Resources for Kesubos daf 57
1. The גמרא says that if a woman loses her כתובה, רבי מאיר says the husband must replace the כתובה and the חכמים say he can continue to live with her without a new כתובה. The גמרא says we pasken like ר"מ בגזירותיו. The word “בגזירותיו” is not so clear. רש"י in ד"ה בגזירותיו says it means we pasken like ר"מ anytime he is מחמיר by איסור והיתר through a גזרה. The ריטב"א in ד"ה ד"ה אמר ליה אביי says that the word גזרה usually doesn’t refer to that. A גזרה is when you say don’t do “A” because it will lead you to do “B” and that is not the case here. However, the ריטב"א says there is an aspect of גזרה here in that in our case his תנאי is בטל but it can be a גזרה ﭏטו a case where his תנאי isn’t בטל or אטו a case where she wouldn’t get her כתובה if she loses it. The פּני יהושע doesn’t like this answer since the חכמים argue with ר"מ even if she wouldn’t get her כתובה so it wouldn’t be correct to call it גזירותיו when contrasting it to the חכמים. Therefore, he says a new פּשט which is an important יסוד in the whole סוגיא: The concept that רבי מאיר says that someone who lives with their wife without a כתובה is considered a בעילת זנות is based on the following: חז"ל understood that some people would look for a woman for זנות reasons and try to convince her to marry him and offer her a כתובה, all the while figuring he will find some way to get out of paying her so he can divorce her right away with no issues. Therefore חז"ל said anyone who doesn’t have a כתובה is considered a בעילת זנות, and that is the “גזרה” of רבי מאיר. This helps explains another basic question: ר"מ holds his דין even if you are just פּוחת לבתולה. Meaning if you only give a בתולה $100 it is a בעילת זנות. The פּני יהושע asks that if the whole point of a כתובה is שלא תהא קלה בעיניו להוציאה, then why is the $100 you give the בתולה not enough? It’s enough for an אלמנה! Rather, the יסודof everything is that we don’t want someone looking to get out of the marriage cheap because then we are concerned that he only got married for זנות.
The רמב"ם in הלכות אישות פּרק י"ב הל׳ ח paskens like רבי מאיר completely, not just בגזירותיו. He says that even if someone makes a תנאי with his wife to give her less than the full amount, and even if she writes to him התקבלתי, the תנאי is still בטל and it’s a בעילת זנות. If theרמב"ם just paskend likeר"מ in his גזירותיו, then it would be a בעילת זנות but the תנאי would be קיים. Why would the רמב"ם pasken so fully like ר"מ? Also, the רמב"ם paskens in general that by a דבר שבממון the תנאי is קיים , so why can’t it be קיים here? The חזון אי"ש in אבן העזר סימן ס"ה אות ה answers a different פּשט than the פּני יהושע in גזירותיו but along a similar line: he says that the reason a person can normally be מוחל any זכות they are entitled to is because the זכות was only created for their benefit so if they don’t want the money or זכות they don’t need to take it. However, חז"ל understood that if there isn’t a כתובה then the marriage won’t be happy and secure so they didn’t allow people to be מוחל it, and that is ר"מ בגזירותיו.
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