Bartenura on Mishnah Ketubot

Sefaria · Mishnah > Rishonim on Mishnah > Bartenura > Seder Nashim · 383 sections

6.7.1
המשליש מעות לבתו – He [i.e., the father] transferred money in the hands of a third-party for the needs of his daughter to purchase for her a field or a dowry when she gets married.
6.7.3
יעשה שליש כו' – he should purchase/acquire the field and we don’t listen to her for it is a Mitzvah to fulfill the words of the dead person.
6.7.4
וכי אינה אלא שדה – meaning to say, even if the field was already acquired and she wants to sell, she can sell it; therefore we listen to her. And the dispute of Rabbi Yosi and Rabbi Meir is specifically with regard to an adult woman from betrothal. For is she had already gotten married, everyone states that we listen to her, and with a minor also, Rabbi Yosi admits that there is nothing in the actions a minor at all, and we don’t listen to her. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Meir.
7.1.1
המדיר את אשתו מליהנות לו – on the benefit of sexual relations, this vow does not take effect because he is subjugated to her and he doesn’t have the power to cancel his obligation of his subjugation and on the benefit of food, even though he is subjugated to her, we find that the vow exists such as we supply her handiwork for her food. And in the Gemara (Talmud Ketubot 70b), it raises a question: if so, why should he appoint an administrator? And it answers – such as the case that we don’t supply the things that she was accustomed to in her father’s house and for this alone, he should appoint an administrator who will provide for her and not that he sill appoint an agent to support her, for the agent of a person is like that person, but rather, he says, all who support does not cause loss.
7.1.2
יתר מכן יוציא ויתן כתובה – for up to thirty days, people don’t listen and there is no disgrace. More than thirty days, people here and there is disgrace.
7.1.3
בישראל – if he is an Israelite (as opposed to being a Kohen), he can restore his divorced wife.
7.1.4
ובכהנת – for if he disvorces her, he is not able to restore her [as his wife], the Rabbis hive him more time, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.
7.2.1
אחד מכל הפירות – such as for example, she said, “I take a vow against consuming this produce,” and it is fulfilled for her.
7.2.2
ר' יהודה אומר כו' – and the Halakha is not according to him.
7.3.1
שלא תתקשט באחד מכל המינים – [for she said]: “I take a vow that this shame be upon me and he fulfilled it for her.
7.3.2
בעניות שלא נתן קצבה לדבר – until when/how long was it prohibited to her, he should divorce her and give her the Ketubah settlement, but if he set a limit, she should wait until that time, and what is that limit? Twelve months.
7.3.3
ובעשירות שלשים יום – for it is the case that an important woman benefits from the scent of her adornments for thirty days and this one will benefit from the scent of the adornments that she was adorned with prior to the vow thirty days, and the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yosi.
7.4.1
רגל אחד יקיים שלשה יוציא ויתן כתובה – This Mishnah, we explain it in the Gemara (Talmud Ketubot 71b) as such: [one] Festival he should uphold the marriage. When is this said? With an Israelite woman but with the daughter of a Kohen, two months he should uphold the marriage and three [months], he should divorce her and grant her the Ketubah settlement but our Mishnah is according to Rabbi Yehuda who disputes [regarding the marriage] of an Israelite to a daughter of a Kohen, but the Halakha is not according to him.
7.5.1
שנועל בפניה – the door of joy and the removal of sorrow, and to the house of mourning, he locks it (i.e., the door) in her face, for tomorrow she may die, and no one will eulogize her.
7.5.2
דבר אחר מחמת – as for example, that under the presumption that lawless human beings are found there.
7.5.3
שתאמרי לפלוני וכו' – things of degradation/disgrace.
7.5.4
שתהא ממלאה ומערה לאשפה – there are those who interpret that after she has sexual intercourse and her womb is filled with semen, it would shake it out in order that the seed won’t be absorbed and she will become pregnant. And there are those who interpret that she will fill ten pitches of water and she will pour them out to the ground, because she appears as a women suspected of infidelity by her husband.
7.6.1
מאכילתו שאינו מעושר – and it was not known to him until after she fed him, such as for example, tat she said to him: So-and-so, a Kohen prepared for me the heap [of grain] and left; he asked him and it was found to be a lie.
7.6.2
ומשמשתו נדה – as for example, when she was presumed to be a menstruant woman/Niddah in his neighborhood when they saw her dress in the clothing of menstruant woman and to her husband she said, “I am ritually pure.”
7.6.3
ולא קוצה לה חלה – that she said to him: So-and-so prepared for me the dough and they asked him and it was found that to be a lie.
7.6.4
וטווה בשור – and she shows her arms to people.
7.6.5
ומדברת עם בני אדם – playing with the boys.
7.6.6
ומקללת יולדיו בפניו – she curses and blasphemes the father of her husband in the presence of her husband.
7.6.7
הקולנית – she claims sexual intercourse in a loud voice until her neighbors hear her, and all of these require witnesses and warning to cause them to lose their Ketubah settlements, and they don’t have neither the Ketubah nor the supplement and they don’t take anything other than their outworn garments that exist alone.
7.7.1
שאין עליה נדרים ונמצאו עליה נדרים – on which vows did they say that she should not eat meat and not drink wine and not adorn herself in colorful clothing, but in the rest of the vows, she is betrothed/sanctified.
7.7.2
כל המומין הפוסלין בכהנים – with regard to first-born he counts them, and they added to them with regard to women: sweat, and bad breath or bad smell in another place in body. And warts that have in them hair, whether small or large when it is corresponding to her face or in the case where it is underneath the covering that on her head, for sometimes it is seen and sometimes it is not seen for if she is in a revealed place at all times, he sees it and is appeased, but if the wart has no hair, it is not a blemish until it as a large as an Issar. And her voice is thick and different from the voice of other women, and the dog bit her and made in the place of the bite became scarred (see Talmud Ketubot 75a), meaning to say, causing it to shrink like wounds by fire. And her breasts are larger than her neighbors by a handbreadth and just as the breasts are distant from one another until there is a and-breadth between each breast. These are blemishes in women and even though they are not [viewed as] blemishes in Kohanim.
7.8.1
האב צריך להביא ראיה – if he comes to claim her Ketubah from the betrothal, from this that he (i.e., the husband) refuses to take her, he (i.e., the father) needs to bring proof that after she became betrothed, she had blemishes. And even though there is for a woman a presumption regarding her body, for since, these blemishes were found in the domain of her father. And one can say here that they were prior to betrothal, and therefore, if he didn’t bring proof, the husband is believed.
7.8.2
נכנסה לרשות הבעל – she married and now comes to divorce her without a Ketubah on account of the blemishes in her. It is upon him to bring proof that prior to her becoming betrothed she had these blemishes, for since these blemishes were not found other than in his domain (i.e., of the husband), we say that here they were found, here they were. But after she got married, they came to her and his field was flooded (see Mishnah Ketubot, Chapter 1, Mishnah 6).
7.8.3
אינו יכול לטון – for he knew and was appeased.
7.9.1
שנולדו בו מומין – from when he married her.
7.9.2
מומין גדולים – his eye became blinded, his hand was mutilated, his leg was broken, but the Halakha is not according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel and even with large blemishes, we don’t force him to divorce [her].
7.10.1
מוכה שחין – a leper/Metzora.
7.10.2
בעל פוליפוס – the smell of the nose.
7.10.3
והמקמץ – who collects the feces of dogs.
7.10.4
והמצרף נחשת – cuts off the copper from the place where he finds it from the land and it smells badly.
7.10.5
והבורסי – dresses hides.
7.10.6
מפני שממיקתו – makes it loathsome. It is the language of (Zechariah 14:12): “Their flesh shall rot away,” and the Halakha is according to the Sages.
8.1.1
האשה. עד שלא תתארס – and she became betrothed.
8.1.2
ב"ש אומרים תמכור – while she is betrothed, but not from when she gets married.
8.1.3
הואיל וזכה באשה – that she is his betrothed,
8.1.4
should he not take possession of her property, in astonishment.
8.1.5
על החדשים – [inheritance] that fell/came to her from when she got married, we are confounded: What did the Sages see to state that if she sold them or gave them away, the husband removes [them] from the hand of those who bought the property, but rather, that you burden us with property that fell/came to her while she was still betrothed meaning to say, that if she sold it, her sale is void, because the husband took possession of them.
8.2.1
נכסים ידועים לבעל ונכסים שאינן ידועים – there are those who interpret “known property” from land, and that which is “not known [property]” as movable property and there are those who state that both (i.e., landed property and movable possessions) are known and these are the ones that are not known: all [the while] that she sits/dwells here and property fell/came to her abroad. And the Halakhic decision is that whether [we are speaking of] property that fell/came to her until she had become betrothed, or whether they fell/came to her from after she was betrothed, if she sold them after she got married, the husband removes [them] from the hand of the purchaser – the usufruct during her lifetime and the body of the land after her death. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Shimon who divides between property that is known to the husband to possessions which are not known.
8.3.1
שמין אותן – for he (i.e., Rabbi Meir) holds that what grew in his domain, they are usufruct, and what didn’t grow in his domain, they are the principal; therefore, what that the monetary [value] of the land is expensive now for this produce, it is principal, and he needs to give her the money and purchase with them land and he eats its usufruct.
8.3.2
וחכמים אומרים – even those that did not grow in his domain, the status of usufruct has been given to them for since that the land belongs to her, and Halakha is according to the Sages.
8.4.1
ביציאתה – if he comes to divorce her.
8.4.2
פירות המחוברים לקרקע בכניסתה שלו – meaning to say, at the time of their falling/coming [into inheritance] they are his (i.e., the husband’s) according to the words of the Sages, but there is a difference between the Sages and Rabbi Shimon regarding produce that was attached [to the ground] at the time of her going forth [from the marriage; i.e., divorce}, but the Sages do not speak of them and they don’t hold [this way] regarding that that Rabbi Shimon stated, that when she went forth [from the marriage because of divorce], whatever grew in his domain is his, but the Halakha is according to Rabbi Shimon.
8.5.1
רבן שמעון בן גמליאל אומר לא תמכור – she can prevent/detain it and the Halakha is according to him.
8.5.2
רבי יהודה אומר לא תמכור – and the Halakha is according to him.
8.5.3
קימעא – a small amount and even just a little bit.
8.5.4
ישבע במה הוציא ויטול – and this oath is similar to the Torah and these words [regard] that there was improvement/gain corresponding to the [financial] outlay or more, but if the outlay was greater than the improvement/gain, he should take the oath of the Torah that he made an outlay corresponding to the improvement/gain, and he should take corresponding to the improvement/gain and the rest he loses. And all of this [occurs] when the husband divorced her. But if she rebelled, whether the husband consumed or whether he did not consume, he should take an oath how much he spent and take corresponding to the improvement/gain and in property of mort-main, all the improvement/gain belongs to the husband, for we say, that if he increased [his outlay], he increased for himself.
8.6.1
שנפלו לה נכסים – from her father’s house/estate while she is still a woman awaiting levirate marriage with her dead husband’s brother.
8.6.2
מה יעשו בכתובתה – [whether it is] a Maneh, or two-hundred and the supplement and the dowry that she brought in to him, go in with her [when she gets married], and when she goes out from her husband (i.e., gets divorced), go out with her and he has accepted upon himself surety (which may be resorted to in case of non-payment).
8.6.3
ובנכסים הנכנסין והיוצאין – usufruct that when she enters [into marriage], they enter with her and when she leaves from her husband, they leave with her.
8.6.4
בית שמאי אומרים יחלוקו יורשי הבעל עם יורשי האב – for she was doubtfully married to the levir and he takes possession of one half of her inheritance from doubt.
8.6.5
נכסים בחזקתן – the mort-main property are in their legal status/presumption and it is not explained in the possession of whom - if it is in the possession of the heirs of the husband, for since surety/property that may be resorted to in the event of non-payment is upon him or if [it is in the possession of] the heirs of the wife, which were hers, and in the fourth chapter of [Tractate] Yevamot (Mishnah 3), you will find this Mishnah.
8.7.1
ילקח בהן קרקע – because her Ketubah is based upon the property of her first husband; therefore, the property of the dead is surety for her Ketubah but the levir eats from the usufruct and if he performs levirate marriage with her, and [and holds] that movable possessions are mortgaged to the Ketubah.
8.7.2
שמין אותם – all that grew in the domain of the dead [brother] is surety to the Ketubah.
8.7.3
וחכמים אומרים פירות המחוברים לקרקע שלו – In the Gemara (Tractate Ketubot 82a) it raises the question: but aren’t all his landed property a surety and a pledge for her Ketubah? And it answers (in the words of Resh Lakish): Read, “belongs to her” (the Sages’ dispute is limited to detached produce and money which, they maintain, as movables and not pledged to the Ketubah).
8.7.4
כל הקודם זכה – for they hold that movables are not mortgaged to the Ketubah other than if she took hold of them and we require from the lifetime of the husband is the taking hold/possession and the same law applies regarding money, for is the difference of money from detached produce, and the Halakha is according to the Sages.
8.7.5
הרי היא כאשתו – for when he divorces her with a Jewish bill of divorce and restores her [as his wife], and we don’t speak about (Deuteronomy 25:5): “and perform the levir’s duty,” the All-Merciful said, and still the first levirate marriages are upon her and a Jewish bill of divorce is not sufficient for her, and that is so, that she was divorced, we would say that it a Mitzvah that the All-Merciful cast upon her that when she performs it and established upon her the prohibition of the wife of a brother , and he cannot bring her back, this comes to teach us that the All-Merciful stated (Deuteronomy 25:5): “he shall take her as his wife and perform the levir’s duty.” Since he took her, she is like his wife.
8.8.1
כל נכסיו – that he inherited from his brothers is surety for her Ketubah.
8.8.2
גירשה אין לה אלא כתובה – but all the while that he did not divorce [her], all of his proerpty is mortgaged to her.
8.8.3
הרי היא ככל הנשים – for a person who divorces his wife and restored her [as his wife In remarriage] on the condition of her first Ketubah he has remarried her and it is necessary to teach us that regarding the widow of a brother who died without issue that she should not say that she is his wife, for he wrote for her a Ketubah from his money, but his widow of a brother who died without issue, who is not his, he wrote for her other than the property of her first husband, which were pledged and surety when he divorced her and restored her [as his wife]. I might sya this is her Ketubah from her. This comes to teach us that this is not the case.
9.1.1
הכותב לאשתו דין ודברים אין לי בנכסיך – while she still is betrothed, he (i.e., the future husband) writes her: “When you marry me, I have [no] claims whatsoever on your property,” even though they were not acquired from him , she an sell them and give them and her sale is valid , for an inheritance that comes to a person of from another place, a man may make a condition upon her that she will not inherit it, and if they acquired I from her, even after she has married, her sale is valid, but he consumes the usufruct, and if she dies, he inherits her, for that is the implication of: “I have no claims on your property,” but their usufruct, I have a claim and as long as they are your property while you are alive, I have no claim on them – but after death, I have a claim on them.
9.1.2
רבי יהודה אומר לעולם הוא אוכל פירי פירות – In the Gemara (Tractate Ketubot 83b), it explains what is usufruct and what is usufruct of the usufruct (i.e., produce vs. yield of the produce)? If she brought in [to the marriage] land and it produced fruit/usufruct, these are usufruct. If he sold these fruits/usufruct and purchased with them fields and they produced fruit/usufruct, these are yield of the produce/usufruct of the usufruct. And when he said to her, I have no claim against your property and their usufruct alone, he can consume the usufruct of the usufruct , according to the words of Rabbi Yehuda, he did not remove himself other than from the usufruct/produce alone and the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehuda.
9.1.3
רשב"ג אומר אם מתה יירשנה מפני שמתנה על מה שכתוב בתורה – as it is written (Numbers 27:11): “[If his father had no brothers, you shall assign his property to his nearest relative in his own clan,] and he shall inherit it.” From here [we learn] that the husband inherits his wife, but the final result of the matter is that the inheriting of wife by her husband is not from the Torah, but rather from the Rabbis, and the Biblical verse is a mere support, but nevertheless, the Halakha is according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel not because it makes a condition against what is written in the Torah, but rather because the Sages made it stringent measure for the protection of the law (i.e., the Written Torah).
9.2.1
ינתנו לכושל שבהן – there are those who interpret it as one whose promissory note was postdated (which is not disqualified necessarily by the Sages, provided that the lender was willing to accept it – as it presents no opportunity for defrauding other creditors) which is the weakest and with legal disadvantage of them all, for he cannot seize properties for a debt that precede it, and there are those who interpret that is for the Ketubah of a wife and it is called weak, and it is not her manner to return after the property of the dead and to request where he has land like the man. And even tough movables of orphans are not mortgaged to the creditor nor to the Ketubah of a woman, here, where they are not in their domain, he leaves them, Rabbi Tarfon holds that we remove them from the hand of the borrower or from the hand of the one holding the deposit and give them to creditor and for the Ketubah.
9.2.2
ינתנו ליורשים – possession does not take effect.
9.2.3
שכולן צריכין שבועה – for a person who comes to collect from the property of orphans, he should not collect without an oath, and all the while that they did not take an oath, we don’t known if they have anything against him; therefore, when the dead person dies, he orphans took possession of them and they are in their domain.
9.3.1
כל הקודם בהם זכה – if the heirs came earlier, they take possession and we don’t remove it from their hands for orphans’ movables are not mortgaged to a creditor or for a Ketubah. If one of them – the wife or the lender he takes possession, [for Rabbi] Tarfon holds that taking possession after death has legal effect.
9.3.2
זכתה אשה יותר על כתובתה – if she got there ealier and took hold of it and it has more than [the value of] the Ketubah or the creditor arrived first and seized it and there is more than the lien [due him].
9.3.3
המותר – should be given to the weakest. This owner of the document whose had is at a disadvantage, if it were to come into the hand of the orphans, furthermore, he cannot remove it from them – neither the wife nor the creditor. But nowadays, we have the practice in all Jewish courts throughout Israel that possessions of the orphans are mortgaged to the creditor; a person who died and left movables, and he had on them a creditor and the Ketubah of a wife , all who comes first gained possession, whether the creditor was early or whether the creditor was later, for there is no antecedent with regard to movables. But if none of them came early, they divide the movables between themselves , as we state further on in Chapter [Ten, Mishnah 2) “He who was married.”
9.4.1
חנונית – to sell and to buy in the store
9.4.2
אפוטרופא – to deal with his money and engage in business.
9.4.3
משביעה כל זמן שירצה – an oath like that of the Torah on a claim of perhaps, and he is able to assess her that she did not make a fraudulent representation/overcharging regarding her spindle and her dough.
9.4.4
... but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.
9.5.1
משביע הוא את יורשיה – if he divorced her or she died and her heirs claim from him her Ketubah, they take the oath of heirs that she did not deposit anything with us at the time of death nor say to us anything before then and we did not find among her documents that the document of her Ketubah had been paid off.
9.5.2
ואת הבאים ברשותה – if she sold her Ketubah to others and she was divorced or died and the purchaser of mortgaged property claim her Ketubah, even they are bound to swear the oath of heirs.
9.5.3
אבל יורשיו משביעין אותה – if she became a widow and he or her heirs collect money from the orphans, they require an oath, for they are not exempted other than from him, if she collects her Ketubah settlement during his lifetime.
9.5.4
לבאין ברשותי – if I sell my property and you come to collect from the bought properties.
9.6.1
והלכה מקבר מעלה – this one who exempted her husband from the oath.
9.6.2
לבית אביה – who did not engaged further in property.
9.6.3
אין היורשים משביעין אותה – with what she had engaged in between death and the burial for if the heirs are able to cause her to take an oath on this while she needs to bring witnesses in what she is selling and buying for the needs of the burial of the dead, the dead body will be delayed [from being buried] and will be disgraced.
9.6.4
על העתיד לבוא – she did not delay in her hands at all from the business that was done by the guardian upon him after the burial of her husband and he did not benefit from his exemption, for the property belongs to the orphans.
9.6.5
על שעבר – on the business that was during the lifetime of her husband.
9.7.1
לא תפרע אלא בשבועה – a person who collects payment from his colleague is not exacting to pay attention of what he has collected and this since he was paid in part, it is possible that he was paid in full, and the Rabbis placed upon him an oath in order that he pay special attention.
9.7.2
עד אחד מעיד שהיא פרועה לא תפרע אלא בשבועה – it is the ordinance of the Sages in order to appease the mind of the owner and these oaths, even though they are the ordinance of the Sages, they are not other than like that of the Torah, in seizing an object for all of the oaths that the Sages ordained are like those of the Torah.
9.7.3
מנכסים משועבדים – because if he would collect from the borrower himself, the borrower would claim: “swear to me that I have not paid you,” we cause him to take an oath and we make a claim because of the mortgaged properties, for perhaps, if you had collected the borrower, he would claim against you: “swear to me that I have not paid you and you require that I should also take an oath now.”
9.8.1
רבי שמעון – This [statement] refers to what is above (see Mishnah 4), referring to the Rabbis who stated that a person sets up his wife as a storekeeper or appointed her as a guardian, he may impose upon her an oath [that she has not misappropriated any of his property any time that he wants, and if he wrote her: “I don’t nor do my heirs have a vow or an oath against you,” the heirs cannot cause her to take an oath. And he comes to dispute and state that whenever she claims her Ketubah, the heirs force her to take an oath and even if he wrote her that neither he nor his heirs have on her a vow or an oath, if she does not claim her Ketubah, the heirs cannot force her to take an oath on being a guardian during the lifetime of her husband, and even if he did not exempt her from the oath, for Rabbi Eliezer and his dispute (even on her spindle and on her dough, they may force her to take an oath) that we stated above (see the end of Mishnah 4), that we force her to take an oath whenever he wants, and the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.
9.9.1
הוציאה גט ואין עמו כתובה – in a place where they don’t write a Ketubah, and they rely upon the stipulation of the Jewish court.
9.9.2
גובה כתובתה – for it is a stipulation of the Ketubah is an act of the Jewish court and all acts of the Jewish court are like one that holds a document. And specifically, one that is a Maneh or two hundred [Zuz] is collected, but the supplement has no testimony that she should remove the document of the Ketubah.
9.9.3
פרוזבול – Hillel ordained Prozbul in order that the seventh year would not cancel [a debt] forhe would transfer his documents to the Jewish court which would collect from the borrower his obligation all the while that he would make a claim against him, for now we do not call him (Deuteronomy 15:2): “he shall not dun [his fellow or kinsman, for the remission proclaimed is of the LORD],” for he does not claim anything but rather, the Jewish court makes a claim against him.
9.9.4
הרי אלו א יפרעו – we suspect lest her Ketubah [settlement] was already collected, and [regarding Prozbul] the seventh year caused the release from debt.
9.9.5
מן הסכנה – that the heathens decreed against [performance of] the commandments, and they were afraid to keep their Jewish bills of divorce and when she would receive it, she would burn it and similar with their Prozbul documents.
10.1.1
מי שהיה. יורשי הראשונה קודמם ליורשי השניה – if his wives died after him until they did not have sufficient time to collect [their Ketubah settlement].
10.1.2
שניה ויורשיה קודמים – that she is a creditor and the inheritors of the first wife come to inherit from their father, according to the Ketubah “male issue,” for we are inheritors, it is taught in the Mishnah. Therefore, they pay the obligation first and what remains they shall succeed to the dowry, therefore, we pay the obligation first and what remains, they inherit, and specifically when the second [wife] took an oath on her Ketubah, then she or her heirs take her Ketubah. But if she died after her husband passed away, and she did not take an oath on her Ketubah, her heirs do not take anything from her Ketubah for we hold that a person does not bequeath an oath to his children, meaning to say, money that a person doesn’t take possession of other than through an oath, and if he dies prior to his taking an oath, that money a man cannot bequeath to his children.
10.2.1
ויתומים מבקשים כתובת אמן – since the Ketubah [of] their mother was greater than that of the other, and her children say that the Ketubah of the male issue is taken, and similarly you (the children of the other wife) and the rest we will divide.
10.2.2
חולקים בשוה – like the rest of all the inheritances and they don’t take the Ketubah of male issue.
10.2.3
אם אמרו יתומים – the children of the larger Ketubah.

Bartenura on Mishnah, trans. by Rabbi Robert Alpert, 2020. Via Sefaria (sefaria.org), Sefaria-Export. Version source: http://sefaria.org/ Licence: CC-BY. Source.