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Kesuvos Chapter 4, Mishnah 4: A Father's and Husband's Rights

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Chapter 4, Mishnah 4. This mishnah details the monetary rights a father has in his daughter - during her minority and during her na'arus - and, in contrast, the rights and obligations that fall upon the husband once she marries.

The father's rights in his daughter:

The father has rights in his daughter both in her minority, while she is young in years, and in her na'arus - the first six months after she reaches maturity. These are his rights:

  • "Bekiddusheha bekesef, bishtar uvevi'ah" - the three methods of kiddushin that apply to every woman: money, a document (a document in which the husband writes, "With this document I betroth your daughter") and marital relations. The father may betroth her by any of these three methods, and in kiddushin by money it is he who receives the money. Even when she is betrothed by document or by relations, if the husband gives money, the money is handed over to the father.

  • "Bimetzi'asah" - any object she finds belongs to the father. This right is a rabbinic enactment instituted to prevent ill will, lest he bear a grudge against her and refrain from supporting her, since he has no real legal obligation to provide for her.

  • "Bema'aseh yadeha" - this is derived from the passage of the Hebrew maidservant: since the father is permitted to sell his daughter, and just as the earnings of a Hebrew maidservant belong to her master, so too the daughter's earnings belong to her father. And although that verse dealing with her sale speaks of a minor, since he cannot sell her once she is a na'arah, they derived from a verse that the law includes a na'arah as well.

  • "Uvehafaras nedareha" - as is stated explicitly in the Torah in Parashas Matos.

  • "Umekabel es gitah" - if her husband divorces her, the get can be placed in the father's hand rather than in hers.

"Ve'eino ochel peiros bechayeha":

Here the mishnah limits his rights. The case is one in which the daughter inherited property from her mother - an orchard, for example - which the mother had received from her own father as an only daughter. The parents are no longer married, so the father does not inherit from his wife, and the property passes by inheritance from the deceased mother to the daughter. In such a case the father does not consume the produce and does not benefit from the yield of what his daughter inherited.

The husband's rights and obligations:

Once she marries, the husband acquires the same rights the father had, insofar as they are relevant: her found objects, her earnings and the annulment of her vows. But the husband has more than the father had - "shehu ochel peiros bechayeha": he consumes the produce and benefits from the property she received by inheritance. On the other hand, obligations fall upon him:

  • "Bimezonoseha" - he is obligated by law to support her with food, clothing and housing.

  • "Befirkonah" - he is obligated to redeem her if she is taken captive.

  • "Uvikevurasah" - if she dies, he is obligated to bury her.

The Gemara cites a beraisa that explains the correspondence between the rights and the obligations: the Sages instituted the obligation of support in exchange for her earnings, the obligation of redemption in exchange for the produce he enjoys from her property, and the obligation of burial in exchange for the kesubah, that is, the dowry recorded in it.

Rabbi Yehudah on the law of burial:

Regarding this last halachah, the obligation of burial, Rabbi Yehudah says: "Afilu ani shebeYisrael lo yifchos mishnei chalilim umekonenes" - two musical instruments, and a woman hired to fill part of the role of the eulogy: not to deliver the eulogy itself, but to sound certain cries that are part of the eulogizing process.

The Gemara explains what Rabbi Yehudah comes to add: if it was her family's custom to bring flutes and a wailing woman, even though it is not his family's custom, even the first tanna agrees that he must do so for her, since this is her family's custom, and we have a principle that she does not descend with him. That is, if his family's practice is less than that, she does not go down on his account.

Rabbi Yehudah comes to add that she also rises with him: if his family's custom is to include these elements at a funeral while her own custom is not, she rises with him and benefits from the higher level of eulogy. For one might have thought that a woman rises with her husband and benefits from his family's superior customs only during her lifetime, but not after her death. Rabbi Yehudah teaches that even after her passing, and even in matters relating to this situation, she rises with him: if the flutes and the wailing woman are his family's custom and not hers, she rises with him and receives this practice as well.

In summary: in this mishnah we learned the father's rights in his daughter - in her betrothal by money, document or relations, in her found objects (to prevent ill will), in her earnings (derived from the Hebrew maidservant), in the annulment of her vows and in receiving her get - and the limitation that he does not consume the produce during her lifetime. Against these we examined the husband's rights, including consuming the produce, and his obligations of support, redemption and burial, which were instituted in exchange for her earnings, the produce and the kesubah. Finally we learned Rabbi Yehudah's novel teaching regarding the two flutes and the wailing woman: that even after her death a woman rises with her husband.