Wenn sie [diejenige, die ihr Ehemann von einem Eid befreit hat] vom Grab ihres Mannes zum Haus ihres Vaters ging [sich nicht mehr mit dem Eigentum beschäftigte] oder in das Haus ihrer Schwiegereltern zurückkehrte und keine Hausmeisterin wurde, können die Erben dies nicht veranlassen, dass sie schwört [im Zusammenhang mit ihrem Umgang zwischen dem Tod und der Beerdigung. Denn wenn die Erben sie in dieser Hinsicht schwören lassen könnten, weil sie dadurch gezwungen wäre, Zeugen darüber zu bringen, was sie für die Bestattung der Toten verkauft und gekauft hat, würde der Körper unbestattet bleiben und abstoßend werden.] Und wenn sie Wurde Hausmeisterin, könnten die Erben sie veranlassen, auf die Zukunft zu schwören [dh, dass sie nach dem Tod ihres Mannes nichts in ihren Hausmeistergeschäften missbraucht hat. Weil er sie befreit hat, nutzt er das Eigentum der Waisenkinder nicht; und sie dürfen sie nicht schwören lassen, was vergangen ist [bezüglich ihrer Geschäfte zu Lebzeiten ihres Mannes].
Bartenura on Mishnah Ketubot
והלכה מקבר מעלה – this one who exempted her husband from the oath.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Ketubot
Introduction
This mishnah refers to a situation where the husband exempted his wife from having to swear an oath and he also stated that his heirs may not make her take such an oath. The mishnah asks whether or not the heirs may make her take an oath about her subsequent guardianship over her dead husband’s property. This situation would arise because typically the widow would continue to live in her husband’s home until she either died or remarried.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Ketubot
לבית אביה – who did not engaged further in property.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Ketubot
If she went from her husband’s grave to her father’s house, or returned to her father-in-law’s house but was not made a guardian, the heirs may not make her swear an oath. If after the death of her husband, she leaves her husband’s house and returns to her father’s house, or when she returns to her husband’s house she does not act as a guardian over his estate, the inheritors cannot make her swear an oath when she collects her ketubah. This is because her husband specifically exempted her from needing to take such an oath. The mishnah additionally informs us that she does not take an oath over the expenses that she incurred while dealing with the burial of her husband, for if she knew that she would have to take an oath, she might not give her husband a proper burial. (We might have thought that since these costs were incurred after his death, she would have to take an oath about her use of the money). In order to ensure respect for the dead, the mishnah teaches that the inheritors may not make her take an oath that she did not take anything for herself while paying for her husband’s funeral.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Ketubot
אין היורשים משביעין אותה – with what she had engaged in between death and the burial for if the heirs are able to cause her to take an oath on this while she needs to bring witnesses in what she is selling and buying for the needs of the burial of the dead, the dead body will be delayed [from being buried] and will be disgraced.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Ketubot
But if she was made a guardian the heirs may make her swear an oath in respect of [her administration] during the subsequent period but not in respect of the past. If she was made a guardian over her husband’s property after his death, then the heirs can make her take an oath about subsequent use of the property but not about past use. The stipulation that her husband made that she should not have to take an oath was only effective over things done in his lifetime and not her management of his affairs after his death. If she was afraid of taking an oath, she could have declined acting as a guardian over the estate.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Ketubot
על העתיד לבוא – she did not delay in her hands at all from the business that was done by the guardian upon him after the burial of her husband and he did not benefit from his exemption, for the property belongs to the orphans.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Ketubot
על שעבר – on the business that was during the lifetime of her husband.
