Kerisos, Perek 3, Mishnah 5. We continue with examples of cases where a single act incurs liability for multiple chatas offerings. The Mishnah before us does not deal with eating, but rather with forbidden relations, and its main novel point is: "Yesh ba biah achas vechayav aleha shesh chataos" - in a single act of relations one can become liable for six separate chatas offerings. Here too we will need to explain how one prohibition takes effect upon an existing prohibition, except that the scenario here is an accumulation of prohibitions until a state is reached where six separate prohibitions apply to the same woman.
The Mishnah relies on a complex family tree, but there is no need for concern: we will go through things step by step, and it will be easy to follow.
The First Case - Six Chatas Offerings:
The sinner in our case is Reuven, who will engage in relations with Dinah and become liable for six chatas offerings. Reuven's parents are Yaakov and Leah. Reuven cohabits with his mother Leah, and a daughter is born to them - Dinah. From the moment of her birth, Dinah is forbidden to Reuven from two angles: she is his daughter, since Reuven is her father; and she is his maternal sister, since Leah is the mother of them both. Both prohibitions take effect simultaneously at the moment of birth, so here we have two.
Reuven has a paternal brother named Yosef: Yaakov had another wife, Rachel, and from her Yosef and Binyamin were born. Dinah is permitted to marry Yosef, since her parents are Reuven and Leah and his parents are Yaakov and Rachel, and there is no relation between them at all.
Once Dinah marries Yosef, she becomes forbidden to Reuven with a third prohibition - his brother's wife. This prohibition is an expanding prohibition (issur mosif), because the object of the prohibition, Dinah, is now forbidden to additional people: before her marriage she was forbidden to Reuven alone, and once she marries Yosef she becomes forbidden to all his brothers, including Binyamin, and consequently Reuven is included in this list. It is worth emphasizing that this is not a theoretical matter: had Yosef not had other brothers besides Reuven, there would be no expanding prohibition here at all.
The prohibition of a brother's wife does not expire: even if Yosef dies or divorces her, Dinah remains forbidden to Reuven as his former brother's wife (and the case of a yavam is the exception to the rule).
Now Dinah marries Esav, the brother of Yaakov, Reuven's father. The Torah forbade the wife of a father's brother, an aunt, and therefore Dinah becomes forbidden to Reuven for the fourth time. Here too we are dealing with an expanding prohibition, assuming that Esav has additional brothers in the family tree, since she becomes forbidden to additional nephews, Reuven among them.
As long as Dinah is married to Esav she is a married woman, and is thereby forbidden not only to family members but to every man. This prohibition takes effect simultaneously with her marriage, and every man includes Reuven - so this is a fifth prohibition. And if she becomes a niddah, a sixth prohibition is added by way of an expanding prohibition, since as a niddah she is forbidden even to her husband, and certainly to any other man, including Reuven. It turns out that if Reuven were to cohabit with her unintentionally, he would be liable for six separate chatas offerings.
A Technical Question - How Did Dinah Marry at All?
Seemingly, Dinah herself is a mamzeres, since her father is her brother, so how could she marry Esav? The answer is simple: mamzeirus is not a problem for our purposes, since with mamzeirim, kiddushin takes effect. Even though she is not supposed to marry Esav, if she does marry him - she is married to him. And even according to those who hold that kiddushin does not take effect, we can establish the case where Esav is also a mamzer, resulting in a mamzer marrying a mamzeres.
The Language of the Mishnah:
"Habba al bito chayav aleha mishum bito va'achoso ve'eshes achiv ve'eshes achi aviv ve'eshes ish venidah" - "One who has relations with his daughter is liable for her on account of his daughter, his sister, his brother's wife, his father's brother's wife, a married woman, and a niddah." The language of the Mishnah is extremely brief, and it can only be understood in light of the scenario described. These are the six sin-offerings:
His daughter - Reuven had relations with his daughter Dinah.
His sister - Dinah's mother is Leah, who is also Reuven's mother.
His brother's wife - Dinah was married to Yosef, Reuven's brother, and the prohibition stands even after divorce or death.
His father's brother's wife - She was married to Esav, the brother of Yaakov, Reuven's father.
A married woman - She is still married.
A niddah.
Thus, if Reuven has relations with Dinah, he is liable for six separate sin-offerings.
The second case - seven sin-offerings for one who has relations with his daughter's daughter:
The Mishnah continues with a similar case, in which a person has relations with his granddaughter and becomes liable for seven sin-offerings. The family tree here is different, and tracking it is difficult without a diagram. The names below match those in the family tree found in the ArtScroll edition, and it is highly recommended to use the chart there.
The scenario is as follows: Two men, Yaakov and Lavan, are unrelated. Yaakov has a daughter named Dinah, and Lavan has a daughter named Leah. Each marries the other's daughter - Yaakov marries Leah, and Lavan marries Dinah. There is nothing halachically wrong with this, but it creates a cross-linked family tree. From the marriage of Lavan and Dinah, a daughter is born named Serach. She is the object of the prohibition, while Yaakov is the actor who will incur liability for seven sin-offerings, and perhaps even eight.
Upon her birth, Serach is forbidden to Yaakov in two ways: She is the daughter of his daughter Dinah, meaning his granddaughter; and she is his wife Leah's sister, since Lavan is the father of both women. Both of these prohibitions carry the penalty of kares, and they both take effect simultaneously at her birth.
When Serach marries Reuven, Yaakov's son, she becomes forbidden to Yaakov in a third way - as his daughter-in-law. Here too, the family tree must be expanded so that additional people aside from Yaakov become forbidden following the marriage, making it an expansive prohibition (an issur mosif).
If this marriage dissolves, either through Reuven's death or by divorce, and Serach marries Esav, Yaakov's brother - a fourth reason is added. Just as a person's daughter-in-law is forever forbidden to him, even if his son dies or divorces her, so too his brother's wife is forbidden to him, whether during his brother's lifetime or after his death or divorce (except in a case of yibbum).
If Esav dies or divorces her, and Serach marries a third time to Yishmael, the brother of Yaakov's father Yitzchak - she is his father's brother's wife, his aunt, who is forbidden to him. This is the fifth reason, which also takes effect due to an expansive prohibition (an issur mosif), provided the family tree is broad enough. As long as she is married to Yishmael, she is also a married woman - a sixth reason. If she becomes a niddah, an additional prohibition takes effect that even applies to her husband - a seventh reason. Thus, if Yaakov has relations with Serach under these circumstances, he incurs liability for seven sin-offerings.
Important note: A person's daughter-in-law (his son's wife), his brother's wife, and his father's brother's wife are forbidden to him whether they are still married or no longer married to their husbands. This is not the case for his wife's sister: she is forbidden to him only during his wife's lifetime, and once his wife dies, her sister becomes permitted. Therefore, the case must assume that Leah is still alive, for otherwise we would not reach a count of seven.
The language of the Mishnah:
"Haba al bas bito chayav aleha mishum bas bito vechalaso va'achos ishto ve'eshes achiv ve'eshes achi aviv ve'eshes ish veniddah" - "One who has relations with his daughter's daughter is liable for her on account of his daughter's daughter, his daughter-in-law, his wife's sister, his brother's wife, his father's brother's wife, a married woman, and a niddah" - and these are the seven reasons:
His daughter's daughter - Serach is the daughter of Dinah, Yaakov's daughter, his granddaughter.
His daughter-in-law - She married Reuven, Yaakov's son.
His wife's sister - Leah, Yaakov's wife, is still alive, and both are daughters of Lavan.
His brother's wife - When her marriage to Reuven ended, she married Eisav, Yaakov's brother.
His father's brother's wife - She married a third time to Yishmael, the brother of Yitzchak, Yaakov's father.
A married woman - She is still married to Yishmael.
Niddah.
The opinion of Rabbi Yosi - eight sins:
In the same family tree, Rabbi Yosi determines that it can be established that Yaakov would be liable not for seven sins but for eight: If the marriage with Yishmael were to end and Serach were to marry Yitzchak, Yaakov's father, she would also be forbidden to him on account of being his father's wife, who is forbidden forever. However, in order for this prohibition to take effect, the marriage must be valid, and therefore it cannot be a marriage that carries the penalty of kares. In her previous marriages, there was no problem: she married Reuven, Yaakov's son, Eisav, his brother, and Yishmael, his uncle, permissibly. But her marriage to Yitzchak, her great-grandfather, is not simple at all, and several difficulties must be resolved.
Two difficulties are rabbinic only, and therefore the kiddushin is valid - for if they were from the Torah, and all the more so for relationships punishable by kares, the kiddushin would not be valid at all:
A man's marriage to his great-granddaughter is forbidden by rabbinic law only. The Torah forbade his daughter and his daughter's daughter, but his great-granddaughter is not explicitly mentioned in the Torah.
Serach was initially married to Reuven, and is thus the wife of Yitzchak's grandson: Yitzchak fathered Yaakov, and Yaakov fathered Reuven. While to Yaakov she is forbidden on account of being his daughter-in-law, to Yitzchak she is his grandson's wife - a rabbinic prohibition only.
Two additional difficulties involve prohibitions punishable by kares, and for these we must establish an okimta, since we need the marriage to Yitzchak to be valid so that she will be his full-fledged wife:
In her second marriage, she was married to Eisav. If Eisav is Yitzchak's son, she is his son's wife and forbidden to him. Necessarily, then, Yaakov and Eisav are maternal brothers and not paternal brothers: Yaakov is the son of Yitzchak and Rivkah, and Eisav is the son of Rivkah and another man. Since Yitzchak is not related to Eisav, he can marry his divorcee.
In her third marriage, she was married to Yishmael, Yitzchak's brother, and a brother's wife is forbidden. Necessarily, this refers to a situation where Yishmael died without children or any descendants at all, and the mitzvah of yibbum applied here, meaning that the marriage of Yitzchak and Serach is by the law of yibbum.
Once all of these are resolved, Yitzchak and Serach are married, and an eighth reason is found that forbids Yaakov to have relations with her - on account of his father's wife.
"Vechen haba al bas ishto ve'al bas bitah" - "And similarly, one who has relations with his wife's daughter or with her daughter's daughter":
The rest of the Mishnah's words are very brief: those same two scenarios also apply to one who has relations with his wife's daughter, who is his stepdaughter - six sins; and with his wife's daughter's daughter, his step-granddaughter - seven sins. The lists are identical to the previous lists, except that for the first reason, instead of "his daughter" it will be "his wife's daughter," and instead of "his daughter's daughter" it will be "his wife's daughter's daughter," and the rest of the reasons are as they were.
To construct these cases, one must be familiar with the family trees. Someone who does not have a diagram in front of him, or who cannot devote his full attention to this, would be better off moving on to the next Mishnah, because tracking this is too complicated without it. We will therefore go over the cases according to the accepted diagram in ArtScroll, and one can only take off one's hat to Chazal for devising brilliant family trees that present these scenarios.
His Wife's Daughter - Six Sin-Offerings:
Yitzchak and Leah, who are not married to each other, have a daughter - Rachel. Yitzchak has another son from a different marriage, Yaakov, and he marries Leah. This marriage is permitted, since Leah was never his father's wife, only his concubine. Once they are married, Yaakov has two reasons why he cannot cohabit with Rachel: first, Rachel's mother Leah is his wife, making Rachel his stepdaughter - and this is our "similarly", replacing "his daughter" with "his wife's daughter"; and second, Rachel is his paternal sister, since Yaakov's father is Yitzchak, and Rachel's father is also Yitzchak.
Rachel marries Esav, Yaakov's brother. Esav is a maternal brother: their shared mother is Rivkah, Yaakov's father is Yitzchak, and Esav's father is Eliezer. For Rachel, whose parents are Yitzchak and Leah, there is no relation to Esav and the marriage is permitted; but once she marries him, she becomes forbidden to Yaakov for a third reason, because she is his brother's wife, and this prohibition remains in place even if Esav dies or divorces her (except for yibbum).
Afterward, Rachel marries Yishmael, the brother of Yitzchak, Yaakov's father, as both are sons of Avraham. The marriage is permitted - like one who marries her uncle - but through this she becomes forbidden to Yaakov for a fourth reason, because she is his father's brother's wife. And as long as she is married to Yishmael she is a married woman, a fifth reason; and if she becomes a niddah, a sixth reason. Here are six reasons, each of which carries kares, and if Yaakov cohabits with Rachel he is liable to a separate sin-offering for each of them - six sin-offerings.
His Wife's Daughter's Daughter - Seven Sin-Offerings:
The second "similarly" deals with seven ways in which Yaakov and Rachel are forbidden to each other, and if they cohabit with each other they are liable to seven sin-offerings. Here we are also looking for the grandson's wife. Yaakov and Leah are married. Leah has a daughter named Dinah, whose father is not Yaakov, and Yaakov has a son named Asher, whose mother is not Leah (in Rashi the name Reuven appears, and for clarity we will call him Asher).
Leah has a father named Lavan. Lavan, who is a scoundrel, cohabits with his granddaughter Dinah - the daughter of his daughter Leah - and they have a daughter named Rachel. From the moment of her birth, Rachel is forbidden to Yaakov for two reasons: first, his wife Leah is Dinah's mother and Rachel's grandmother, making Rachel his step-granddaughter, parallel to the second case we learned, except that here it is his wife's granddaughter; and second, Leah and Rachel are sisters, since the father of both is Lavan, and a person may not marry his wife's sister during his wife's lifetime - and as long as Leah is alive, this is a second reason.
Rachel marries Asher, Yaakov's son, making her his daughter-in-law - a third reason, which is forbidden forever even if Asher dies or divorces her. Afterward, she marries a second time to Esav, Yaakov's brother from his father Yitzchak. There is nothing preventing this marriage, since Yaakov and Leah are not from the same family tree at all and Rachel is completely unrelated to Esav; but once she marries him, she becomes forbidden to Yaakov because she is his brother's wife, a fourth reason, even after Esav's death or divorce (and the issue of yibbum is not relevant here).
Afterward, Rachel marries a third time to Yishmael, Yaakov's uncle, Yitzchak's brother. Here too, she is distant on the family tree and there is no obstacle, but through this she becomes forbidden to Yaakov because she is his father's brother's wife - a fifth reason. And as long as she is married to Yishmael she is a married woman - a sixth reason; and if she becomes a niddah - a seventh reason. Thus, if Yaakov cohabits with Rachel, he violates the prohibition of kares, and if it was unintentional, he brings a sin-offering for each of the seven reasons.
To summarize the seven reasons:
The daughter of the daughter of Leah, Yaakov's wife - his step-granddaughter.
The sister of his wife Leah, as both are daughters of Lavan.
His daughter-in-law, who married Asher, Yaakov's son.
His brother's wife, once she marries Esav, Yaakov's brother.
His father's brother's wife, once she marries a third time to Yaakov's father's brother.
A married woman.
A niddah.