Kesubos 20b

כתובות כ׳ ע״ב

Ketubot 20b

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Topic

Reminding a forgetful witness, the משנה about dirt mounds that may hide a grave and how long people remember, and a new משנה on witnesses confirming their own signatures.

Overview

The עמוד opens by finishing a discussion about witnesses who forgot their testimony. A צורבא מרבנן may be reminded even by the litigant himself, because he testifies only from his own real memory, as the story of רב אשי and רב כהנא shows. The גמרא then quotes a משנה in אהלות about dirt mounds that may hide a grave, where רבי מאיר and רבי יהודה disagree about what counts as 'near' and 'old.' Reading 'city' and 'path' as any city or path would clash with ריש לקיש's rule that the חכמים leaned toward treating ארץ ישראל as טהור. רבי זירא answers that the משנה means a city or path next to a בית הקברות. רבי חנינא explains that women bury stillborn babies, and people with שחין bury fallen-off limbs, in mounds close to the city, so we still do not presume טומאה in ארץ ישראל. רב חסדא tries to learn from רבי מאיר that testimony is remembered for only sixty years. The גמרא rejects this, because a witness who is responsible for his testimony remembers far longer. A new משנה then asks when witnesses are believed to confirm their own signatures on a שטר, with רבי and the חכמים disagreeing, and the גמרא's analysis of רבי's view continues on the next עמוד.

Opening lines

The steps (16)

1. StatementA Torah scholar may be reminded even by the litigant
2. Proofרב אשי forgets, then remembers, testimony for רב כהנא
3. Conclusionרב אשי: I remembered on my own
4. StatementThe משנה about dirt mounds that may hide a grave
5. QuestionWhat do 'city' and 'path' mean here?
6. ChallengeAny city or path would clash with ריש לקיש
7. Resolutionרבי זירא: a city or path next to the cemetery
8. ChallengeThe path makes sense, but why the city?
9. ResolutionWhy people bury in mounds near the city
10. ConclusionThe general rule of no presumed impurity still stands
11. StatementLearning a sixty-year memory limit from רבי מאיר
12. RejectionRejecting the sixty-year rule for testimony
13. StatementNew משנה: each witness confirms both signatures
14. Statementרבי: each confirms only himself, so a third witness is needed
15. Statementחכמים: a person is believed about his own signature
16. StatementThe גמרא begins analyzing רבי's view