Resources for Nedarim 86

The משנה says that if a person’s wife makes her husband אסור in getting הנאה from her, he must be מפיר that נדר even though she is משועבד to him because if they ever get divorced at a later date the נדר will be חל then. The reason that the נדר is חל is because נדרים are like הקדש and הקדש is מפקיע מידי שעבוד. The גמרא then asks that if so he should be אסור now! The ר"ן brings the גמרא in כתובות that answers the question by saying that the חכמים strengthened the husbands שעבוד so that it won’t be חל until after they are divorced.

The ר"ןpoints out that according to רש"י in כתובות, הקדש is only מפקיע מידי שעבוד by קדושת הגוף but not by קדושת דמים. (תוספות holds הקדש of any kind is מפקיע מידי שעבוד ). If so, our גמרא seems to be saying that קונמות are like קדושת הגוף. To fully understand this, we need to look back at דף ל"ה. The גמרא there had said that according to רבי מאיר, there is a concept of מעילה בקונמות. That means we view קונמות as a type of הקדש to the level that you even bring a קרבן מעילה if you accidentally use the item. The גמרא also says that if you make something אסור on the whole world, that is called a קונם כללי and then you can be פּודה the איסור away from the object by being מחלל the "קדושה" onto money, similar to קדושת דמים. However, if you only אסור something on a particular person, while there is still מעילה, you can't be פּודה it since the איסור is not strong enough to extend to others. This is similar to קדושת הגוף which has no פּדיון (although for a totally different reason, namely that the קדושה is too strong).

Based on this we can more fully understand our גמרא. In other words, if the lady had made her מעשה ידים to be אסור on the whole world, that would mean the husband could have simply been פּודה it, in which case it would be like קדושת דמים which is not מפקיע מידי שעבוד. However, since she made it אסור only on her husband, you can't be פּודה it so it is like קדושת הגוף which is מפקיע מידי שעבוד.

Further to the above, תוספות in כתובות דף נ"ט ע"ב ד"ה קונמות asks that if הקדש is מפקיע מידי שעבוד, and קונמות are like הקדש like our גמרא said, then every borrower can simply say his נכסים are אסור on the lender and thereby get out of ever repaying! תוספות answers that we must say that just like the גמרא says that the חכמים strengthened the שעבוד of the husband such that his wife cannot make her stuff הקדש on her husband, similarly there is a תקנה that a borrower cannot make his stuff הקדש on the lender. However, if someone makes a נדר that their stuff should be אסור on the world, then that is like קדושת דמים and according to רש"י it is not מפקיע מידי שעבוד anyway. However, the ר"ן had quoted ר"ת as holding all הקדש is מפקיע מידי שעבוד. Nonetheless, תוספות says (without mentioning the above explicitly) that there is no concern when it comes to someone making something אסור on the whole world since it does not help the borrower to make something אסור on the whole world because it is then just as useless to him as it is anyone else so he mind as well pay it, in which case there is no need for any special תקנה.