Sorry for the delay. I'm enclosing a copy of the Insights we wrote on that matter, in case you haven't yet seen it. Best wishes!

-Mordecai Kornfeld and Kollel Iyun Hadaf

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2) LETTING A WOMAN REMARRY BY PROHIBITING HER TO A KOHEN

QUESTION: The Gemara concludes that if a woman's husband and Tzarah travelled abroad and she does not know whether the Tzarah bore a child, she is prohibited to remarry until she verifies whether the Tzarah had a child.

The Gemara asks why we do not allow her to do Chalitzah and then remarry, as doing Chalitzah will solve her problem no matter what: if her Tzarah had a child, then she did not need Chalitzah, and if her Tzarah did not have a child, then the Chalitzah permits her to remarry. The Gemara answers that we cannot let her do Chalitzah because if we discover later that the Tzarah did have a child, then we will have to announce that the woman's Chalitzah was not a valid Chalitzah and that she is actually permitted to marry a Kohen. However, publicizing through a public announcement that the Chalitzah was not valid is not an efficient enough way of spreading the word. There might be someone who does not hear the announcement, and when he sees this woman marrying a Kohen he will mistakenly assume that it is permitted for a Chalutzah to marry a Kohen. Therefore, we do not allow the woman to do Chalitzah in the first place.

Why, though, must we prohibit her from marrying forever because of this reason (until she finds out whether her Tzarah had a child)? The Chachamim should have allowed her to do Chalitzah! If it turns out later that she did not need Chalitzah, the Chachamim should have simply prohibited her from marrying a Kohen despite the fact that the Chalitzah was not valid, instead of making a public announcement that the Chalitzah was not necessary. That way, at least she would be permitted to do Chalitzah now and marry a non-Kohen!

ANSWERS:

(a) The PERISHAH (on the Tur EH 156:29) and the HAGAHOS TOFOS YOM TOV (ibid.) answer that if we were to permit the woman to do Chalitzah and to marry anyone except a Kohen, then when the woman later discovers that her Tzarah gave birth and she really did not need Chalitzah, she will think that she is permitted to marry a Kohen despite what she was told at the time she did Chalitzah. Even though we told her that she is prohibited from marrying a Kohen forever after this Chalitzah, she will think that she was prohibited to a Kohen only because of the possibility that the Chalitzah was valid. She will not understand why she should be prohibited to a Kohen when it becomes known that the Chalitzah was completely unnecessary.

Therefore, the only acceptable course of action is not to allow her to do Chalitzah, and not to marry at all until she finds out whether her Tzarah had a child. Such a ruling she will accept. It will seem logical to her that she cannot do Chalitzah as long as she does not know whether or not her husband had children.

(b) We could add to this answer and explain as follows. If we were to permit her to do Chalitzah and then prohibit her to a Kohen even when it turns out that her Tzarah had a child and the Chalitzah was meaningless, people will wonder why the Chalitzah was valid enough to prohibit her to a Kohen. They will reach the incorrect conclusion that the Chalitzah must have been done while the Tzarah was pregnant, before the child was born, and that is why it was valid.

This, in turn, will lead people to conclude that when a man dies and his wife is pregnant, her Chalitzah or Yibum is valid even if the son lives and is born a healthy child, since he was not born before the death of his father. The Halachah actually is that such is not a valid Chalitzah, and Yibum is prohibited in such a case with an Isur Kares (35b). That is why the Chachamim did not want to let her do Chalitzah now and prohibit her to a Kohen when her Tzarah returns with a child. (M. Kornfeld)