Kiddushin 8: Valuation; Betrothal as a Conditional Act

The Gemara discusses how valuation might be understood or misunderstood.  The rabbis use a number of examples to demonstrate the importance of one’s words when conducting a transaction.  That transaction might involve inheritance, the sale of land, the barter of vessels, grains or animals, slaves, maidservants, or wives.  Contracts are contracts, and specificity is critical if the contract is valid.  Even more so if we are flirting with creating the status of “mamzer” needlessly.

The rabbis also consider from where money might come.  Is one hundred dinars from collateral or a loan the same as one hundred dinars in hand?  And what if one dinar is missing?  And what if one of the dinars is flawed, or copper instead of silver?

If a woman takes those hundred dinars and disposes of them, she has not consented to the betrothal and thus the betrothal is not valid.  A woman who says that another person can accept the money and betrothal on her behalf is betrothed.  If she simply says, “give the money to my father,” she is not betrothed.  If she says to put the money on a rock, or to give it to a dog, and those things belong to her, she is betrothed.  But if they do not belong to her, the betrothal is invalid.  The rabbis go so far as to discuss what to do if that dog is chasing her.