Daf 65 ended with a new Mishna that teaches us about husbands' monetary control over their wives: they own their wives earnings, found items, and profits from property. If she is injured in the hands or face, her husband receives 2/3 of the payment for humiliation and degradation. If she is injured in a covered part of her body, she retains 2/3 of that payment.
Daf 66 continues to discuss the Gemara. Rabbi Akiva holds strongly that any excess production belongs to the wife herself and not her husband. Similarly, he believes that lost items that are found should belong to her. The rabbis examine who exactly is humiliated and who is degraded when a woman suffers pain or an insult. Should the husband receive the fine for humiliation, for degradation, for both, or for neither? Is a wife the property of her husband, or is she in fact a part of him; he suffers as she suffers?
Another new Mishna teaches us about writing values into the ketubah. If cash is offered to their new son-in-law, it need not be honoured until the couple is married. If he dies while they are betrothed and she is offered as a yevama, her father need not honour that commitment. Money that is offered as part of the dowry is recorded at 1.5 times its worth. Movable property (clothing, jewellery, utensils, etc.) are recorded as worth 1/5 of their value. This is due either to the over-exaggeration of its worth, or due to the wear and tear that it will go through before the ketubah is paid out. Property values seem to be assessed independently.
And another new Mishna. If the wife brings money to her dowry, that is recorded at one and one half its given amount because the cash will benefit the husband. Additionally the husband must donate another ten dinars for every one hundred dinars that is given as a dowry. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel adds that everything accords with the regional custom.
The Gemara teaches us that the rabbis do not even determine how this extra contribution is made to the dowry - is this done once only, at the time of the marriage, or every day, or every month, or each year? Could it be that this money is rationed across the year? Or is it related to the me'a that he must provide each week? This remains unresolved. And the minhag, custom, of each place is what actually dictates the amount of the dowry. The rabbis suggest that it is only in places with no previous custom that the people are to use these guidelines.
A story is told of the daughter of Nakdimon ben Guryon, who was from a family so wealthy that her dowry included one million gold dinars. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai found her naked, covered b only by her hair, standing at the side of the road picking undigested barley from the dung of cows for food. Where did the money go? He asked. She said that "salt for money is lacking"*. It is difficult to preserve money even with the best intentions. There are a number of reports that Nakdimon was both extremely rich and extremely generous, but he still lost his fortune completely. Could this have been avoided with greater acts of tzedaka? Was this G-d's will for some reason? Or do the rabbis find other ways of explaining this tragedy?
*people add to this phrase, we learn, by saying that "salt for money is kindness," chesed. Thus salt does not preserve money, but kindness is like salt and acts of kindness do preserve money.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment