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A man can't be alone (yichud) with a woman who is forbidden to him, or even two women, since nashim daatan kalos (see Kiddushin 80b to 82a). There is a concept known as a shomer/es, who if you are allowed to have yichud with them, you can have yichud with a different woman who you normally can't. For example, a man's wife and an unrelated woman can have yichud together with the man (see MT Issurei Biah 22:4).

Now, can a man have yichud with an unrelated woman, and her daughter? I have two sevaras for this case and was wondering if there are any poskim which rule either way.

On the one hand, the Torah forbids marrying both of these women together (Vayikra 18:17), so maybe yichud would be forbidden. My reason to think it might be okay is the mother would not let her daughter commit immoral relations, so yichud with the daughter becomes permissible, thus permitting it with the mother. Or the other way around with the daughter not letting the mother commit adultery.

I'm asking without any other heterim like baalah ba'ir or pesach pasuach lereshus harabim.

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    I'd think this would have been mentioned in the seemingly comprehensive list of categorically permitted pairs of women in EH 22:10 he.wikisource.org/wiki/… Check commentaries there?
    – Double AA
    Commented Jul 18, 2018 at 1:38
  • You might add an explanation for the terms in italic for amei haaretz Commented Jul 18, 2018 at 9:09

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Reb Moshe in Igros Moshe אבה"ע ד סוף סי' ס"ד writes that there is no prohibition of Yichud by a mother and daughter, or granddaughter.

However, it would seem that this is not like the באר שבע brought in the Pischei Teshuva 192/7, and clearly not like Reb Chaim Plagi in שו"ת חיים ושלום חלק א' סי' ט"ז.

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  • I see the Beer Sheva explicitly says a daughter isn't a shomeres for a mother, but I'm wondering if only in the case of chuppas niddah (which he's discussing) a mother can't be a shomeres for a daughter. Even though biah with a niddah is assur, they are married, so maybe the mother won't stop them (ie: not like bias znus). Just speculating
    – robev
    Commented Jul 18, 2018 at 13:04
  • @robev - I was also unsure about this, which is why I wrote "it would seem". Commented Jul 18, 2018 at 13:38

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