Study Yevamot folio 39A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
And Abaye holds that according to Beit Hillel, with regard to the husband’s rights to his wife’s property, his hand is like her hand, but not any stronger. Accordingly, the yavam has a weaker hand in her property than she does, because the rights of a yavam are always weaker than those of the husba
Rava said to him: I hold that if the property was bequeathed to her when she was still under the first husband, everyone, i.e., both Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai, agrees that his hand is stronger than her hand, and therefore the hand of the yavam will be equally as strong as that of the yevama, a
Therefore, Rava presents his own resolution to the apparent inconsistency in Beit Shammai’s rulings in the Mishnah: Rather, both this first clause and that latter clause concern cases in which property was bequeathed to her when she was a widow waiting for her yavam. The first clause concerns a case
The Talmud explains the rationale behind Rava’s explanation: And Rava holds that according to Beit Shammai a levirate betrothal with a yevama affords her a status equivalent in some aspects to a woman who is definitely betrothed and in other aspects to a woman about whom there is uncertainty whether
The Talmud notes: An interpretation of the Mishnah was stated in the name of R' Elazar that is in accordance with the opinion of Rava. And an interpretation of the Mishnah was stated in the name of R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina that is in accordance with the opinion of Abaye.