Study Yevamot folio 119A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Mishnah: In the case of a woman whose husband and rival wife traveled to a country overseas, and witnesses came and told her: Your husband died, she shall not marry any other man, in case she requires levirate marriage with her brother-in-law, i.e., yavam, in which case she is prohibited from marry
If she had a mother-in-law overseas, but her late husband had no brothers, she need not be concerned that a brother to her husband may have been born. But if her mother-in-law departed from her town pregnant, this widow should be concerned that perhaps her late husband now has a brother, with whom
Talmud: The Talmud asks: What is implied by the extra word: She, in the expression in the first clause of the Mishnah: Whether she, i.e., her rival wife, is pregnant? The Talmud answers that it teaches us this: We are concerned about a possible pregnancy of this rival wife who went overseas with h
It was taught in the Mishnah: She shall not marry any other man and shall not enter into levirate marriage until she knows whether her rival wife is pregnant. The Talmud asks: Granted, she may not enter into levirate marriage, because perhaps her rival wife is pregnant, and if so, this widow would
Shall we say that the Mishnah follows the opinion of R' Meir, who is concerned about the minority? There is a minority of women who do not give birth, and R' Meir takes this minority into consideration and requires the widow to wait and clarify whether or not she is required to enter into levirate