Let’s say someone has two groups of daughters from two different women, two different wives. All the daughters in group one are older than the daughters in group two. For example, if a man was married twice, he was married to his first wife and had, just to make our Mishnah simple, two daughters. Then he divorced her, got married again, and had another two daughters from that second marriage.
He said, “At that point, when I accepted it, I knew which daughter I was talking about, but later on I only remembered that I had accepted it for an older daughter. Those were the words ringing through my head.” But he doesn’t know what “older” means. When he had that memory, he remembers that it was an older daughter, but maybe it was the oldest daughter out of the older group. Or maybe it was the older daughter of the younger group from his second marriage. Or maybe it was the youngest daughter out of the older group, group one. She is considered older than the older daughter in the younger group. So maybe that is what “older” means according to this man. He doesn’t know. He’s mesupak; he’s in doubt about what’s going on here.
So we say that both daughters in the older group are forbidden, because maybe they’re the ones. The older daughter in the younger group is also considered an older daughter, because relative to the youngest daughter of the younger group, she is older. So she could also be the one. It could be any one of those three girls. But the youngest daughter of the younger group is definitely not the older daughter.
All three of these girls are prohibited from marrying anybody else in the world, because they’re all bound to this man. They’re not even allowed to marry the man himself, because maybe their sister was really the one who was married to him, and therefore they can’t marry their sister’s husband. And even if all three of them receive a get (Jewish divorce document) from this man, they still can’t marry him after that get, because now he’s their sister’s divorced husband. You can’t marry your sister’s ex-husband either. So they’re stuck in a real pickle, in a tough spot. None of these daughters are allowed to get married until they get a get from this man, except for the youngest daughter of the younger group, because she definitely wasn’t in the category.
Rabbi Yosi omer (says), however, that all of these daughters are allowed to get married except for the older daughter of the older group. We’re going to assume that’s the one he meant. When he said “older daughter,” it was the oldest daughter. That’s how the B.O.C. understands it.
Another case: a man with two groups of daughters comes and says, “I accepted kiddushin (betrothal) for my younger daughter.” He doesn’t know if it’s the younger daughter of the younger group or the younger daughter of the older group. Or maybe it’s the older daughter of the younger group, who is considered younger than the younger daughter of the older group. We say that all three of these daughters are now forbidden to marry anybody except for the older daughter of the older group. She’s definitely not considered to be the younger daughter. These are the same definitions as in the previous Mishnah, the same divrei (words of) Rabbi Meir, or, as in the earlier part of this Mishnah. Rabbi Yosi omer, they’re all permitted except for the youngest daughter of the younger group, because we assume that’s the daughter the father was talking about.