Kiddushin - Daf 70
- כל הנושא אשה לשום ממון
Rabbah bar bar Channah said: כל הנושא אשה שאינה הוגנת לו – Anyone who marries a woman who is not genealogically fit for him, מעלה עליו הכתוב – the Torah considers him כאילו חרשו לכל העולם כולו וזרעו מלח – as if he plowed the entire world and sowed it with salt, as the passuk says regarding people who could not identify their ancestry: ואלה העולים מתל מלח תל חרשא – and these are those who ascended from Tel Melach, Tel Charsah (darshened as the words חורש and מלח). Rav said: כל הנושא אשה לשום ממון – Anyone who marries a woman unfit for him for the sake of money, הויין לו בנים שאינן מהוגנים – he will have children who are unfit, which he supports from a pasuk. He further darshens that pasuk to add that he will lose any money he gained from her, as well as her own money, in as little as a month. The Gemara also says about one who marries a woman unfit for him: אליהו כופתו והקב"ה רוצעו – Eliyahu ties him, and Hashem whips him. A Tanna says that Eliyahu writes, and Hashem signs, about such people: אוי לו לפוסל את זרעו – Woe to him who disqualifies his children, ולפוגם את משפחתו – and who taints his family, ולנושא אשה שאינה הוגנת לו – and who marries a woman unfit for him.
- כל הפוסל פסול ואינו מדבר בשבחא לעולם, ואמר שמואל במומו פוסל
The above Tanna concludes: וכל הפוסל פסול – And anyone who declares others genealogically disqualified, is himself disqualified, ואינו מדבר בשבחא לעולם – and never speaks praises of others. Shmuel added: במומו פוסל – it is with his own blemish that he disqualifies others. The Gemara relates a story in which a man from Nehardea asked to purchase meat in a butcher shop in Pumbedisa. He was told to wait for the attendant of Rav Yehudah bar Yechezkel to take, and he reacted by denigrating Rav Yehudah, calling him Yehudah bar sheviskel” (implying, “the glutton”), after which Rav Yehudah placed a ban on him. When he was told the man regularly called people slaves, Rav Yehudah announced that the man himself was a slave (based on Shmuel’s principle, as Rav Yehudah later explained). The man summoned Rav Yehudah to court before Rav Nachman, and the Gemara relates how Rav Yehudah posed numerous challenges to Rav Nachman’s use of unusual language and practices.
- כל דאמר מדבית חשמונאי קאתינא עבדא הוא
After Rav Yehudah defended banning the man from Nehardea for demeaning his attendant, he explained that he declared him a slave based on Shmuel’s principle (that one disqualifies others with a blemish he himself possesses). The man objected to being called a slave, saying he was actually a descendant of the Chashmonaim. Rav Yehudah then quoted Shmuel: כל דאמר מדבית חשמונאי קאתינא עבדא הוא – Anyone who says, “I am from the family of the Chashmonaim,” is in fact a slave. Although his testimony could not be accepted (since it was given after the case arose), he told them Rav Masna agrees with him. Rav Masna, who had not been in Nehardea for thirteen years, arrived that day and confirmed the statement, adding that after Herod (a slave) massacred the family of the Chashmonaim, one maiden survived, climbed to the rooftop, and declared that anyone claiming to be a descendant of the Chashmonaim is actually a slave, whereupon she fell off the roof and died. The man was then declared to be a slave.
