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Week 61 - Wednesday - 24 January 2001

KETUBOT: CHAPTER 3: MISHNAH 5

How does he drink from his clay pot? Even if she is lame, even if she is blind, and even if she is afflicted with boils. If any unchastity is found in her, or if she is not fit to enter into the Congregation of Israel - he is not permitted to keep her, for it is stated, "and she shall be his wife" (Deut. 22:29) - a wife who is fit for him.

Kehati

Our mishnah elaborates the law taught in the last section of the preced-ing mishnah, "The violator drinks from his clay pot."

How does he drink from his clay pot - i.e., what is the meaning and scope of this law? Even if she - the violated woman, is lame, even if she is blind, and even if she is afflicted with boils - or even leprosy, the violator is obligated to marry her.

But - if any unchastity is found in her - if she committed adultery after he wed her, or if she is not fit to enter into the Congregation of Israel - e.g., if she is a mamzeret who is excluded from the Jewish Congregation; according to another interpretation, even one whose marriage is prohibited by a positive command-ment, such as an Egyptian woman, until the lapse of two generations (Hameiri; Rambam), he is not permitted to keep her - if she is not fit to become an Israelite, he may not wed her; and if he did, he is not permitted to keep her; and similarly, if he marries the violated woman as prescribed by law, and "he has found some unseemly thing in her" after he marries her, he must divorce her, for it is stated, "and she shall be become his wife" - a wife who is fit for him-we learn from the wording, "and she shall become his," that the violator must take the violated woman as a wife and keep her only if she is fit to be his wife.

KETUBOT: CHAPTER 3: MISHNAH 6

If an orphan was betrothed and then divorced-Rabbi Eleazar says, The seducer is exempt, but the violator is liable.

Kehati

Our mishnah teaches that if the fine is paid to the girl herself, e.g., if she is orphaned from her father, there is a difference between the violator and the seducer, since the seducer is exempt from payment of the fine, while the violator is obligated to pay the fine. This difference is an additional one to those taught in mishnah 4, above.

If an orphan - whose father having died, receives the fine due to her, was betrothed and then divorced - the Gemara explains that this is an independent clause and does not refer to the "orphan," and that our mishnah should be taught as follows: "or who was betrothed," i.e., a girl who was betrothed, and who was divorced after the erusin, even though her father is alive, is as an "orphan" in her father's lifetime, and receives the fine herself; our mishnah follows the opinion of Rabbi Akiva (Rabbi Eleazar's teacher), as taught above: "If a girl were betrothed and divorced ... Rabbi Akiva says, She has a fine, and her fine is for herself." Accordingly, our mishnah reads: "An orphan," and similarly any girl "who was betrothed and divorced," though she has a father, "is considered an orphan in her father's lifetime, and her fine is for herself."

Rabbi Eleazar says, The seducer is exempt - from the payment of a fine; allowing herself to be seduced, she released him from the fine, but the violator is liable - to pay the fine to the woman he violated, seeing that he coerced her.

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