💾 Archived View for scholasticdiversity.us.to › scriptures › jewish › t › Mishnah%20Gittin%204 captured on 2024-06-16 at 13:42:23. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
4 ‎[1] In the case of **one who sends a bill of divorce to his wife** with an agent, **and he reached the agent, or where he sent** another **agent after him, and he said to** the agent delivering the bill of divorce: **The bill of divorce that I gave you, it is void,** then **this** bill of divorce **is hereby void.** Similarly, if the husband reached **his wife before** the bill of divorce reached her, **or** in a case **where he sent an agent to her, and he said,** or had the agent say, **to** his wife: **The bill of divorce that I sent to you, it is void,** then **this** bill of divorce **is hereby void.** However, **if** he stated this **once the bill of divorce had entered her possession, he can no longer render it void,** as the divorce had already taken effect.
‎[2] The mishna relates that **initially,** a husband who wished to render the bill of divorce void **would convene a court elsewhere and render** the bill of divorce **void** in the presence of the court before it reached his wife. **Rabban Gamliel the Elder instituted** an ordinance **that one should not do this, for the betterment of the world.** The Gemara will explain what this means. **Initially,** the husband **would change his name and her name,** from the names by which they were known where they formerly lived to the names by which they were known where the bill of divorce was written, and write **the name of his city and the name of her city.** One was not required to list all of the names by which the husband and the wife were known, but only the names in the place where the bill of divorce was being written. **Rabban Gamliel the Elder instituted that** the scribe **should write** in the bill of divorce: The **man so-and-so, and any** other **name that he has,** and: The **woman so-and-so, and any** other **name that she has.** The reason for this ordinance was **for the betterment of the world,** as perhaps the people of a different city would not recognize the name written in the bill of divorce, and would claim that this bill of divorce does not belong to her.
‎[3] **A widow can collect** payment of her marriage contract **from the property of orphans only by** means of **an oath** that she did not receive any part of the payment of the marriage contract during her husband’s lifetime. The mishna relates: The courts **refrained from administering an oath to her,** leaving the widow unable to collect payment of her marriage contract. **Rabban Gamliel the Elder instituted that she should take, for** the benefit of **the orphans, any vow that** the orphans **wished** to administer to her, e.g., that all produce will become prohibited to her if she received any payment of her marriage contract, **and** after stating this vow, she **collects** payment of **her marriage contract.** The mishna lists additional ordinances that were instituted for the betterment of the world: **The witnesses sign** their names **on the bill of divorce,** even though the bill of divorce is valid without their signatures, **for the betterment of the world,** as the Gemara will explain. **And Hillel instituted a document that prevents the Sabbatical** Year **from abrogating an outstanding debt [*prosbol*] for the betterment of the world,** as the Gemara will explain.
‎[4] In the case of a Canaanite **slave that was captured, and** Jews who had not owned him **redeemed him, if** he was redeemed **to be a slave** then **he will be a slave. If** he was redeemed **to be a freeman** then **he will not be a slave. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: Both in this** case **and in that** case **he will be a slave.** In the case of **a slave whose master set him aside as designated repayment** [***apoteiki***] of a debt **to other** people from whom he borrowed money, **and** afterward **he emancipated him,** then **according to the letter of the law the slave bears no** responsibility for the debt. **However, for the betterment of the world, his master is forced to make him a freeman, and** the slave **writes** a promissory **note for his value** to pay the debt to the creditor. **Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: He does not write** a promissory note; **he only emancipates** the slave.
‎[5] In the case of **one who is a half-slave half-freeman** because only one of his two owners emancipated him, **he serves his master one day and** serves **himself one day;** this is **the statement of Beit Hillel. Beit Shammai say:** Through such an arrangement **you have remedied his master,** as his master loses nothing through this. However, **you have not remedied** the slave **himself,** as the slave himself remains in an unsustainable situation. **It is not possible** for him **to marry a maidservant** because **he is already a half-freeman,** as it is prohibited for a freeman to marry a maidservant. **It is** also **not possible** for him to marry **a free woman, as he is still a half-slave.** If you say **he should be idle** and not marry, **but isn’t it** true that **the world was created only for procreation, as it is stated: “He did not create it to be a waste; He formed it to be inhabited”** (Isaiah 45:18)? **Rather, for the betterment of the world his master is forced to make him a freeman, and** the slave **writes** a promissory **note** accepting his responsibility to pay **half his value** to his master. **And Beit Hillel** ultimately **retracted** their opinion, **to rule in accordance with the statement of Beit Shammai,** that a half-slave must be set free.
‎[6] In a case of **one who sells his slave to gen-tiles, or** even **to** a Jew **outside of Eretz** Yisrael, the slave **is emancipated.** Since the slave, who is partially obligated in the fulfillment of mitzvot, would be restricted in his ability to fulfill them in his new situation, either because he would be under the authority of a gentile or because he will no longer be in Eretz Yisrael, the Sages penalized his original owner that he should become a freeman, so that if he succeeds in escaping his new owner, he is a full-fledged freeman. **The captives are not redeemed** for **more than their** actual monetary **value, for the betterment of the world; and one may not aid the captives** in their attempt to **escape** from their captors **for the betterment of the world,** so that kidnappers will not be more restrictive with their captives to prevent them from escaping. **Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: For the betterment of the captives,** so that kidnappers will not avenge the escape of the captives by treating other captives with cruelty. **And** Torah **scrolls, phylacteries, or *mezuzot* are not purchased from the gentiles** when they acquire these objects, if they request **more than their** actual monetary **value,** **for the betterment of the world,** so as not to cause an increase in the theft of sacred Jewish ritual objects in order to sell them for large sums of money.
‎[7] A man **who divorces his wife due to** her **bad reputation,** i.e., he heard that she had committed adultery, **may not remarry** her, even if it becomes clear that she did not in fact commit adultery. Similarly, if one divorces his wife **due to a vow** that she took, and he could not live with her under the conditions of her vow, **he may not remarry** her. **Rabbi Yehuda says:** If he divorces her due to **any vow that the public was aware of, he may not remarry** her, **but** if he divorces her due to a vow **that the public was not aware of, he may remarry** her. The mishna continues: **Rabbi Meir says:** If he divorces her due to **any vow that requires investigation** and dissolution **by a halakhic authority, he may not bring remarry** her, **but** if he divorces her due to a vow **that does not require investigation** and dissolution **by a halakhic authority,** and is dissolved even without that, **he may bring remarry** her. **Rabbi Elazar said: They prohibited** him from remarrying her in **this** case, where she stated a vow that requires dissolution by a halakhic authority, **only due to that** case, where she stated a vow that does not require dissolution by a halakhic authority. **Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Yehuda, said:** There was **an incident in Tzaidan involving one** man **who said to his wife:** It is ***konam*,** i.e., it is forbidden like an offering, **if I do not divorce you, and he divorced her; and the Sages permitted him to remarry** her **for the betterment of the world.**
‎[8] With regard to **one who divorces his wife because** she is **a sexually underdeveloped woman** who is incapable of bearing children [***ailonit***], meaning that after their marriage it became clear that she was sexually underdeveloped, **Rabbi Yehuda says: He may not remarry** her, **and the Rabbis say: He may remarry** her. If, after he divorced her, this *ailonit* **married another** man **and had children from him,** meaning that she was not actually an *ailonit*, **and she is demanding** payment of **her marriage contract** from her first husband, claiming that he unlawfully divorced her without paying her marriage contract as he claimed that she was an *ailonit* and their marriage was a mistaken transaction, **Rabbi Yehuda said** that **he** may **say to her: Your silence is preferable to your speech,** meaning that it is preferable for her to withdraw her claim. If she persists, he may say that he divorced her only because he believed her to be an *ailonit*, casting aspersions on the validity of the divorce and the status of her children. Therefore, it would be wise of her to withdraw her claim.
‎[9] With regard to **one who sells himself and his children** as slaves **to gentiles, he is not redeemed, but the children are redeemed after their father’s death,** as there is no reason to penalize them. **One who sells his field to a gentile must purchase and bring** the **first fruits from** the field that he sold, **for the betterment of the world.**
Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor
Version: William Davidson Edition - English
Source: https://korenpub.com/collections/the-noe-edition-koren-talmud-bavli-1
License: CC-BY-NC