daf discusses cases where someone claims to have married another person and the alleged spouse denies that the marriage had taken place. In cases where it is one person’s word against the other, the ruling is that the person who claims that the marriage took place cannot marry any of the other person’s immediate relatives (e.g. their alleged brother-in-law or sister-in-law), while the person who denies that the marriage took place can marry anyone – including immediate relatives of the alleged spouse.

We further explore eidut le-kiyum ha-davar as well as the ethics of sexuality using Kant and Hermann Cohen as our guides.

Kiddushin 64: אֵין קִדּוּשִׁין תּוֹפְסִין בְּחַיָּיבֵי לָאוִין

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Of great concern to the Torah is keeping up the honor and purity of the Jewish women.

Thus, in two places, the Torah lists forbidden sexual relationships (see Vayikra, Chapter 18 and Chapter 20:10-24), most of which are incestuous relationships. For these relationships, the punishment will be either karet (being “cut off” from the community, i.e. a symbolic death sentence) or mitat beit din (a capital offense).

Our daf presents the rejected position of Rabbi Akiva, who disagrees with Shimon ha-Temani and rules that any sexual relationship that is forbidden by the Torah – even a simple prohibition that will not carry with it the punishment of karet or mitat beit din – will preclude the possibility of marriage (i.e. not only is marriage forbidden.

We explore the exploitation of captive women in antiquity and in Devorim (Ki Setzei) informing us how to process the unspeakable horrors perpetrated last week in Israel.

Kiddushin 63: עַל מְנָת שֶׁיִּרְצֶה אַבָּא

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If someone says to a woman, and says, “Become betrothed to me on condition that my father consents,” if the father agrees, the kiddushin is valid; otherwise, it is not. If the father died, she is mekudeshes. If the son died, we teach the father to say that he does not want (for this will retroactively uproot the kiddushin, and she will not fall for yibum).

We continue our exploration of conditional betrothals.

Kiddushin 62: הֲרֵי אַתְּ מְקוּדֶּשֶׁת לִי לְאַחַר שֶׁאֶתְגַּיֵּיר

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A new Mishna teaches us that a woman is betrothed even if her husband believed he was marrying a priest but she is a levite, or vice versa. As long as this omission was not intentional, the betrothal holds. However, if a man says that he will betroth a woman after something else has happened - for example, if you/I convert, if you/I are emancipated, after your husband or sister dies, when you are able to perform chalitza, or when another man's wife gives birth to a female - in all of these cases, there is no betrothal.

We review the sugya of R. Meir who holds that a kinyan (an act of acquisition) can be done on something which is "lo ba la-olam" (not yet existant).

According to this view, a person can conclude a transaction which, under the existing conditions, is halakhically invalid, and the transaction will take effect when conditions permit.

Kiddushin 61: תְּנַאי שֶׁאֵינוֹ כִּתְנַאי בְּנֵי גָּד וּבְנֵי רְאוּבֵן

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The Mishna on our daf brings the opinion of Rabbi Me’ir, who requires a set of rules according to which the condition must be made in order for it to be effective. Turning to a conditional agreement that appears in the Torah, Rabbi Me’ir argues that any condition that is made that does not follow the rules of the agreement between the tribes of Re’uven and Gad with Moshe, has no effect on the agreement.

We explore this demand and the source critical material analysis of Num 32.