(Si uno dijo :) "Me comprometí con mi hija" (o :) "La prometí y me divorcié de ella [es decir, acepté que ella fuera] cuando era menor", y ella es menor [ahora, cuando él dice esto acerca de ella], se cree que [la descalifica de (casarse con) el sacerdocio. Porque se cree que un padre respeta a su hija mientras ella sea menor de edad, está escrito (Deuteronomio 22:16): "Le di mi hija a este hombre" (literalmente, "a (a) hombre, este" ) "a (a) man" le prohíbe a todos los hombres, porque no sabemos a quién. Cuando él dice: "esto", se lo permite.] (Si él dijo :) "La prometí y me divorcié de ella cuando era menor", y ahora es mayor de edad [es decir, si él dijo esto después ella llegó a la mayoría de edad, no haberlo dicho cuando era menor de edad], no se le cree. (Si él dijo :) "Fue llevada cautiva y la redimí", ya sea menor de edad o mayor de edad, no se cree que la descalifique (del matrimonio con) el sacerdocio. Porque la Torá le otorgó crédito al padre solo con respecto al matrimonio, pero no con respecto al cautiverio.] Si alguien dijo antes de su muerte: "Tengo hijos" [y mi esposa no requiere yibum], se le cree. (Si él dijo :) "Tengo hermanos" [y mi esposa requiere yibum (hasta entonces, se suponía que su esposa no lo requería)], no se le cree. Si uno desposó a su hija sin especificar (a qué hija se refería), los pantanos (aquellos en la mayoría de edad) no están incluidos. [Porque no están bajo la jurisdicción de su padre para ser desposados por él. E incluso si el bogereth lo convirtió en un mensajero para aceptar su compromiso, decimos que un hombre no abandona una mitzvá que le corresponde a él para realizar una mitzvá que no le incumbe. Pero sus hijas menores y solteras requieren una posibilidad (de haber sido desposadas), ya que no sabemos a cuál de ellas se comprometió.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
וגרשתיה – I received her Jewish bill of divorce.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
Introduction
The main topic discussed in this mishnah is when a man is believed with regard to statements he makes that impact his children’s personal status. The general rule is that a man is believed to say that he has done something which he currently has the legal ability to do. We shall see examples of this in the mishnah.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
והרי היא קטנה – now when I said this about her.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
[If a man declares] “I have given my daughter in betrothal,” [or] “I gave her in betrothal and divorced her while she was still a minor,” and she is [now] a minor, he is believed. As we have learned already, a man has the legal right to betroth his daughter before she reaches majority age. He also has the legal right to accept a get on behalf of his married daughter as long as she has not reached majority age. If the daughter about whom this father is testifying is now a minor, he is believed to say that he betrothed her, or that he betrothed her and then accepted her get, since he currently has the power to perform either activity. The ramification of his being believed to state that he accepted her get, is that she will be disqualified from subsequently marrying a priest.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
נאמן – to make her disqualified from the priesthood [through marriage]. He is believed about his daughter all the time that she is a minor, as it is written (Deuteronomy 22:16): “[And the girl’s father shall say to the elders,] ‘I gave this man my daughter to wife…” When he said “[this] man, he prohibited her to everyone else, for we do not know to whom [it was that he was talking about], and when he returned and said to this one, he made her permissible to him.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
“I gave her in betrothal and divorced her while she was still a minor,” and she is now of majority age, he is not believed. If she is now an adult (past 12 1/2 years old), he is no longer believed if he makes these statements, since he no longer has the legal right to either accept betrothal or a get on her behalf. We should note that this limits the power of the father over his daughter. Once she is past a relatively young age, he has no legal right to make decisions regarding her kiddushin, nor can he make any statement which would severely impact her status.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
והרי היא גדולה – and if he said this after she had grown [into adulthood], but did not say this when she was still a minor, he is not believed.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
“She was taken captive and I redeemed her,” whether she is a minor or of majority age he is not believed. A woman who was taken captive is forbidden from subsequently marrying a priest (see Ketubot 2:5). This is because it is assumed that her non-Jewish captors had sexual relations with her and a woman who has had intercourse with a non-Jew is forbidden from marrying a priest. The father is not believed if he states that his daughter was taken captive, no matter how old she is when he offers such testimony. A father does not have the legal right to give his daughter in marriage to a non-Jew and therefore he doesn’t have any special right to testify about this having happened in order to thereby prohibit her to a kohen. Note that when she is a minor the father does have another means by which to prohibit his daughter to the priesthood; he can testify that he betrothed her and then accepted her divorce. Nevertheless, he does not have the right to testify that she was taken captive.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
נשבית ופדיתיה וכו' אינו נאמן – to disqualify her from the priesthood, for regarding marriage, the All-Merciful (i.e., the Torah) believes the father; regarding her being taken captive, he is not believed.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
If a man declares at the time of his death “I have sons,” he is believed; “I have brothers,” he is not believed. This section discusses a man who offers testimony which will impact his wife’s subjectivity to the laws of yibbum. By stating that he has sons he is exempting her from yibbum. He is believed because if all he wanted to do was exempt her from yibbum he could divorce her. However, he is not believed to state that he has brothers, thereby obligating her for yibbum. Unless we know that he has brothers, he (or others) would have to bring evidence to make his wife subject to yibbum.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
יש לי בנים – and my wife will not be dependent upon her brother-in-law (who in the case of his brother dying without issue enters into his estate and marries his wife).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
If one betroths his daughter without specifying which, the daughters of majority age are not included. This section connects back to the previous mishnah as well as to the next mishnah. If a father states that he betrothed one of his daughters, but does not remember which one he betrothed, all of his minor daughters are in a state of possible betrothal, since he has the legal right to betroth any of them. None of them can marry until the matter is clarified. However, the girls who are of majority age are not doubtfully betrothed since the father has no legal right to betroth them.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
יש לי אחים – and my wife will be dependent upon her brother-in-law, but up until now, she was in the status that she would not be dependent.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
אין הבוגרות בכלל – because they are not in the domain of the father to become betrothed, and even though he had made the adult daughter an agent to receive her betrothal, we say (Kiddushin 64b) that a person does not put aside a Mitzvah which [primarily] rests on him [to see to the betrothal of his daughter] and perform one which is not incumbent upon him [concerning his adult daughter]. But minors and girls between the ages of twelve and twelve-and-one-half require a Jewish bill of divorce, out of doubt, for we don’t know which of them he (i.e., the father) had betrothed.
