Resources for Kesubos daf 44
1. The גמרא says that if someone wrote a שטר at one time and then wrote the שטר again a few months later, the second שטר annuls the first one. The גמרא brings two reasons for this: either because the buyer is admitting that the first שטר was false or because he is being מוחל the שעבוד of the first זמן. If we adopt the reasoning of רפרם that he is admitting the שטר is false, the גמרא says that this would mean that the עדים have been discredited. The ראשונים all ask how this buyer has the power to ruin the נאמנות of the עדים? תוספות, the ר"ן, and other ראשונים answer that these עדים are now פּסול forever but only for this person alone. The ריטב"א has a fascinating שיטה that says even for this person, the עדים are only פּסול for anything written for him from the time of the first שטר and beforehand. However, anything written from the time of the first שטר and onward by the same עדים is still good since we would say that עדים did תשובה since then and signed the subsequent שטרות בכשרות. There is a משנה למלך in הלכות שחיטה, פּרק א׳ הל׳ כ"ו that quotes a מהרי"ק who was asked about an עד אחד who said he saw a certain שוחט shechted badly, if that עד אחד can ever eat from the שוחט’s שחיטה ever again? For everyone else there was only one עד but for this person perhaps the שוחט should be disqualified? The מהרי"ק responded that we don’t say שויה אנפשה חתיכה דאיסורא by a person since just because the person shechted badly once doesn’t mean he will shecht badly in the future. The משנה למלך argues with this and says that if two witnesses saw the man shecht badly we would say the שוחט is disqualified forever, so for this man it is no different and we should say שויה אנפשה חתיכה דאיסורא. He proves it from our גמרא! After all, the ר"ן said that for seller the two עדים are פּסול forever, so you see we do say שויה אנפשה חתיכה דאיסורא by people. He does not mention that the ריטב"א disagrees with that and says we would not assume they stay פּסול forever which may be the שיטה of the מהרי"ק. רבי עקיבא איגר there on the side of theרמב"ם says that there is no proof from the ר"ן in our גמרא anyway since by עדים even if they happen to tell the truth the next time, once they are פּסול for signing falsely it is isn’t considered an עדות at all. However, if the person happens to shecht correctly the next time it is a שחיטה כשרה. The שער המשפּט in סימן צ"ב ס"ק ז makes a different חילוק. He says that by שחיטה the שוחט can be trusted even in regards to the עד אחד because of a ספק ספיקא: maybe he did תשובה from last time and even if he didn’t maybe he happened to shecht correctly this time anyway. However, you can’t use עדים based on a ספק ספקא (maybe they did תשובה and even if they didn’t maybe they happen to be telling the truth) since the whole point of עדים is to prove the truth.
2. The גמרא says that if the first שטר was a מכר and the second שטר was a מתנה then the second שטר does not annul the first שטר since the seller just wrote it to get himself out of having to sell it to the בר מצרא. תוספות in ד"ה משום says that he will have to hide the first שטר since if ב"ד will insist on the seller selling it to the בר מצרא since it will be considered a מתנה with אחריות. The גר"א in סימן ר"מ in אות ו says that even without that reason ב"ד will see both they will insist on giving it to the בר מצרא since it is obviously a scam and it was really a מכר and not a מתנה. This brings us to an obvious question which is asked by the פּרישה there in אות ב--why is ב"ד giving this guy a way to cheat the system and get out of doing the right thing by telling him to hide the שטר and not annulling the second one? (ע"ש מה שתירץ). The נתיבות in אות א answers that of course you aren’t supposed to do this. The חכמים are talking about a case where in truth the second שטר is correct and it really is a מתנה. If that isn’t the truth then it is אסור to pretend otherwise.
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