For the source text click/tap here: Yevamot 11
To download, click/tap here: PDF
Our Daf considers the tzara of a sota. A tzara is a rival wife, and a sota is a woman accused of being willingly unfaithful to her husband. Special rules apply to these rival wives: they are considered to be of lower status; they are exempt from chalitza.
Our Daf claims the halakha of an unfaithful wife is like that of a woman with whom relations are forbidden; both she and her rival wife are exempt from levirate marriage and ḥalitza.
The Gemara answers that Rav could have said to you in response: I spoke to you about the halakha of a sota by Torah law, i.e., a wife who was intentionally unfaithful, and you speak to me of a sota by rabbinic law?
The case you mentioned is an unavoidable accident, as the wife married another man only because she received testimony that her husband was deceased. When the Sages instituted that she was forbidden to both her first and second husbands, this was a penalty designed to ensure that women would examine testimony of this kind very thoroughly. However, this is not a case of a sota by Torah law, as she was not intentionally unfaithful, and therefore the mitzva of levirate marriage certainly applies to her.
When the Sages instituted that she was forbidden to both her first and second husbands, this was a penalty designed to ensure that women would examine testimony of this kind very thoroughly. However, this is not a case of a sota by Torah law, as she was not intentionally unfaithful, and therefore the mitzva of levirate marriage certainly applies to her.
We explore the difference between Sotah rules min hatorah vs miderabbanan.
We review the ambivalent language in the torah that led to similar response in rabbinic thought in relation to the Sotah.