Thursday, August 9, 2007

Daf Yomi - Yevamot 97B - Riddles

I had a lot of trouble getting my head around the "riddles" in today's daf.
These riddles describe a variety of seemingly impossible relationships.
Anyway, I thought that if I tried to draw them on a diagram I might get a clearer understanding.
Please let me know if you think that I got these diagrams correct. If anyone wants a printed copy, I'd be happy to send them as a PDF.

The translation I'm using comes from Kollel Iyun Hadaf. In each of the diagrams, the woman in green is speaking to the man in red.

Riddle #1:
'He is a paternal, but not a maternal, brother, and he is my mother's husband, and I am the daughter of his wife.' (How can this arise?)
Answer (Rami bar Chama):
This is unlike R.
Yehudah (who forbids a man to marry a woman his father raped. The girl speaking
was born out of wedlock; her paternal brother married her mother).


Riddle 1

Riddle #2:
'He is my brother, and my son; I am the sister of the one I carry on my shoulder'.
Answer:
The case is, a Nochri had Bi'ah with his daughter. (We prefer not to say that a Yisrael did so.)

Riddle2

Riddle #3:
'Shalom to you, my son; I am the daughter of your sister'.
Answer:
The case is, a Nochri had Bi'ah with his daughter's daughter.

Riddle 3

Riddle #4 (asked to water carriers):
'The one I carry is my son, and I am the daughter of his brother.'
Answer:
The case is, a Nochri had Bi'ah with his son's daughter.

Riddle 4

Riddle #5:
'Alas, my brother is my father, my husband, the son of my husband and the husband of my mother, and I am the daughter of his wife, and he does not give bread to his brethren, the orphaned children of his daughter.
Answer:
The case is, a Nochri Ploni fathered a girl Plonis through his mother, and later fathered children from Plonis, and Ploni's father Almoni fathered children through Plonis. (Ploni married Plonis, who is his daughter and sister. Almoni died, and Ploni refused to feed Almoni's children through Plonis, who are Ploni's grandchildren and also his brothers.)

Riddle 5

Riddle #6:
'I and you are brothers; I and your father are brothers; I and your mother are brothers.
Answer:
The case is, a Nochri fathered two girls from his mother, and then fathered a son from one of his daughters. The son's mother's sister says the above to him.



Riddle #7:
I and you are the children of sisters, I and your father are the children of brothers, and I and your mother are the children of brothers. This indeed is possible also in the case of a permissible marriage.

Note: The translation of this Riddle from Shema Yisrael didn't seem right, the translation I'm using here is from Daf Notes.
Answer:
This can arise in a permitted way! Reuven, Shimon and Levi are brothers. Reuven has two daughters; Shimon married one of them and Levi's son married the other. Shimon's son says thusly to the son of Levi's son.

Riddle7

4 comments:

Avromi said...

Great job! I did not have time to analyze yet, but you sure put a lot of work into it. what program did you use? I'm linking to this post from my site. Thanks again.

Michael Sedley said...

Thanks for the comment.
Images were created in Visio.

If you want a print copy, I could send you a pdf version.

M

Anonymous said...

Great. Could you send me a PDF? Thanks.

Gershon.dubin@juno.com

Unknown said...

those family trees disturb me