Kesubos 70b

כתובות ע׳ ע״ב

Ketubot 70b

Learn Kesubos 70b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

How a husband's vow against his wife works, why the limit is thirty days, and why a פרנס who supports her is not his שליח.

Overview

The משנה says that if a husband makes a נדר forbidding his wife to benefit from him, he must appoint a פרנס for up to thirty days, and after that he must divorce her. The גמרא first asks how his vow can work at all if he owes her food. It settles on the case where he told her to live off her own earnings. Those earnings cover her basic needs, and the פרנס supplies small extras she had in her father's house and now demands because of the vow. The thirty-day limit exists because after that people hear about it and it shames her. A second answer says he vowed while she was an ארוסה whose wedding date had passed. A third answer, that she married him after the vow, is rejected. Then the גמרא asks how a פרנס is not simply the husband's שליח. רב הונא answers that the husband only announces 'whoever feeds her will not lose out,' and the גמרא defends this from a case in גיטין, from רבי אמי's fire rule, and from רבה's challenge from a משנה in נדרים. Finally it quotes that משנה in full, including the ways to help someone who may not benefit from you, and רבי יוסי's dissent, whose reason רבא begins to explain on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (36)

1. ResolutionWe treat it as if he told her to support herself
2. ChallengeA challenge from רב הונא's ruling
3. ResolutionRetraction: he actually told her to support herself
4. ChallengeThen why does she need a trustee?
5. ResolutionHer earnings are not enough
6. ChallengeThe original problem comes back
7. Resolutionרב אשי: enough for big things, not small things
8. ChallengeWhat are these small things?
9. ResolutionThings she had at home and gave up for him
10. QuestionWhy is thirty days the limit?
11. ResponseBefore thirty days people don't hear about it
12. ResolutionAnother answer: he made the vow while she was only betrothed
13. ChallengeDoes a betrothed woman even get food?
14. ResolutionThe wedding date arrived but they did not marry
15. ProofProof from a משנה that she eats from his food
16. QuestionIn this case, why thirty days?
17. ResponseAfter thirty days the go-between stops doing his job well
18. ResolutionA third answer: he vowed while she was betrothed, and then she married him
19. ChallengeShe married him knowing about the vow
20. ResolutionShe thought she could handle it, but now she can't
21. RejectionBlemishes are different from food
22. ConclusionBack to the original answers
23. ChallengeIsn't the provider just the husband's agent?
24. ResolutionHe only says: whoever feeds her will not lose out
25. ChallengeThe man in the pit: a general announcement can create agents
26. ResolutionA command versus a promise
27. ChallengeChallenge from the fire rule of רבי אמי
28. ResolutionThe fire rule only excludes other שבת prohibitions
29. Challengeרבה challenges from the storekeeper משנה
30. ResolutionThe משנה teaches the harder case
31. StatementThe משנה itself: the storekeeper case
32. StatementThe same rule for hired workers
33. StatementOn the road: give the food to a third person as a gift
34. StatementNo third person: declare the food ownerless
35. Statementרבי יוסי forbids the ownerless method
36. Statementרבא begins to explain רבי יוסי's reason