פירוש על קידושין 3:3

בית כור – an appropriate place to seed a Kor, which is thirty Seah..

Introduction This mishnah is quite simple to understand and is nearly the same as yesterday’s mishnah. I will explain it therefore briefly.

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.

[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.

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.

“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.

“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.”