About this episode
Today's daf is sponsored by Elisheva Gray. "Todah rabah, Rabbanit Michelle, for so patiently guiding us through this challenging masechet, and to everyone on the Hadran team for providing so many resources to help us along the way. Mazal tov to all of my fellow learners! We made it!" Today's daf is sponsored by Caroline Ben-Ari in appreciation of Julie Landau. "When I was ill recently and needed to be hospitalized, Julie was there for me with practical help and emotional support, including going with me on two different days to the ER and advocating for me when I no longer had the energy to advocate for myself. I am blessed to have a friend like Julie." If a gentile mentions in conversation that someone has died, we can allow his wife to marry, but only if we don't have a reason to think he is lying. The Gemara brings several cases and explains whether or not they relied in each case on the gentile's words or not. The Mishna lists some other leniencies regarding testimonies that generally are not accepted, but are in the case of allowing women to marry, such as one who saw the man dead by the light of the moon or candlelight or heard a voice stating he was dead. A few actual cases are also quoted where they relied on weaker testimonies. How can we insure that the voice is not coming from an evil spirit? Or perhaps it was the woman's rival wife who is not to be trusted? The Mishna quotes Rabbi Akiva who describes historically who first permitted allowing one witness to testify about a man's death in order to permit her wife to marry and how was his opinion later accepted by the rabbis. The Mishna lists the opinions that held otherwise before there was a decision made by all of them to permit it.