(If one said: "You are betrothed to me") on condition that I own a beth-kur of soil [i.e., space for the sowing of a kur, thirty sa'ah], she is betrothed and he owns it [i.e., If there are witnesses that he owns it, she is betrothed of a certainty; and if it is not known whether he owns it, she is betrothed on the possibility (that he does own it). And we do not say: With money, which a man might hide, we suspect that he might have it and that he wants to do her wrong, but with land, we do not entertain this suspicion, for if he owned land it would be known.] "On condition that I have it in that place" — if he has it in that place, she is betrothed; if not, she is not betrothed. "On condition that I show you a beth-kur of soil," she is betrothed and he shows her. And if he showed her [land which is not his] in a field-plot, [even though he may have rented it or received it (in tenancy)], she is not betrothed.
Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
בית כור – an appropriate place to seed a Kor, which is thirty Seah..
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
Introduction
This mishnah is quite simple to understand and is nearly the same as yesterday’s mishnah. I will explain it therefore briefly.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
ויש לו – If there are witnesses that he has it, she is certainly betrothed, but if it is not known that he has it, she is doubtfully betrothed. And we don’t say that monies that people make is what they hide, for we fear lest he have it and he has the intention to upset her. But land we don’t suspect that perhaps he has it, for if there is that he has land, it has a voice.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
[If he says to her “Be betrothed to me] on condition that I own a bet kor of land”, she is betrothed, providing he does own it. A “bet kor” is the amount of land it takes to grow a kor of produce. In modern terms it is about 17,000 sq. meters, a rather large piece of land. This clause is nearly the same as section three from yesterday’s mishnah.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
ואם הראה בבקעה – that it is not his, and even though that he set it down for a tenant who will pay a fixed rent payable in kind or land tenancy on a fixed rent, she is not betrothed.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
“On condition that I own it in such and such a place”, if he owns it there she is betrothed, but if not she is not betrothed. Land value differs from place to place. It seems here that the woman wants to know that he owns good land, and not a worthless piece of land.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
“On condition that I show you a bet kor of land,” she is betrothed, providing that he does show it to her. But if he shows it to her in a plain, she is not betrothed. This is nearly the same as the final section of yesterday’s mishnah. Showing it to her in “the plain” means that he shows her land that is not his. This is not what she thought he meant by his “showing her a bet kor.”
