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nine months or of the second husband born after seven months. The
three month wait clarifies this, for if she is carrying the first husband’s
child it will certainly become recognizable during this period.] Tosfos
ask how waiting three months removes all doubt about the child’s
paternity, when it is possible that intercourse took place just prior
to the husband’s death or the divorce and sperm fertilized an ovum
three days later, therefore surely it would be proper to require a wait
of three months and three days? Tosfos answer that we are uncon-
cerned with these three days because we will know whose child she
is carrying even without making the woman wait three more days. If
she becomes visibly pregnant shortly after her remarriage she must
be carrying the child of the first husband, whereas if she becomes
recognizably pregnant two months after the wedding, it must be the
child of the second husband, for if it belonged to the first husband it
could not have remained unnoticed for five months.

The Noda B’yehudah then cites a question posed by the Av Beis
Din of Tartakove: although Tosfos’s answer resolves why a widow
or divorcee need not wait ninety three days, the question remains
difficult in regard to a yavam who must also wait ‘three months of
discernment’ (Yevamos ibid., Shulchan Aruch Even Ha’ezer 164,1).
Why should a yavam not have to wait ninety three days from the
death of his brother, for perhaps his sister-in-law is pregnant from
his brother and the reason that her pregnancy is not recognizable
is because the sperm only fertilized the ovum three days later [and
three full months have not yet passed since the pregnancy began]?
By marrying his sister-in-law after just three months the yavam may
therefore be transgressing the prohibition of having relations with a
brother’s wife without the mitzvah [of yibum]. The Noda B’yehudah
notes that this is an extremely serious question.

The Noda B’yYehudah answers as follows. In the Torah it says,
“When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a child,
the wife of the dead one shall not marry outside [the family] to an
unrelated man; her husband’s brother shall come unto her and take
her to him as a wife…” (Devarim 25:5). The gemara (Yevamos 35b)
says, “If he left his wife pregnant and she gave birth she is exempt

50 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein