Una viuda reclama el pago [de su kethubah] de la propiedad de los huérfanos solo con un juramento [de que no había recibido nada de eso]. Ellos (beth-din) se abstuvieron de administrarle el juramento. [Porque debido a que se esforzó por los huérfanos, racionalizaría su juramento de que no había recibido nada, incluso si había recibido una pequeña cantidad, sintiendo que lo había recibido por sus esfuerzos y no como pago de la kethubah. Por lo tanto, se abstendrían de administrarle el juramento y ella perdería su kethubah.] R. Gamliel, el anciano, instituyó que prometiera a los huérfanos lo que sea (fórmula de voto) que deseen [como: "Confío en que disfrute de esto y esta comida si he obtenido algún beneficio de mi kethubah "], y ella recoge su kethubah. [Y si se volvió a casar antes de que los huérfanos la prometieran por su kethubah, en cuyo caso su esposo podría anular su voto, ¿qué hacen? La visten, fuera de Bet-din, un "juramento de los rabinos", cuya transgresión no es tan severa (como el juramento de la Torá), y ella toma su kethubah después de casarse. Y si ella viene a recoger su kethubah antes de volverse a casar, los huérfanos tienen la opción: si lo desean, administran el juramento fuera de beth-din, o la confiesan en beth-din. Los testigos firman un mensaje para "el bien general". [Esto ("por el bien general") se refiere a ambos, a saber: una viuda es prometida por los huérfanos por "el bien general", que las viudas se vuelven a casar y no se preocupan por perder su kethubah; y los testigos firman en el get por "el bien general". Porque dado que los testigos del parto hacen que el efecto surta efecto, los testigos de que la mujer haya recibido el recibo como la base del divorcio, realmente no hay necesidad de que los testigos firmen el recibo. Pero por "el bien general"—porque tememos que uno de los testigos de la entrega pueda morir, y que sea como un simple fragmento en su mano (se instituyó que los testigos firmen)]. Hillel instituyó el prozbol para "el bien general". [Porque porque vio a la gente que se abstiene de prestarse mutuamente (en aprehensión de que el año shemitah disuelva el préstamo) y (por su tolerancia) transgredir (Deuteronomio 15: 9): "Presta atención a ti mismo para que no haya en tu corazón una cosa de maldad, etc. "—él se levantó e instituyó el prozbol. Este es el texto del prozbol: "Te entrego a ti, ploni y ploni, los jueces, (todos mis reclamos) para que pueda reclamar lo que me deba cuando lo desee"].
Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
אין אלמנה נפרעת – Her Ketubah/Jewish marriage contract
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English Explanation of Mishnah Gittin
Introduction
Today’s mishnah contains three different “takkanot”, decrees meant to remedy situations. The first was made by Rabban Gamaliel the Elder, as were those in yesterday’s mishnah. The second is anonymous and the third was made by Hillel.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
מנכסי יתומים, אלא בשבועה – she had not been made the recipient of anything
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English Explanation of Mishnah Gittin
A widow is paid back [her kethubah] from the property of orphans only by taking an oath. [When the court] refrained from imposing an oath on her, Rabban Gamaliel the Elder established that she could take any vow which the orphans wanted and collect her kethubah. We learned this law in Ketuboth 9:7-8. If a widow wants to collect her ketubah money from her husband’s orphans, she must take an oath that she has not already collected. In our mishnah we learn that at some point courts began to refrain from imposing an oath upon her, for fear that she would swear falsely. It is not that she would lie but that she would think that the money she had collected from her husband’s estate was not really her ketubah but payment for helping take care of her husband’s children. If the court would not impose an oath upon her then she could not collect the ketubah and she would be left without any money. In order to fix this problem the rabbis said that the widow could circumvent the court by taking any vow that the orphans so choose. The vow would be something like, “Let such and such an object become forbidden to me if I have already collected my ketubah.” This change in the law also kept the court from being involved in potentially false oaths.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
נמנעו מלהשביע – because she is preoccupied before the orphans, she provides herself with a legal permission to take an oath that she had not taken anything. But even though she took a small amount, she believes that she is taking it as payment for her trouble [involved], but it is not for the paying off of the obligations [owed her] from her Jewish marriage contract.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Gittin
Witnesses sign their names on a get because of tikkun olam. According to the letter of the law (contrasted with “takkanot”), a get is valid even if the witnesses had not signed on it. As long as they saw that it was written by the directive of the husband and given to the wife, the get is valid. However, without witnesses written on the get it will be more difficult to validate. Therefore the rabbis established that the get should be signed. We can see that the “tikkun olam” here was done in order to make it easier to validate a get, something that would have been in the best interests of the woman.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
התקין רבן גמליאל שתהא נודרת ליתומים כל מה שירצו – such as קונם/taking upon myself a vow of abstinence from kinds of food if I have derived benefit from my Jewish marriage contract.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Gittin
Hillel instituted the prosbul because of tikkun olam. The third takkanah of our mishnah is the famous takkanah of the prozbul. I shall explain this takkanah briefly. According to the Torah all debts are remitted in the seventh year. While this may be thought of as a benefit for the borrower (and in a perfect society perhaps it would be), in reality it could work against him. If lenders see that their loans will be erased in the seventh year they might not lend money, thereby making it difficult for those in need to take out loans. In order to remedy this problem Hillel established that a creditor could write out a document through which he transmits all debts to the court. According to the rabbis’ interpretation of the Torah, debts to the court are not remitted in the seventh year. In this way the creditor’s loans are not erased and the interests of those who need to borrow money (i.e. farmers) are also served.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
וגובה כתובתה – but if she married to another [man] prior to being made by the orphans to take a vow, and if they made her take a vow after she got married, lest her husband makes her take a vow, How should do this? They make her take an oath imposed by the Rabbis outside of the court for which her punishment would not be great, and she collects her Ketubah/Jewish marriage contract after she has married. But, if she comes to collect [the value of] her Ketubah before she marries another [man], it is up to the orphans [as to what to do]: if they want, they have her take an oath outside of the court or make her take a vow in court.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
העדים חותמים על הגט מפני תיקון העולם – It refers to both [the witnesses signing on the Jewish bill of divorce as well as the widow taking a vow before the orphans before collecting the value of her Jewish marriage contract], concerning a widow who takes a vow to the orphans on whatever they want, for the sake of the social order, so that women can marry their husbands without worrying about losing the value of their Ketubah. But concerning the witnesses who sign the Jewish bill of divorce for the sake of the social order, for since it is the witnesses to the delivery [of the Jewish bill of divorce] that effect the divorce, for the witnesses in whose presence the Jewish bill of divorce is delivered to the woman are the essential [aspect] of the divorce. It would not have been necessary for witnesses to sign the Jewish bill of divorce, other than for the sake of the social order, for we are concerned lest one of the witnesses before whom the Jewish bill of divorce was delivered would die, and that the bill of divorce in her hand without witnesses would be like a mere potsherd.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
הלל התקין פרוזבול – for he [Hillel] saw that the people were prevented from making loans to one another and they violated what is written in the Torah (Deuteronomy 15:9): “Beware lest you harbor the base thought, [the seventh year, the year of remission is approaching…’],” he [Hillel] ordained the Prozbul. And this is the body of the Prozbul: “I hand over to you, so-and-so and so-and-so, the judges that every debt obligation that I have with so-and-so, I will collect it whenever I want.”
