פירוש על כתובות 10:5

הראשונה קודמת לשניה – hers whose time of her Ketubah precedes that of the second, whose time is later, and similarly for all of them.

Introduction In yesterday’s mishnah we learned of a case where a husband married several women at the same time, each having a ketubah of a different size. In today’s mishnah we learn about the case of several women who were married to one man, but at different times.

הראשונה נשבעת לשניה – if the second [wife] claims: “swear to me that you have not collected from my husband anything, for perhaps there will not remain for me from what I will collect my Ketubah and even the third [wife] will claim the same thing to the second [wife] and the fourth [wife] to the third, but the fourth collects without an oath as for example if there is no heir or another creditor who will make her take an oath.

If a man who was married to four wives died, his first wife takes precedence over the second, the second over the third and the third over the fourth. This section’s halakhah is basically the same as that which we learned in mishnah one. It is brought here as an introduction to the rest of the mishnah.

בן ננס אומר כו' – the disagreement of the first Tanna and Ben Nanos is explained in the Gemara (Talmud Ketubot 94a) as in the case where there is found one field from these field that the first three wives have collected which is not his, and it was known that he stole it, and eventually that its owners will come and take it and when the fourth [wife] comes to collect her Ketubah settlement from the fourth field, this one comes and says to her: “tomorrow the person who had been robbed will come and take his field; it is my desire that you will take an oath that you have not collected your Ketubah during the lifetime of the husband”; the First Tanna/teacher holds that the creditor of a later date who came early and collected, what he had collected, he did not collect; therefore, why should she take an oath if the person who was robbed will come and snatch it from this one. Let her return to the fourth [wife] and take from her what she collected, and hence the fourth [wife] would be a creditor of a later date. And Ben Nanos holds that a creditor o a later date who came early and collected what he collected, he has collected, and if she (i.e. the wife who came early) takes possession of this, the third [wife] cannot return to her, and therefore, takes an oath to her that she did not collect anything from the property of her husband and the Halakha is according to the First Tanna/teacher. Of itself, we learn that if she did not take hold of movable property, that she must take an oath, according to everyone’s opinion since there is no precedence as regards to movable property and what she collected, she collected.

The first must take an oath to the second, the second to the third, and the third to the fourth, and the fourth recovers payment without an oath. Ben Nannus says: Should she be rewarded because she is the last? She too may not exact payment except by an oath. Each wife must take an oath to the subsequent wife that she did not already take her ketubah. The subsequent wives are concerned lest there not remain enough money to collect their own ketuboth and hence they have a right to make the previous wives swear. However, the fourth wife does not need to take an oath. Of course, if there are inheritors she needs to take an oath in any case, as we learned in 8:9. According to Ben Nannus, even the fourth wife must take an oath. The Talmud explains that this oath would be significant if it turns out that one of the fields that one of the first wives collected for her ketubah did not really belong to the husband and therefore was taken away from the wife who had collected it. In such a case the wife who had received that field would want to collect from the fourth wife but she can’t because the fourth wife is not obligated to give up property that she had already received. However, the oath ensures the previous wife that at least the fourth wife did not collect illegitimately.

If all were issued on the same day then the woman [whose kethubah] preceded that of the other, even if only by one hour, gets [her ketubah first]. And so it was the custom in Jerusalem to write the hours. If all ketuboth were issued on the same day, then the precedence can be determined by the hour written into the ketubah. The mishnah teaches that this indeed was the custom in Jerusalem. Today we don’t write hours into ketuboth. Then again, men can no longer marry two wives!

If all kethuboth were issued at the same hour and the estate is worth no more than a maneh, they divide it equally. If all of the ketuboth were issued during the same hour, then the halakhah is as it was in mishnah four. If there is only one maneh, they all share it equally.