Kesubos, Chapter 9, Mishnah 9. This mishnah continues the subject discussed in the previous mishnayos: a dispute between husband and wife over whether the kesubah has already been paid.
"Hotzi'ah get v'ein imo kesubah":
A woman who holds a get attesting that she was divorced, but who does not hold a kesubah document - for instance, in a place where the custom is not to write a kesubah, and its existence is simply assumed on the basis of the marriage itself - "goveh kesubasah" - she collects her kesubah. On the strength of the get in her hand she collects the standard kesubah amount: two hundred or one hundred.
"Kesubah v'ein imah get":
The reverse case: she holds a kesubah document, but she does not hold a get. She claims "avad giti" - I was divorced, but my get was lost. The husband concedes that he did in fact divorce her, but claims that he already paid the kesubah, "avad shovri" - I received a receipt from her for the payment, and that receipt was lost, and I am concerned that she will later produce the get and use it to sue for the kesubah.
The parallel case of a creditor:
A lender who produces a loan document after the Shemittah year - and the Shemittah year cancels loans, unless a prozbul was made, which prevents the cancellation from taking effect - but "ein imo prozbul", he is unable to produce a prozbul. The lender claims that he had a prozbul enabling him to collect, and that the prozbul was lost; the borrower denies this and claims that there never was a prozbul at all.
"Harei elu lo yifra'u" - in both cases, both the woman and the lender do not collect: out of concern that the woman may already have collected her kesubah, and out of concern that the debt may have been canceled by the Shemittah year.
The enactment of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel:
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: "Min hasakanah v'eilach" - from the time of danger onward, when the Roman government decreed that mitzvos not be observed, and people were afraid to keep gittin in their possession after a divorce, or to keep prozbulim, since such documents were considered forbidden material because of those decrees - "ishah govah kesubasah shelo b'get", a woman collects her kesubah even without a get in hand, and the husband is not believed to say that he paid unless he produces the receipt; "uva'al chov goveh shelo b'prozbul", and a creditor collects his debt even without a prozbul.
Two gittin and two kesubos:
A woman who produces two gittin - he divorced her, took her back, and divorced her a second time - and along with them two kesubos, one predating the first get and the second postdating it, for the second marriage: "govah shtei kesubos" - she collects both kesubos. Since he wrote her two kesubos, he owes her both of them. Even though he could have waited and made do with the first kesubah, treating it as the kesubah of the second marriage, he did not do so but wrote her a second kesubah - and therefore she collects on the basis of both.
The three cases in which she collects only one kesubah:
Two kesubos and one get: both kesubos are dated earlier than the single get.
One kesubah and two gittin: he divorced her and took her back, and did not write her a second kesubah.
A kesubah, a get, and death: she holds a kesubah and a get, and there are witnesses that he took her back after the get and afterward died, so that she is a widow - but she has no kesubah from the second marriage.
In all of these "eino goveh ela kesubah achas" - she collects only one kesubah, "shehamegaresh es ishto v'hechezirah - al menas kesubah harishonah hechezirah" - for one who divorces his wife and takes her back, takes her back on the terms of the first kesubah. One who remarries his divorcee does so on the basis of the first kesubah, and there are not two kesubos here. Only where there were two marriages and two kesubos generated by those two marriages does she collect twice; otherwise we assume that he took her back on the basis of his original kesubah obligation.
A minor whose father married him off:
A minor below the age of mitzvos whose father married him off, and who afterward grew up - "kesubasah kayemes" - her kesubah stands. Even though the marriage took place and the kesubah was written while he was still a minor, and a minor's marriage is not valid so that the kesubah too would not be valid, nevertheless that kesubah remains in force, "she'al menas kein kiyemah" - for when he grew up and maintained the marriage, he did so on the basis of that very kesubah written during his minority.
A number of the Rishonim raised a difficulty here: after all, every woman has a kesubah, and if we are speaking only about collecting the principal of the kesubah, what is the novelty that the mishnah is teaching us?
The Rishonim explained: even though the marriage actually took effect only once he matured, at that point she was no longer a virgin, and there would have been room to say that she is not entitled to two hundred. The mishnah therefore teaches that since they were married from the outset - even though it was not a valid marriage - we follow the original kesubah of two hundred.
A convert who converted together with his wife:
A man and his wife who converted together - "kesubasah kayemes" - her kesubah stands. The kesubah he wrote her while they were still gentiles, if its sum is appropriate, remains in force and he owes her that money, "she'al menas kein kiyemah" - since when they married after the conversion, they did so on the basis of that existing kesubah, and therefore it remains in force and the woman collects on its basis.
In summary: in this mishnah we learned that a get in the woman's hand enables her to collect the kesubah even without the document; whereas a kesubah without a get, where the husband concedes the divorce but claims that he paid and that his receipt was lost, is not collected - and the same applies to a loan document after Shemittah without a prozbul. From the time of danger onward, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said that a woman collects without a get and a lender collects without a prozbul. We further learned that with two gittin and two kesubos generated by two marriages she collects both, whereas one who remarries his divorcee takes her back on the terms of the first kesubah and she collects only one. And finally, the kesubah of a minor whose father married him off and the kesubah of a convert who converted together with his wife remain in force, for it was on that basis that the marriage was maintained.