Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Yevamot 81 – A sterile Kohen

A Kohen who is sterile, either from birth or due to an illness, can nevertheless marry a woman, and this marriage entitles her to eat the priest's portion (terumah). By contrast, if he is sterile because of physical damage to his reproductive organs, he is prohibited from marrying into the congregation of Israel. Therefore, if he was previously married, he now needs to divorce, and if, in the interim, he has a cohabitation with his wife, she would lose the right to eat the priest's portion – even if she had it because she was a daughter of a Kohen.

A Kohen who is an androgyne can marry a woman, and that marriage entitles her to eat the priest's portion. That is because an androgyne is classified as a definite male – this is the opinion of Rabbi Yose and Rabbi Shimon. However, they did not clarify if they were entirely sure of a "definite male" designation or if it was an "also a definite male." Accordingly, this leads to a disagreement about whether the priest's portion law is active nowadays or is it only a law that the Sages left as a reminder for the future when the priest's portion will return.

Art: Married Couple in a Garden by Frans Hals

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