- Machlokes whose relations disqualify a woman to Kehunah
A Baraisa presents three opinions about which people disqualify a woman to Kehunah through relations. The Tanna Kamma holds, as the Gemara explains, that anyone whose relations are forbidden disqualifies her. Rebbe Yose says: כל שזרעו פסול פוסל – Anyone whose offspring is disqualified from Kehunah, disqualifies her, and anyone whose offspring is fit for Kehunah does not. Rebbe Shimon ben Gamliel says: כל שאתה נושא בתו – Anyone whose daughter you (a Kohen) may marry, אתה נושא אלמנתו – you may marry his widow, but if his daughter is prohibited to Kehunah, his widow is also disqualified (through relations). The Gemara explains that all agree that the rule is modeled after a widow who marries a Kohen Gadol (the source of a woman becoming disqualified). The Tanna Kamma holds that anyone whose relations are forbidden, like a widow to a Kohen Gadol, is disqualified to Kehunah, which includes even a second-generation Egyptian convert. Rebbe Yose holds he must also have disqualified children, like a widow marrying a Kohen Gadol (whose children are chalalim), excluding a second-generation Egyptian, whose children are permitted to the congregation. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says that only if all his children are disqualified, like a widow to a Kohen Gadol, is she disqualified, which excludes a גר עמוני ומואבי, whose female children are permitted.
- The halachah about mamzer and shetuki marrying, and a pregnant arusah
Rav ruled like Rebbe Elazar that an uncertain mamzer cannot marry a certain mamzeress, nor an uncertain one. Shmuel argued that the halachah should follow Hillel, who taught that ten genealogical categories ascended from Bavel, and all (people forbidden to the congregation) may marry each other. The Gemara asks that Rav and Shmuel both contradict themselves, because regarding an ארוסה שעיברה – arusah who became pregnant, and the father is unknown (anyone but the husband would render the child a mamzer), Rav said הולד ממזר – the child is a mamzer, and Shmuel said הולד שתוקי – the child is a shetuki. Presumably, this means that Rav permits the uncertain child to a certain mamzeress, and Shmuel forbids it to a mamzeress, which is the reverse of their positions above!? The Gemara first answers to reverse the opinions of this machlokes and explains the need for the two disputes.
Alternatively, the opinions need not be reversed, but reinterpreted, as the Gemara proceeds to explain.
- כותי לא ישא כותית, and three opinions regarding the prohibition of Kusim
Rebbe Elazar taught: כותי לא ישא כותית – A Kusi cannot marry a Kusis, although they are members of the same nation. Several explanations are disproven, until Rebbe Yehoshua ben Levi said: שלש מחלוקות בדבר – there are three opinions on the matter of Kusim’s disqualification. Rebbe Yishmael holds: כותים גירי אריות הן – Kusim were converts because of the attacking lions (and their insincere conversion was invalid), וכהנים שנטמעו בהם כהנים פסולים היו – and the Kohanim who assimilated with them, as a pasuk describes, were unfit Kohanim. Jews cannot marry these invalid converts. Rebbe Akiva holds Kusim are גירי אמת – true converts, and only legitimate Kohanim assimilated with them. Jews cannot marry them because they only required yibum for an arusah but allowed a nesuah to marry without chalitzah (because they erroneously interpreted "אשת המת החוצה" as “the outside wife”), and Rebbe Akiva holds that a child from a yevamah and another man is a mamzer. Finally, Rebbe Elazar holds that Kusim cannot even marry each other, because some are unfamiliar with the laws of marriage, leading to some invalid divorces, and subsequent mamzerim. Since the descendants of those familiar with the laws were not mamzerim, no Kusi can marry another.
