Torah Community Connections

Week 59 - Friday - 12 January 2001

GLOSSARY
KEHATI MISHNAH TRACTATE KETUBOT

Ailonit a woman who is congenitally incapable of giving birth.

Amah (pl. amot) cubit -- about 60 cm. -- 23.6 inches.

Arus/ Arusah see introduction to Mishnah 1, Chapter 1.

Bedi'avad after the fact, opp. Lekhathilah (q.v.)

Bogeret a girl from the age of 12 years six months and one day onward.

get bill of divorce.

halitzah (lit. 'drawing off') -- the ceremony of taking off the shoe of the brother of a husband who died childless (Deut. 25:5-10).

Halutzah a woman who has performed halitzah (q.v.).

Hazakah a) presumptive state of a person; b) presumptive title to property, based on the occupier's undisturbed possession during fixed legal period, when a claim cannot be established by other legal evidence; c) taking possession (of landed property) by means of a formal act of acquisition.

Kal va-Homer an argument a minori or a fortiori.

Karet ('cutting off') -- sudden or premature death as Divine punishment for a number of sins specified in the Torah.

Kav measure of capacity = 4 Logs (q.v.).

Ketanah a girl under the age of 12 years and a day.

Ketubah marriage contract specifying the mutual obligations between husband and wife.

Kiddushin the act of betrothal -- see introduction to Mishnah 1, Chapter 1.

Kinyan formal act of acquisition.

Kohen a priest, a descendant of Aharon (Lev. 21 and 22)

Kohen Gadol High Priest

Kor a measure of capacity = 30 se'ahs.

Lekhathillah 'in the first place,' the law as applied before the fact (opp. 'bedi'avad', q.v.).

Log a liquid measure = one quarter of a Kav (q.v.).

Ma'aser tithe.

Ma'aser Rishon first tithe, given to the Levite.

Ma'aser Sheni 'second tithe' which is taken up to and eaten in Jerusalem under conditions of ritual cleanness.

Mamzer (fem. MAMZERET) -- a child born from a union prohibited under penalty of death or Karet (q.v.).

Mema'ent see Mishnah 6, Chapter 11 and commentary.

Na'arah a girl between the ages of 12 years and one day and 12 years six months and one day.

Natin (fem. NETINAH) -- a descendant of the Gibeonites who deceived Joshua (see Joshua 9:3ff) and converted.

Nikhsei Melog property of the wife of which the husband has full use and benefit until her death or divorce, without being responsible for any loss, damage or deterioration which the property suffers from his use.

Nikhsei Tzon Barzel (lit. 'sheep of iron') -- the wife's property which the husband, in case of death or divorce, must restore in full.

Nisuin see introduction to Mishnah 1, Chapter 1.

Ona'ah overcharging or underpaying.

Pegam 1) injury, deterioration, blemish, discredit; 2) indemnity to be paid to a seduced or violated girl.

Prozbul document stating that the lender transferred his debts to the Court, as enacted by Hillel the Elder, so that the shemitah (Sabbatical) year would not cancel the debts.

Sanhedrin the council of state and supreme tribunal of the Jewish people during the century or more preceding the fall of the Second Temple. It consisted of seventy-one members, and was presided over by the High Priest. A minor court (for judicial purposes only) consisting of twenty-three members was known as the 'Small Sanhedrin'.

Sh'niyah ('second') -- a woman prohibited to her husband by the Rabbinical law of prohibited marriages of the second degree -- see Mishnah 11:6.

Terumah (pl. TERUMOT )-- heave offering given from the yield of the harvest to the priest (TERUMAH GEDOLAH).

Terumat Ma'aser the portion the Levite gives to the priest from the tithe (MA'ASER, q.v.) he receives from the Israelite.

yavam the brother of a married man who died childless.

Yevamah the widow of a man who died childless.

yibum levirate marriage with the widow of a childless brother (Deut. 25:5-10).

INTRODUCTION

Our Tractate deals mainly with the details of the laws of the ketubah. As we have already explained (Yev. 4:3), the ketubah is a document of obligation which the husband writes to his wife at the time of the nisu'in (marriage), and which details all the obligations which the husband accepts upon himself towards his wife. The principal of the ketubah, however, is the husband's obligation of a specific sum of money that his wife will receive in the event of their divorce or his death. The term "ketubah" used in the Mishnah refers to this sum of money. The ketubah of a widow or a divorcee is different from that of a virgin, for if one marries a virgin, her ketubah is two hundred dinars, while that of a widow or a divorcee is one hundred dinars (as will be taught in detail, below [1:2]). The husband, however, may add to this principal of the ketubah as much as he wishes; this additional sum is called tosefet ketubah, the "supplementary ketubah." He may not, however, reduce these amounts of two hundred for a virgin and one hundred for a widow, for Rabbi Meir says, "Whoever decreases the two hundred of a virgin and the one hundred of a widow renders his relationship illicit" (5:1); Rambam rules in accordance with Rabbi Meir (Hil. Ishut 10:9). Furthermore, even if a person does not write a ketubah for his wife, he is nevertheless subject to the terms of a ketubah, for it is a Court-imposed condition, i.e., a condition which does not derive from an agreement between the parties, but rather from a general obligation ordained by the Court (4:7). Rambam, however, writes: "Whoever weds a woman and does not write her a ketubah, or if he wrote and the document was lost, or she waived her ketubah to her husband ... he must rewrite the principal of the ketubah for her, if he wishes to remain with her, for a man is prohibited from living with his wife, even for a brief spell, without a ketubah" (ibid., 10:10). The document of the ketubah also records the dowry that the woman brings with her from her father's house, and that which the husband adds to it (as will be explained below, 6:3ff.), as well as the obligation of the husband to furnish his wife with all her needs.

Concerning the principal of the ketubah of a virgin, there is an opinion in the Gemara, "The ketubah of a woman is mandated by the Torah" (Ket. 10a; 56b). This is derived from the verse: "he shall pay silver shekels according to the dowry of virgins" (Ex. 22:16), which teaches that the "dowry of virgins," which is the money of the ketubah, should be the same amount as the fine imposed for seduction and rape, i.e., fifty Torah "silvers" (fifty selas), which is two hundred dinars. The accepted opinion in the Gemara, however, is that the ketubah is of a Rabbinic origin which was enacted by the Sages to prevent capricious divorce (Ket 39b); this is also the ruling of R. Yitzhak Alfasi and Rambam. According to a third opinion, even those who maintain that the ketubah is mandated by the Torah, it does not mean literally, but rather that there is a support (asmakhta) for this enactment in the Torah, as was taught in a baraita (Ket. 10a): "'He shall pay silver shekels according to the dowry of virgins' -- that this shall be as the dowry of virgins, and that the dowry of virgins shall be as this." The Sages derived Torah support for the ketubah of a woman from here (see Tosafot, Sot. 27a, s.v. Ish). Indeed, the text of a virgin's ketubah is as follows: "Money [lit., "silver"], two hundred zuz to which you are entitled [de-hazu] according to Torah Law." Hameiri, however, writes that the inclusion of these words is not in accordance with the halakhah. Nevertheless others explain "Money, zuz to which you are entitled de-hazi " -- i.e., by Rabbinic law, behold, I pledge myself and my property to this money, as if you were entitled according to Torah Law" (Shitah Mekubetzet, citing pupils of Rabbeinu Yonah). Rabbeinu Asher explains that "according to Torah Law" refers to "money," i.e., he gives her currency of the Torah, meaning two hundred Tyrian silver dinars, and not provincial selas. He learns this from the laws of rape and seduction, regarding which it is written, "fifty of silver" (Deut. 22:29) -- fifty Tyrian selas, which are equivalent to two hundred dinars of pure silver. Haram Mintz learns this by an acrostic: he reads the word "ke-mohar" as "kamah?" (how much?) Resh -- the Hebrew letter resh, whose numerical value is 200." A widow's ketubah, however, is of Rabbinic origin, according to all opinions, and the text of her ketubah reads as follows: "Money, one hundred zuz, that you are entitled to according to Rabbinic law." The Gemara quotes a baraita: "Formerly, they would write for a virgin two hundred, and for a widow one hundred" -- i.e., they would not mortgage their property as surety for the ketubah and they would grow old and not marry (women were afraid to marry lest the husband die or divorce them, and they would not have the means of collecting their ketubah). They enacted that they would place it (i.e., the money of the ketubah) for safekeeping in her father's house. When he became angry with her, he could still say to her: 'go to your ketubah' (go to the money deposited in your father's house -- the enactment did not prevent him from divorcing her since he regarded the money in her father's house as lost because he could not make use of it.)

They therefore enacted that they should place it in her father-in-law's house; rich women (whose ketubah was for a large sum of money) would make of it (would purchase with the money of their ketubah) baskets of silver and of gold, poor women would make of it a basket (copper utensils); But even so (with the second enactment) when he was angry with her, he said to her: 'Take your ketubah and go forth'; until Shimon ben Shetah came and enacted that he write, 'All my property is a surety for your ketubah'" (i.e., according to Shimon ben Shetah's enactment, the husband does not designate movable property for the ketubah, but rather pledges all his property as surety) (Ket. 82b).

It is evident from this baraita that, at any rate, all agree the ketubah was introduced during a very early period, for it was in use long before the time of Shimon ben Shetah. And amendments had already been enacted generations to insure that if a woman was divorced or widowed she would be able to collect her ketubah; at the same time, the ketubah served as a deterrent to prevent the husband from divorcing his wife in haste, during a moment of anger. This is the reasoning behind the statement: 'the Rabbis instituted the ketubah, so that the husband should not regard his wife disdainfully and be precipitate in sending his wife away.' This goal was finally attained by the later ordinance enacted by Shimon ben Shetah, that the husband pledge all his possessions to the ketubah, and as a result, if he divorced her, he was obligated to sell his possession to pay her ketubah, or to give her money. The details of the laws regarding the principal of ketubah, as well as the other obligations of the husband and of the wife which are detailed in the ketubah, are explained in this Tractate. The Tractate also teaches the laws concerning rape and seduction, and that of a person who libels another (see Ex. 22:15-16; Deut. 22:13-21, 28-29).

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