Chapter 15, Mishna 1, 2
Are we concerned that a messenger from a foreign land who testifies that a man died over there, whose wife is here and waiting to remarry, might be talking about another man with the same name? If we don’t believe a wife about her husband’s death if the couple was quarreling, what constitutes quarreling? Are there other circumstances that would deem her testimony not credible? The original case which led the Sages to accept a wife’s testimony even though she is a single witness happened under such-and-such circumstances. For a while Beis Hillel said we only accept a wife’s testimony in very similar circumstances, otherwise not. How Beis Shammai did succeed in changing that ruling to become more broad, and thus more lenient for widows throughout Israel?
#Judaism #halacha #Torah #family #God #Talmud #wife #widow #mitzvah #marriage #peace
Opening song: Aich Ani by Rabbi Baruch Chait