Page:Marriagewithdece00mayow.djvu/25

19

brother's wife is his own wife's sister, he may not marry her.' The Mishna makes no such general statement, but confines itself to a particular case. 2dly, The reason the Mishna gives for the prohibition of the surviving sister is that 'she had been prohibited to him for one hour,' which the Appendix omits altogether. 3rdly, The Appendix says, 'And the reason assigned is, that the man and his wife's sister are related within the degrees forbidden by the holy law to intermarry,' not one word of which is in the text of the Mishna, as you see. The Mishna gives the reason correctly, she had been prohibited to the second brother for one hour, i.e., her widowhood commenced whilst her sister was still alive and the wife of the other brother, in which case the Rabbis rule that she is prohibited for ever.

"To make this plain, I will put letters as in the Appendix:—

"Two brothers $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$A/B$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$ marry $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$M/N$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$ Two sisters.

"A third brother, C, marries S, a stranger, i.e., no relation.

" A dies; M is left a widow.

"C marries M, A's Widow, to fulfil a brother-in-law's duty, which B could not do, because to marry two sisters simultaneously is forbidden by Lev. xviii. 18. This is the 'one hour' during which M is prohibited to B.

"N then dies, and B is left a widower; but he is not allowed to marry M, left a second time a widow, because on the death of A, whilst N, his wife, was alive, M was prohibited. Out of this particular case, by putting in words not in the Mishna, and by leaving out the words 'one hour,' which are in the Mishna, the writer has made a new Rabbinic law, unknown to the Mishna and its commentators, and from a particular case has drawn a general conclusion, opposed to Jewish law and practice. For, take the