Stories of Marriage, Mortality, and Mishaps: The Talmud’s Views on Consecutive Calamities (Yevamot 64b)

Students of Rav Huna who became infertile or sick due to his long lectures; Story of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and the Four Sisters in Tzipori; Story of R’ Yohanan; Story of Abaye and Huma

Intro

This sugya in the Talmud addresses issues regarding the effects of infertility, the medical consequences of enduring lengthy sermons, and legal presumptions about repeated occurrences.

Outline

1. Five Named Students (and Sixty Unnamed Students) of Rav Huna who became infertile or sick due to his long lectures

2. Story of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and the Four Sisters in Tzipori

3. Story of R’ Yohanan and Four Sisters in Maon

4. Story of Abaye and Huma

The passage

Yevamot.64b.6-17

Five Named Students (and Sixty Unnamed Students) of Rav Huna who became infertile or sick due to his long lectures

The discussion begins with a challenge to the Mishna's ruling that a man should remarry if he remains childless after ten years of marriage. R' Abba bar Zavda counters this by suggesting that if he were destined to have children, he would have had them with his first wife, hinting at no need for remarriage. 

However, it's revealed that his reluctance is due to becoming infertile¹ after enduring long sermons by Rav Huna,² a condition that affected several of Rav Huna's students, due to their practice of not relieving themselves during his lengthy discourses.

[...]

אמרו ליה רבנן לרבי אבא בר זבדא: נסיב איתתא ואוליד בני!

ואמר להו: אי זכאי — הוו לי מקמייתא. 

התם דחויי קא מדחי להו לרבנן, ד

1. רבי אבא בר זבדא איעקר מפרקיה דרב הונא.

2. רב גידל איעקר מפרקיה דרב הונא. 

3. רבי חלבו איעקר מפרקיה דרב הונא. 

4. רב ששת איעקר מפרקיה דרב הונא. 

5. רב אחא בר יעקב אחדתיה סוסכינתא, 

תליוה בארזא דבי רב, ונפק מיניה כהוצא ירקא. 

אמר רב אחא בר יעקב: שיתין סבי הוינא, 

וכולהו איעקור מפרקיה דרב הונא, 

לבר מאנא, 

דקיימי בנפשאי: ״החכמה תחיה בעליה״.

[...]

[...]

the Sages said to R' Abba bar Zavda: Marry a woman and have children, 

and he said to them: If I had merited, I would already have children from my first wife? This indicates that there is no obligation to remarry if one did not have children with his first wife. 

The Gemara answers: There, R' Abba bar Zavda was merely putting the Rabbis off with an excuse, as the real reason why he would not marry was because 

1. R' Abba bar Zavda became impotent from Rav Huna’s discourse. Rav Huna’s students would hold back from relieving themselves until his lengthy sermons were finished, which caused them to become sterile.

2. The Gemara similarly relates that Rav Giddel became impotent from Rav Huna’s discourse, 

3. R’ Ḥelbo became impotent from Rav Huna’s discourse, 

4. and Rav Sheshet became impotent from Rav Huna’s discourse. 

5. The Gemara relates: Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov was afflicted by suskhinta, a disease caused by holding back from urinating. 

They suspended him from the cedar column that supported the study hall, 

and a substance that was as green as a palm leaf emerged from him, and he was healed. 

Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: We were sixty elders present at the time, 

and they all became impotent from Rav Huna’s discourse, 

aside from me, 

as I fulfilled with regard to myself the verse: “Wisdom preserves the life of he who has it” (Ecclesiastes 7:12). I used the above cure to avoid becoming impotent.

[...]

Story of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and Four Sisters in Tzipori

R’ Ḥiyya bar Abba recounts an incident related by R’ Yoḥanan involving four sisters from Tzippori. Each of the first three sisters had a son who died following circumcision. 

When the fourth sister was about to circumcise her son, she consulted Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, who advised her against circumcising him. 

This incident illustrates Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel's view that a legal presumption, in this case of fatal risk from circumcision, is established only after three such occurrences.

תא שמע:

דאמר רבי חייא בר אבא אמר רבי יוחנן: 

מעשה בארבע אחיות בצפורי 

1. שמלה ראשונה ומת, 

2. שניה ומת, 

3. שלישית ומת, 

4. רביעית באת לפני רבן שמעון בן גמליאל. 

אמר לה: אל תמולי.

[...]

[...]

Come and hear, 

as R' Ḥiyya bar Abba said that R' Yoḥanan said: 

An incident occurred involving four sisters in Tzippori, 

1. that the first sister circumcised her son and he died, 

2. and the second sister circumcised her son and he died, 

3. and the third one circumcised her son and he too died. 

4. The fourth sister came before Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, 

who said to her: Do not circumcise him. 

This indicates that according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel a presumption is established only after three occurrences.

[...]

Story of R’ Yohanan and Four Sisters in Maon

Rav Yitzḥak bar Yosef (רב יצחק בר יוסף) recounts an incident that took place in the synagogue of Maon on a Yom Kippur that coincided with Shabbat. The incident involved three sisters: the first two had circumcised their sons, and both sons died. 

When the third sister approached R’ Yoḥanan for guidance, he advised her to proceed with the circumcision of her son. He explained that a legal presumption of danger is not established after just two occurrences, indicating that the tragedy of the first two did not necessarily predict the same outcome for the third.

כי אתא רב יצחק בר יוסף, אמר: 

עובדא הוה קמיה דרבי יוחנן, בכנישתא דמעון, ביום הכפורים שחל להיות בשבת, 

1. ומלה ראשונה ומת, 

2. שניה ומת, 

3. שלישית באה לפניו. 

אמר לה: לכי ומולי.

When Rav Yitzḥak bar Yosef came from Eretz Yisrael, he said: 

An incident occurred before R' Yoḥanan in the synagogue of the town of Maon on a Yom Kippur that occurred on Shabbat. 

1. The first sister had circumcised her son and he died; 

2. the second sister circumcised her son and he also died. 

3. The third sister came before him, 

and he said to her: Go and circumcise your son, as a presumption is not established after only two occurrences.

Story of Huma and Her Three Husbands

Abaye cautioned Rav Yitzḥak bar Yosef to ensure the accuracy of his report, highlighting the seriousness of permitting a potentially dangerous action—circumcising the third baby—if previous occurrences suggested a risk. This is critical because performing the circumcision could be both prohibited on religious grounds and dangerous. 

Despite this advice, Abaye proceeded to rely on Rav Yitzḥak bar Yosef, and marry Ḥuma, a woman whose previous husbands had died shortly after marrying her. Abaye himself later died as her husband, implicitly raising questions about his judgment.

Rava criticized Abaye's decision, pointing out the inconsistency in Abaye's trust in sources. He noted that Abaye had considered Avin³ reliable because he regularly returned to Eretz Yisrael and was updated on any changes in rabbinical rulings, unlike Yitzḥak the Red,⁴ who did not return and was therefore less informed. 

אמר ליה אביי: חזי דקשרית איסורא וסכנתא.

סמך עלה אביי, 

ואזל נסבה לחומה, ברתיה דאיסי, בריה דרב יצחק, בריה דרב יהודה, 

1. דנסבה רחבא דפומבדיתא ושכיב, 

2. רב יצחק בריה דרבה בר בר חנה ושכיב, 

3. ונסבה הוא ושכיב.

אמר רבא: ומי איכא דעביד עובדא בנפשיה כי האי?!

והא איהו דאמר: 

אבין — דסמכא, 

יצחק סומקא — לאו בר סמכא. 

אבין — ישנו בחזרה, 

יצחק סומקא — אינו בחזרה. 

[...]

Abaye said to Rav Yitzḥak: See to it that your report is accurate, as you are permitting an action that would otherwise constitute a prohibition and a danger. If the third baby should not be circumcised, doing so would be a prohibited labor and would endanger the life of the child.

The Gemara comments: Abaye relied on this report 

and went and married Ḥuma, the daughter of Isi, son of Rav Yitzḥak, son of Rav Yehuda. 

1. Ḥuma had previously married Raḥava of Pumbedita, and he died, 

2. and then she married Rav Yitzḥak, son of Rabba bar bar Ḥana, and he died; 

3. and he, Abaye, married her nevertheless, without concern that she had been established to be a woman whose husbands die; and he died as well while married to her.

Rava said: Is there anyone who performs an action like this and endangers himself by marrying such a woman?!

Wasn’t it he, Abaye, who said that 

Avin is reliable 

but Yitzḥak the Red, i.e., Rav Yitzḥak bar Yosef, is not reliable? 

He proceeds to explain the difference between them: Avin returns to Eretz Yisrael and hears whether the Sages there rescind their previous rulings, 

whereas Yitzḥak the Red does not return to Eretz Yisrael and never finds out if the Sages there rescind their rulings. 

[...]

1. איעקר - from the root עקר, meaning “one who cannot have children, infertile” (this root appears in the Bible as well). Steinzaltz confusingly translates this as “impotent”, whose primary sense is erectile dysfunction, and is not the precise meaning here (though erectile dysfunction may have been the mechanism of their infertililty).

2. A major 2nd generation Babylonian amora. He was the Exilarch, and head of the Talmudic academy of Sura.

3. Likely referring to the major 4th generation amora Ravin.

4. יצחק סומקא, referring to the afore-mentioned Rav Yitzḥak bar Yosef; presumably he was nicknamed “the Red” because he was a readhead.