Sunday, 15 May 2016

Kiddushin 64: On Fathers Betrothing Their Daughters

Today's daf discusses three Mishnayot.  Each of them teaches us about fathers betrothing their daughters.

In the first Mishna, we learn that fathers are deemed credible when they speak about the marital status of their minor daughters.  However, when they speak about their daughters who are already bogeret, women eligible to be married as adult women. fathers are not deemed credible.  In part, the Gemara explores some of the reasons that fathers might speak falsely about their daughters who are adult women.  We are reminded of the power that fathers have over their daughters - and the ways that adult daughters hold power on their own.  For example, in arranging their own betrothals.

Our second Mishna teaches us that on his deathbed, a man is believed if he says that he has children. He is not believed if he says that he has brothers.  The Gemara teaches that this is not about inheritance but about chalitza.  Normally a childless married man knows that his wife will marry one of his brothers if he dies.  To nullify that obligation, the couple must be divorced before he dies, parents, or otherwise ineligible for chalitza.  A husband who wishes to manipulate the rules of chalitza might state that he has otherwise unknown children or brothers.

Our final Mishna tells us that a man must be careful about remembering whom he betroths.  A man might says that he has betrothed his eldest - or his youngest - daughter, but he has two sets of daughters with two different women. Which daughter is the eldest in this case?  Which is the youngest?  The Gemara debates some of the possible meanings of such betrothals.  For the most part, unsure betrothals are considered to be invalid.

The rabbis are limiting the power of men and women who attempt to use the halachot to better their own personal standing to the detriment of the larger system of halacha.

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