Daily Daf Differently

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi David Greenstein looks at Masechet Ketubot, Daf 102.

The new chapter raises questions about undertaking and meeting one’s obligations. When can a verbal commitment be taken as binding and when is it to be dismissed? Another question raised regards custody arrangements for children after parents divorce or after the father dies.

To view the text of Ketubot, Daf 102 on Sefaria, please click here.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi David Greenstein looks at Masechet Ketubot, Daf 101.

The discussion examines various scenarios of terminated marriages. In what ways do the rabbis intervene to preserve the rights of the parties and when is one or the other party penalized for entering or ending the marriage? What is the nature of their property rights?

To view the text of Ketubot, Daf 101 on Sefaria, please click here.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Danny Nevins looks at Masechet Ketubot, Daf 79.

Real estate is often considered to be the best investment, and it certainly functions that way in a usufruct arrangement where a husband manages his wife’s property and benefits from the income. Thus it makes sense that our Mishnayot decree that if a man’s wife inherits moveable property—money, or slaves, or trees—that he can sell them in favor of real estate. Yet these rulings are contested when it comes to slaves and also old trees that the woman may treasure for their connection to her father’s house. While we are referring here to the horrific institution of slavery we nevertheless see some humane values in an acknowledgement that slaves and also trees are not simply property, but bear value, if only as reminders of another. This selection is alien from contemporary law and culture, but we do recognize in them a form of sensitivity to the identity of a partner and its connection to his or her inherited property.

To view the text of Ketubot, Daf 79 on Sefaria, please click here.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Danny Nevins looks at Masechet Ketubot, Daf 78.

Today we begin Chapter 8 of Ketubot, HaIsha Shenafla, which addresses cases in which a woman inherits property around the time of her engagement or marriage. Rabbinic law gives husbands ownership of their wife’s property acquired during the marriage, but property that she brings into the marriage belongs to her, though the man may manage it and use its income. Rabban Gamliel is embarrassed by the established law that a married woman may not sell her own property and limits the application of the law. At the end of the Daf, we hear a story of a woman who hides property from her second husband by deeding it to her daughter prior to marriage. Once she is divorced from the second husband, the mother wants her property back from the daughter. Rav Nahman recognizes her original deed as conditional and rips apart the contract. The exilarch supports Rav Nahman and in this way protects the woman who found a way to keep control of her own property.

To view the text of Ketubot, Daf 78 on Sefaria, please click here.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Danny Nevins looks at Masechet Ketubot, Daf 77.

Settle in for an expanded presentation of a very rich daf. Enough about the blemishes of women–what about the guys? Our daf has two mishnayot that address men’s blemishes–were they present before marriage, in which case perhaps she accepted them, or only later? Were they minor, in which case she thought she could live with them, or great? And then–what kinds of blemishes are we talking about? On side B, we take a fascinating aside to hear the stories of two sainted rabbis who outmaneuver the angel of death on their way to heaven, and with this lovely image, end the seventh chapter.

To view the text of Ketubot, Daf 77 on Sefaria, please click here.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Danny Nevins looks at Masechet Ketubot, Daf 76.

The feminist critique of kiddushin is that it is ultimately about treating women as chattel—the sages are anxious to know whether the kinyan or purchase was valid, or whether it was a false sale. Daf 76 gives an example of just this, comparing the purchase of a deformed bride to a property exchange between the owner of a cow and the owner of a donkey. On page B it is partially redeemed by the adage that kiddushin were not designed to be invalidated, and it is only in cases of doubt that verification procedures are required. Still, this entire discussion reminds us of the problematics of the kiddushin model for contemporary marriage, making more urgent the need to develop partnership models of shutafut for straight couples such as those developed for same sex marriage.

To view the text of Ketubot, Daf 76 on Sefaria, please click here.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Danny Nevins looks at Masechet Ketubot, Daf 75.

Who is more eager to be married—a man or a woman? In the world of the sages, the answer is obvious. A woman wants to be married, even to a flawed man, since he provides food and fatherhood for her children. What flaws in a woman could invalidate her marriage? Sweat? Bad breath? Big breasts? And who must prove at what point awareness of these flaws became apparent? This and more in our diverse daf gemara.

To view the text of Ketubot, Daf 75 on Sefaria, please click here.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Danny Nevins looks at Masechet Ketubot, Daf 74.

Who has more power, a lawyer or a doctor? How do men feel about sending their wives to court? Whose character is more in question—the wife who makes vows, or the husband who can’t abide them?

To view the text of Ketubot, Daf 74 on Sefaria, please click here.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Danny Nevins looks at Masechet Ketubot, Daf 73.

Our chapter deals with unpleasant surprises after the wedding. First with things the husband discovers about his wife, and then with things the wife discovers about her husband. But let us not thing that this is an egalitarian dynamic. The Sages can think of many reasons why a man would drive away a new wife, but few reasons indeed that a wife would not tolerate her husband.

To view the text of Ketubot, Daf 73 on Sefaria, please click here.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Abby Sosland looks at Masechet Ketubot, Daf 72.

Do we bury the dead for them or for us? While we often teach that taking care of the dead is a chesed shel emet, a kindness that cannot be repaid, our daf suggests otherwise. Instead, caring for the dead is an investment in the kind of communities the Talmud was aiming to build.

To view the text of Ketubot, Daf 72 on Sefaria, please click here.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.