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Kesubos 40b

כתובות מ׳ ע״ב

Ketubot 40b

Learn Kesubos 40b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

בושת and פגם in אונס, who receives them and how פגם is measured, and the משנה on מכר and קנס by age

Overview

The amud opens by finishing the search for a source that the attacker in an אונס case pays בושת and פגם on top of the fixed fifty-סלע קנס. אביי rejects רבי זירא's logical proofs by comparing to the fixed thirty for a slave, and then אביי and רבא each prove it from the פסוק. The גמרא asks why these payments go to the father and not the girl. It tries the פסוק 'בנעוריה בית אביה', limits it to vows, rejects learning from איסור or from קנס, and settles on logic: the father controls whom she marries. Next, the גמרא explains how פגם is measured: by the price gap between a virgin and a non-virgin maidservant bought as a wife for a slave the master is pleased with. A new משנה then teaches that sale and קנס never apply to the same girl: a קטנה can be sold, a נערה gets a קנס, and a בוגרת has neither. רב says this is only רבי מאיר's view, and a ברייתא shows that חכמים give a קנס even to a קטנה from three years and a day. Each side's source is explained, and the amud ends with a discussion of ריש לקיש's teaching about the full and short spellings of 'נערה'.

Opening lines

מַעֲשֵׂה מַחַט — שְׁלֹשִׁים?!

one who does needlework — thirty?!

אֶלָּא אָמַר רַבִּי זֵירָא:

Rather, Rabbi Zeira said:

אִילּוּ בָּאוּ עָלֶיהָ שְׁנַיִם,

If two men had forced themselves on her,

אֶחָד כְּדַרְכָּהּ, וְאֶחָד שֶׁלֹּא כְּדַרְכָּהּ,

one in the normal way, and one in an unnatural way,

The steps (32)

  1. RejectionEven a slave who does simple needlework is worth thirty
  2. Proofרבי זירא's second proof: two attackers
  3. Rejectionאביי: the same is true of a healthy slave and a sick slave
  4. Proofאביי's proof from 'because he tormented her'
  5. Proofרבא's proof from 'the man who lay with her'
  6. ChallengeMaybe the extra payments go to the girl
  7. ResolutionAll the gains of a young girl go to her father
  8. ChallengeIf the youth פסוק covers everything, why did רב need the maidservant פסוק?
  9. ResolutionThe youth פסוק is only about canceling vows
  10. RejectionWe cannot learn money laws from ritual laws
  11. RejectionWe cannot learn money laws from a fine
  12. ConclusionLogic: the father gets the payments because he controls her marriage
  13. StatementThe משנה: measure פגם as if she were a maidservant being sold
  14. QuestionHow exactly do we estimate her value?
  15. Responseאבוה דשמואל: compare a virgin and non-virgin maidservant bought for service
  16. ChallengeFor serving him, what difference does it make?
  17. ResolutionRather: the buyer wants her as a wife for his slave
  18. ChallengeWhy would the master care what wife his slave gets?
  19. ResolutionA slave the master is pleased with
  20. StatementNew משנה: sale and fine never go together
  21. Statementרב: the משנה follows רבי מאיר only
  22. ProofProof from a ברייתא showing the dispute
  23. ChallengeDo חכמים deny that a father can sell her?
  24. ResolutionCorrect the wording: a fine even where there is sale
  25. Questionרב חסדא asks for רבי מאיר's reason
  26. Responseרבי מאיר's verse: she must be able to marry herself
  27. QuestionWhat is חכמים's reason?
  28. Responseריש לקיש: 'נער' is written without the ה
  29. Statementרב פפא reports the teaching to רב שימי בר אשי
  30. StatementAnother version: ריש לקיש was speaking about מוציא שם רע
  31. ChallengeA minor is excluded anyway, because she cannot be stoned
  32. ResolutionThe full spelling here is a model for the short spelling elsewhere