Resources for Kesubos daf 50
1. The גמרא famously quotes the תקנת אושא of המבזבז אל יבזבז יותר מחומש. There is an incredibly yesododik piece in the תורת זרעים on our דף י"א that redefines and helps clarify our גמרא. Our גמרא seems to be clear that the focal point of the תקנת אושא was in the negative. In other words: don’t give more than a fifth or else the person risks becoming an עני themselves. The ירושלמי in פּאה on the משנה of אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור says the opposite--that תקנת אושא was focused on the positive: you ought to give a fifth of your money לכתחילה. According to the בבלי there would seem to be an איסור to give more than a fifth whereas according to the ירושלמי the תקנת אושא is only telling you your חיוב of what you ought to give but there may be nothing wrong with giving more. What is even more striking is that the רמב"ם seems to contradict himself. Theרמב"ם in הלכות מתנות עניים פּרק ז הל׳ ה seems to pasken like the ירושלמי as he says there that if an עני asks you for charity and he needs more than you have you should give him up to a fifth למצוה מן המובחר. It sounds like a direct quote of the ירושלמי. He does not mention any איסור to give more than a fifth. Moreover, in the פּירוש המשנוית to that משנה in פּאה the רמב"ם says there is a מדת חסידות to give more than a fifth! However, in the end of הלכות ערכין the רמב"ם writes that a person should not spend more than a fifth of his money on מצוות and if he does he is a fool as it says כל המפזר אל יפזר יותר מחומש. That sounds like the בבלי! So how can he pasken like both when they are a contradiction?! The תורת זרעים answers that there were actually two תקנות and the בבלי and ירושלמי are talking about different תקנות and different cases. The ירושלמי is referring to a case where an עני asks you for צדקה. In that case you have a מצוה inf front of you and you should spend up to a fifth of your money and you can even spend more if you want. That was also the case the רמב"ם was discussing in הלכות מתנות עניים. The בבלי is discussing a case where one is not facing a poor person but is rather setting aside money to spend on charity in general. In that case one should not and may not set aside more than a fifth. That was what theרמב"ם was referring to in הלכות ערכין. The אהבת חסד in חלק ב סימן כ brings this תירוץ להלכה. Inאגרות משה או"ח חלק ה סימן מ"א Rav Moshe ז"ל says a יסוד which seems to go (at least partially) well with this מהלך. Rav Moshe ז"ל writes (based on שו"ע) that even though one does not need to spend more than a fifth on an אתרוג, one should spend much more than that to do פּדיון הבן (five סלעים for a super poor person might be more than a fifth). The חילוק is פּדיון הבן is a case where the spending of the money is the מצוה itself whereas buying the אתרוג is not the מצוה and is only necessary if you don’t have one so its more like a הכשר מצוה.
2. The גמרא says that רב gave some יתומות their מזונות from the מטלטלין of their father’s estate because of תקנת אושא which allows one to take “מן העלייה” which includes מטלטלין. רש"י in ד"ה או דילמא says that prior to this תקנת אושא, בית דין would not be able to take מטלטלין to give מזונות to the daughters because it is only a תנאי כתובה and תנאי כתובה are only collected from קרקע. The פּני יהושע asks on this רש"י that תנאי כתובה isn’t really the point. Even if you could collect a כתובה from מטלטלין you couldn’t collect it from יתומים because any loan owed by the father one cant collect from מטלטלין as we have a rule מטלטלי דיתמי לא משתעבדי. The פּני יהושע has a fascinating and crucial answer. He says that in reality the חיוב to support the daughters is not on the father but rather directly on the sons! The reason is that the חיוב only starts once the father is dead since it is a תנאי כתובה. Therefore, the only reason it wouldn’t have been able to be collected from מטלטלין is that it is a תנאי כתובה.
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