Kiddushin 58: What Is Sacred? Why?

There are three sections in today's daf.  I am going to provide only a very brief outline of each section.

First, the rabbis discuss the differences between betrothal with consecrated animal, with non-domesticated animals, and with animals that are considered to be treifa; forbidden according to the halacha of kashrut.  This section also offers a discussion about the shemita, the Jubilee year, and whether that change signifies a change in the status of an animal, desacralizing a once-consecrated animal (or other item).

Second, we are introduced to a new Mishna that teaches us that a woman is betrothed if she is given consecrated items like teruma, tithes, water of purification or ashes of purification.  The Mishna teaches that this is the case even if the man is an Israelite and not a priest or levite.  The Gemara argues this using arguments of parentage/inheritance and the right to use consecrated items, monetizing consecrated items, and laws regarding theft/counting/mixing of consecrated items.  Of course, rabbis are hesitant to allow this sort of betrothal, for they are extremely protective of the maintenance of an air of sanctity around certain items.

Interestingly, today very few items could be considered to be 'sacred'.  Andy Warhol's duplication of art has been transferred to almost all items.  Everything is considered to be replaceable.  Which means that nothing holds the same kind of weight, of importance, as it did even decades ago.  Is the notion of sanctity actually dead?  Or even today, in our modern, mostly secular North American communities, are we able to create and maintain sanctity of certain items?  If so, which ones?  Because that might be the most telling thing of all.  What is sacred today?

But I digress.  The third section of today's daf is the beginning of Perek III (finally), which begins with a new Mishna.  We are taught that if a man tells another man to betroth a woman on his behalf and the agent betroths the woman himself, she is betrothed to the first man.  Similarly, if a man tells a woman that she is betrothed to him in thirty days and another man tries to betroth her within that time period, she is betrothed to the first man.  She is fully betrothed and if she has been engaged to a priest, she may partake of teruma.  The Mishna then contradicts itself and suggests that such betrothals are uncertain.  The Gemara begins to address this quandary, speaking about deceit.