Commentaire sur Ketoubot 13:2

אבד את מעותיו – that he said, “I did not say to you, lend me and I will pay it back,” but if he lent the woman money for her support/maintenance on the condition that she should pay him, he makes a claim [against her] and she makes a claim the husband and he pays. But if the husband claims, “I left her support,” and she states, “he did not leave me, and wants to remove [money] from him, the husband takes an oath of inducement (an oath instituted by the Sages where the defendant completely denies a claim, based upon the tradition of Rav Nahman – to clear himself of suspicion), and he is exempted, and the moneys would be liability upon her when she becomes a widow or a divorcee, and in this Mishnah also, the Halakha is according to Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai.

Introduction The format of this mishnah is identical to yesterday’s mishnah. The subject is whether or not a person who provided out of his own pocket for a woman whose husband went overseas without leaving her with maintenance can demand his money back from the husband.

If a man went to a country beyond the sea and someone came forward and financially supported his wife, Hanan says: he lost his money. According to Hanan, the person who financially supported the wife cannot recover his money, since there was no promise from the husband that he would repay him, nor was there any indication from the woman that she was receiving his help as a loan. He helped her out of the goodness of his own heart, but this does not give him the right to recover his expenses.

The sons of the high priests differed from him and said: let him take an oath as to how much he spent and recover it. The sons of the high priests rule that the man can take an oath when the husband returns and recover what he spent. This is probably because the husband neglected the basic responsibility for providing for his wife. He should not, therefore, benefit from the other man’s generosity. Furthermore, we might assume that the man did not provide for her as a gift but rather assumed that he would recover his money.

Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas agreed with their ruling. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai said: Hanan has spoken well [the man] put his money on the horn of a deer. Again, Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas agrees with the sons of the high priests. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai uses some colorful language to express his agreement with Hanan. The provider has “put his money on the horn of a deer”. Just as a deer will run away and be hard to catch, so too the provider has made his money hard to recover.