The Talmud at Yevamot 97b preserves a remarkable sequence of seven riddles, each describing a tangle of family relationships that, on first hearing, sound impossible. The Talmud then provides the solution — almost always involving incestuous unions among gentiles, which the Sages refuse to attribute to a Jew.
The first riddle stands out: it can occur lawfully under the Rabbis' opinion (against R' Yehuda), where a man may marry a woman raped or seduced by his father. The seventh riddle likewise has a permitted solution. Together these puzzles function both as a halakhic exercise and as a kind of dark intellectual play — a genre of legal aggadah.
The diagrams below use standard genealogical conventions: squares for men, circles for women, and a gold ring to mark the speaker of the riddle. Dashed red lines mark forbidden unions.
״אח מאב ולא מאם,
והוא בעלה דאם,
ואנא ברתה דאנתתיה״.
אמר רמי בר חמא:
דלא כרבי יהודה דמתניתין.
A woman says: I have a half-brother from my father and not from my mother;
and my half-brother is the husband of my mother;
and I am the daughter of his wife.
Rami bar Ḥama said: This is not legitimate according to R' Yehuda in the Mishnah, who holds a man may not marry a woman his father had relations with, even outside marriage.
״אח הוא,
וברי הוא,
אחתיה אנא דהאי דדרינא אכתפאי״ —
משכחת לה בגוי הבא על בתו.
A woman says: He is my brother and he is my son;
I am the sister of this one whom I carry on my shoulders.
You find this in the case of a non-Jew who had relations with his daughter, and she bore him a son.
״שלמא לך ברי,
בת אחתיך אנא״ —
משכחת לה בגוי הבא על בת בתו.
A woman says: Peace upon you, my son;
I am the daughter of your sister.
You find it in the case of a non-Jew who had relations with the daughter of his daughter, who bore him a son.
״דלאי דדלו דוולא,
ליפול בכו סתר פתר:
דהאי דדרינא הוא בר,
ואנא ברת אחוה״ —
משכחת לה בגוי הבא על בת בנו.
A woman says: Water-drawers who draw water in buckets, let this cryptic riddle fall among you:
This boy whom I carry is my son, and I am the daughter of his brother.
You find it in the case of a non-Jew who had relations with the daughter of his son.
״בייא בייא מאח,
והוא אב,
והוא בעל,
והוא בר בעל,
והוא בעלה דאם,
ואנא ברתה דאיתתיה,
ולא יהיב פיתא לאחוה יתמי בני ברתיה״ —
משכחת לה בגוי הבא על אמו והוליד ממנה בת,
וחזר ובא על אותה בת,
וחזר זקן ובא עליה והוליד ממנה בנים.
A woman cries: Woe, woe (baya, baya) for my brother, who is my father; who is my husband; who is the son of my husband; who is the husband of my mother; and I am the daughter of his wife;
and he does not provide bread for his brothers, who are orphans, the sons of me, his daughter.
You find it: a non-Jew had relations with his mother and she bore him a daughter; he then had relations with that daughter; and the old man — his father — also had relations with her, and she bore him sons.
״אנא ואת — אחי,
אנא ואבוך — אחי,
אנא ואמך — אחי״ —
משכחת לה בגוי הבא על אמו והוליד ממנה שתי בנות,
וחזר ובא על אחת מהן,
והוליד ממנה בן,
וקריא ליה אחתיה דאימא וקאמרה ליה הכי.
A woman says to a boy: You and I are siblings; your father and I are siblings; your mother and I are siblings.
You find it: a non-Jew had relations with his mother and she bore him two daughters; he then had relations with one of them, and she bore him a son. And the sister of the boy's mother (i.e. the other daughter) says this to him.
״אנא ואת — בני אחי,
אנא ואבוך — בני אחי,
אנא ואמך — בני אחי״.
הא בהיתירא נמי משכחת לה —
כגון ראובן שיש לו שתי בנות,
ואתא שמעון ונסב חדא מינייהו,
ואתא בר לוי ונסב חד מינייהו,
וקאמר ליה בריה דשמעון לבר בריה דלוי.
A man says: You and I are cousins; your father and I are cousins; your mother and I are cousins.
This can also be found in a permitted manner:
Reuven had two daughters; his brother Shimon married one of them; the son of their third brother Levi married the other; and the son of Shimon says this to the grandson of Levi.