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.