Gittin - Daf 35
- Why Beis Din refrained from making a widow swear before collecting her kesubah
On the previous Daf, the Mishnah taught that Beis Din refrained from allowing a widow to swear before collecting her kesubah (that it wasn’t prepaid), until Rabban Gamliel decreed that the widow vows whatever the orphans wish and collects her kesubah. The Gemara relates the incident that led to this: A man once deposited a gold dinar with a widow, who later accidentally baked it into bread, and gave it to a poor person. Later, when he asked for the dinar and she could not find it, she swore: יהנה סם המות באחד מבניה של אותה אשה – “May the potion of death effect one of my children, אם נהניתי מדינרך כלום – if I have benefited anything from your dinar!” Shortly after, one of her children died, and the Gemara explains that she benefited by saving the amount of flour that the dinar displaced. The Chachomim said: מה מי שנשבע באמת כך – If such severe punishment befalls one who swore truthfully, meaning that she intended to swear truthfully (being unaware of her benefit), הנשבע על שקר על אחת כמה וכמה – then how much more so one who swears falsely! The Gemara asks that if this is the reason they stopped making her swear, it should apply equally to a divorcee collecting, yet Shmuel said a divorcee does swear!? The Gemara answers that a widow, who toils to care for the orphans, is more likely to rationalize swearing (falsely) that she has not collected, feeling entitled to payment for her efforts.
- Can a widow vow to collect after she remarries?
The Mishnah taught that Rabban Gamliel decreed that the widow vows whatever the orphans wish (conditional to her kesubah being prepaid) and collects her kesubah. Rav Huna says: לא שנו אלא בשלא ניסת – This was only taught where she has not remarried, אבל ניסת אין מדירין אותה – but if she remarried, we do not have her vow, and she cannot collect her kesubah. The vow does not prove anything, because her second husband can revoke it (as opposed to a vow before marriage, which he cannot revoke). Rav Nachman argues and says אפילו ניסת – she may vow to collect even after she is remarried, because the vow is made publicly, in front of ten people, and he holds that a neder made publicly cannot be revoked by the husband. Rav Huna is challenged from a Baraisa which says she can vow to collect even after remarrying, and answers that it is a machlokes Tannaim, based on whether a neder made publicly can be revoked.
- Machlokes if one must detail a neder for a chochom’s heter
An inquiry was made: צריך לפרט את הנדר או אינו צריך – When one comes to a chochom to annul his neder, does he have to detail the circumstances under which the neder was made, or does he not have to detail them? Rav Nachman says he does not have to and explains that if you will say he does have to, זימנין דגייז ליה לדיבוריה – sometimes he will cut out some of the details of his account, וחכם מאי דשמע מיפר – and the heter will be invalid, because the chochom annuls according to what he hears, which is deficient. Rather, he only tells the chochom what his neder was, and the chochom can annul it. Rav Pappa says one must detail his neder to a chochom, משום מילתא דאיסורא – because the neder may have been to prevent a prohibited matter, such as our case of potential theft. It is therefore critical that the chochom is informed about the cause of the neder.
