Resources for Nedarim 66

The משנה says that if a person makes a נדר to not marry a certain woman because she is ugly, dark, or short, and it turns out she isn’t, the נדר is הותר on its own without any פּתח. The גמרא says that רבי ישמעאל disagrees and says even if she was originally ugly, dark, or short but then somehow became beautiful, light, and tall later on, the נדר can be annulled. In explaining the חכמים, the ר"ן says that if the woman became beautiful later you cant be מתיר it even with a פּתח since it is considered נולד. The ר"ן asked on the previous דף how is this different than the prior משנה which said that if a person makes a נדר that he won’t marry a woman whose father is a רשע and then later that father does תשובה or dies that the הלכה is that the נדר can be annulled? He gave two answers: one is that it is שכיח for a person to do or do תשובה;iIt is not common for a woman to become beautiful when she was ugly. The second answers is that in the previous משנה he said he won’t marry this woman whose has a father who is bad which is explaining why you said you don’t want her which is like a תנאי. Our משנה, however, is talking about a case where he said he wont marry “ugly Rochel” which is not considered a תנאי. The רא"ש seems to have a completely different approach. The רא"ש understands that even ר׳ ישמעאל agrees that you cant be פּותח בנולד. However, our משנה isn’t a case of נולד. A woman who was ugly and then becomes beautiful was never really ugly at all—she just hadn’t been properly made up. There are several questions about this. First how far do you take this? What if she got a $20,000 plastic surgery? Is that also not considered נולד? Is that case any different than the gold tooth ר׳ ישמעאל gave her? Second, the קרן אורה asks how do you explain the other cases ר׳ ישמעאל mentions such as dark and became light, short and became tall? Were those woman also עומד to change like that? He answers that the woman who rose in height was a growing young lady, and the lady that became light is doable as well. ועדיין צ"ע.

The גמרא brings a story of a lady who thought her husband told her to hot בבא בן בוטא over the head with two candles and he told her that since she was just following her husband she should have two children like him. There is a strong question that jumps out: it is one thing to not be מקפּידon this lady; it is quite another to give her a nice ברכה. Wasn’t she wrong for having hit him over the head even if it was her husband’s will? There is an amazing חתם סופר here who says that בבא בן בוטא was a survivor of הורדוס’s massacre of תלמידי חכמים and when הורדוס wanted to do תשובה it was בבא בן בוטא who suggested that he build up the בית המקדש. After all, he had put out the light of the world, so he should rebuild the light of the world. The גמרא asks wasn’t דניאלpunished for giving נבוכדנצר the idea to give צדקה as a זכות for him? The גמרא in one answer says that he felt that only a king could rebuild the בית המקדש so he had no choice. Nonetheless, בבא בן בוטא felt it was a חטאto have given הורדוס that advice and brought a אשם תלוי every day as a קפּרה. In fact, the חתם סופר says that on the day הורדוס fixed up the בית המקדש there started to be מחלוקתbetween בית שמאי ובית הלל. All of this was because a נכרי had been involved in the rebuilding of the בית המקדש and Torah comes from there as it says כי מציון תצא תורה. It was for this reason that he felt the woman was right to hit him over the head with two candles since he had ruined the light of תורה ועבודה.