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Kesubos 38a

כתובות ל״ח ע״א

Ketubot 38a

Learn Kesubos 38a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Why כל חרם is needed for one who is executed, and whether a betrothed-and-divorced נערה gets a קנס

Overview

The amud opens by asking why the פסוק of כל חרם is needed to teach that someone who deserves death does not pay money for the same act. The first suggestion is a killing done with a downward motion, and רמי בר חמא suggests blinding an eye and then killing with a separate blow. רבא rejects both, because teachings of the school of חזקיה already cover them. רב אשי then says the פסוק teaches that even a קנס is not paid by someone who is executed. For רבה, who holds that a קנס is paid even then, the פסוק teaches the lesson of the תנא קמא who argues with רבי חנניא בן עקביא. A new משנה follows about a נערה who was betrothed and divorced and then violated. רבי יוסי הגלילי says she gets no קנס, and רבי עקיבא says she does and it goes to her. The גמרא shows how each reads "אשר לא אורשה", challenges רבי עקיבא, and brings a ברייתא where he uses those words for a גזירה שוה between אונס and מפתה. The amud ends by asking רבי עקיבא why he gives "אשר לא אורשה" to the גזירה שוה and "בתולה" to the exclusion, and the answer comes on the next amud.

Opening lines

הָנֵי מִילֵּי,

This applies only

הֵיכָא דַּהֲרָגוֹ דֶּרֶךְ עֲלִיָּיה,

where he killed him with an upward motion,

שֶׁלֹּא נִיתְּנָה שִׁגְגָתוֹ לְכַפָּרָה.

whose unintentional form was not given atonement.

אֲבָל הֲרָגוֹ דֶּרֶךְ יְרִידָה,

But if he killed him with a downward motion,

The steps (17)

  1. ResolutionThe verse is needed for a killing done with a downward motion
  2. Rejectionרבא: this is already known from the school of חזקיה
  3. ProofThe comparison of striking an animal and striking a person
  4. Resolutionרמי בר חמא: the verse is needed for blinding and then killing with a different blow
  5. Rejectionרבא: this too is known from another teaching of the school of חזקיה
  6. Resolutionרב אשי: the verse is needed because a fine is a special rule
  7. QuestionWhat does רבה do with the verse?
  8. Responseרבה follows the תנא קמא
  9. Statementמשנה: a young woman who was betrothed and divorced
  10. Responseרבי יוסי הגלילי's source
  11. Responseרבי עקיבא's reading of the same words
  12. ChallengeChallenge: other exclusions in the verse mean no fine at all
  13. Resolutionרבי עקיבא needs the words for a different teaching
  14. ProofLogic shows the father gets the fine
  15. QuestionThen why does the verse need these words?
  16. ResponseThe words are free for a גזירה שוה
  17. ChallengeWhy did רבי עקיבא choose these words for the גזירה שוה?