If he did not write her: "If you are taken captive, I will redeem you and restore you as my wife," or, if he were a Cohein, [who is not permitted to take her back after she was abducted (the wife of a Cohein, who was forced, being forbidden to her husband), in which instance he writes to her:] "I will redeem you and I will return you to your land," he is (nevertheless) liable (for this) [and he must give her her kethubah, even though he must divorce her perforce], for this is a condition of beth-din.
Bartenura on Mishnah Ketubot
ולא כתב לה כל נכסים כו' חייב – to make all of his property is a surety to her, and he is not able to say, “you don’t have other than the field that is written to you in your Ketubah.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Ketubot
Introduction
The mishnah now begins to delineate a list of guarantees that a woman has that are normally written into a ketubah but that even if they are not included in her personal ketubah, she nevertheless receives. In other words, these are rights guaranteed to any wife regardless of what is actually written in her marriage contract, or regardless of whether she even has a marriage contract.
Our mishnah deals with the two most basic aspects of the ketubah: 1) that a virgin receives 200 zuz and a widow 100 zuz; 2) that all of the husband’s assets are a lien for his ketubah.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Ketubot
If he did not write a kethubah for her, a virgin still collects two hundred zuz and a widow one mane, because it is a condition laid down by court. Even though the husband never wrote for his wife a ketubah, she still is able to collect the minimum amount of 200/100.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Ketubot
If he assigned to her in writing a field that was worth one mane instead of the two hundred zuz and did not write for her, “All property that I possess is a lien for your ketubah”, he is liable [for the full amount] because it is a condition laid down by the court. If the husband writes in the ketubah that a field worth a maneh (100 zuz) is the collateral for the ketubah, and he doesn’t write that all his property is a lien, all of his property is still liable to be used to pay off the ketubah. In such a case, the husband or the husband’s inheritors cannot say to the wife, “Here is your 100 zuz field that is your ketubah”.
