Kiddushin - Daf 74
- Limitations on the believability of a seller or judge
It was taught in a Baraisa that where two people are arguing over who bought an item, the seller is believed to identify the true buyer. This is only where the merchandise is still in the seller’s possession, because it is his responsibility to complete the transaction and give it to the buyer, and so is careful to remember him. Once it left his possession, he is no longer granted special believability, because he is less careful to remember the buyer once he fulfilled his responsibility. Although he would remember who paid him, the case is where he received money from both, but says: חד מדעתאי וחד בעל כורחי – “I received money from one willingly, and from one against my will.” Similarly, a judge is believed to say: לזה זכיתי ולזה חייבתי – I ruled in favor of this one, and against that one, but only when the litigants are before him, and he is responsible to remember his decision. After they left, he is no longer believed, since he is not responsible to remember his verdict. He cannot simply rejudge the case, because the case was a ruling of שודא דדייני – a ruling based on the judge’s discretion, and he may rule differently the next time.
- Abba Shaul’s ruling that a shetuki is a “בדוקי” – an “examined one”
The Mishnah on Daf 69a taught that Abba Shaul called a shetuki a בדוקי – an examined one. The Gemara asks that if this means שבודקין את אמו – that we ask his mother, ואומרת לכשר נבעלתי נאמנת – and if she says, “I had relations with a genealogically fit person, she is believed, this is merely a repetition of Rabban Gamliel’s position, who taught that an unmarried pregnant woman is believed to identify the father as being one of pure lineage (Rebbe Yehoshua disagreed)!? The Gemara suggests that Rabban Gamliel only ruled the mother fit (for a Kohen), but not her daughter, and Abba Shaul rules even the daughter fit. However, since there is an opinion that לדברי המכשיר בה מכשיר בבתה – the opinion (i.e., Rabban Gamliel) that rules her fit also rules her daughter fit, the Gemara answers instead that Rabban Gamliel’s ruling was דרוב כשרין אצלה – where most of the men of the city are fit in relation to her (i.e., her child from them would be fit for Kehunah), but Abba Shaul says she is believed even where most people of the city would render her child unfit for Kehunah.
- כל האסורין לבא בקהל מותרים לבא זה בזה
The next Mishnah teaches: כל האסורין לבא בקהל – All those forbidden to enter the congregation, מותרים לבא זה בזה – are permitted to marry one another. For example, a mamzer and shetuki (uncertain mamzer) may marry one another. Rebbe Yehudah forbids them. Rebbe Elazar says: ודאן בודאן מותר – those whose prohibition to the congregation is certain are permitted to those whose prohibition to the congregation is certain (such as mamzerim with nesinim), but safek mamzerim cannot marry a certain mamzer (for example), nor a safek one. Since the permit for a mamzer with a shetuki was already taught on Daf 69, and Rebbe Yehudah’s opinion would appear identical to Rebbe Elazar’s, the Gemara proceeds to suggest numerous interpretations of the Mishnah and disproves them, until Rava ultimately explains: גר עמוני ומואבי איכא בינייהו – An Ammonite or Moabite convert is the difference between them, and they are the ones “forbidden to enter the congregation” that the Mishnah permits to marry other such people, such as mamzerim. Even Rebbe Yehudah, who prohibits converts to marry mamzerim, would agree that these converts (who are prohibited to legitimate Jews) are permitted to mamzerim, and the Gemara concludes that first part of the Mishnah is all one opinion.
