One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת אִסּוּרֵי בִּיאָה
Forbidden Intercourse 2
Sefer Kedushah · The map of the family • Forbidden by blood • Forbidden through marriage • Fences and permitted unions
4
Wives of close relatives,
forbidden forever
6
Relatives of a betrothed wife,
forbidden forever
1
Wife's sister, forbidden
only in the wife's lifetime
2
Offerings where two
prohibitions meet
2:1-7Lines That Last Forever
- Four wives. The wives of a man's father, son, brother and father's brother are forbidden to him forever, after betrothal or marriage, in life or after death, even after divorce, except a childless brother's widow for yibbum. (2:1)
- When two prohibitions meet. With one of these during her husband's life, or with his mother who is his father's wife, he incurs two offerings. (2:1-2)
- Sisters, however born. A brother's wife and a sister are forbidden from either parent, born in or out of marriage. (2:3)
- Father's offspring only. The daughter of his father's wife who is his father's child adds a second prohibition, but her daughter from another man is permitted to him. (2:4-5)
- Aunts and daughters. His mother's and father's sisters are forbidden. A daughter born to him outside marriage is forbidden by Torah law, implied by the prohibition of a daughter's daughter. (2:6-7)
RememberBlood ties do not depend on how a person came into the world, and a place in the family made by marriage is not erased by divorce or death.
2:8-11What Marriage Creates
- Six relatives. Betrothal forbids forever her mother, two grandmothers, daughter and two granddaughters, whether he marries or divorces her, in her life or after. (2:8)
- During and after her life. In his wife's lifetime these carry the court's gravest penalty; after her death, kareit without execution. (2:8-9)
- Her sister, for a time. His wife's sister is forbidden only while his wife lives. (2:10)
- The innocent wife. If he transgresses with one of these seven, his wife is not forbidden to him, except with the sister of a woman he betrothed. (2:11)
RememberKiddushin consecrates, and a consecrated bond reorders the whole family around it.
2:12-15Fences and an Open Door
- No map without marriage. A relationship outside marriage does not forbid the woman's relatives by Torah law, but the Sages forbade marrying them in her lifetime; one only suspected should not, yet need not divorce if he did. (2:12)
- Keep a distance. One rumored with an ervah should not live on her lane or be seen in her neighborhood, as with the man disciplined for passing his mother-in-law's door. (2:13)
- Two unrelated women. Outside marriage, a woman and her daughter or sister are treated as unrelated, and a woman violated or seduced by his father, son or brother is permitted to him. (2:14)
- Permitted, even encouraged. He may marry the mother or daughter of his father's or son's wife, his brother's son's widow, and a woman with her niece. It is a mitzvah from the Sages to marry one's sister's daughter. (2:15)
RememberAfter all the closed roads comes an open door: do not turn away from your own flesh.