Wednesday, February 09, 2011

the term kiddushin

Tosfos (Kiddushin 2b) writes that the term "kiddushin" in the context of marriage means that a wife is designated as being permitted only to her husband, just as an item of "hekdesh" is designated for the use only of the Beis haMikdash.

What if a person uses the term of "kiddushin" to refer to an object? Can a person say, "This talis is mekudeshes for me," meaning designated only for that individual's use? Tosfos says not. Designating a wife to be one's partner precludes her having a relationship with any one else (b'mah she'meyuchedes li hi ne'eseres...). The same cannot be said with respect to an object.

Why not? What does Tosfos mean? If a talis is lying in the street, anyone can take it. If I designate it as my talis and acquire it, this creates a prohibition of gezel which precludes anyone else from taking it. Why does the term kiddushin work with respect to a wife but not with respect to the talis -- in both cases other parties are precluded from having access?

Maybe I'll update with my thoughts later, but first I'll give you a chance to think it over.

5 comments:

  1. Daas Yochid9:42 PM

    Two ideas:
    1)You can lend out your tallis, not so your wife.
    2)some objects may be borrowed without permission, not so your wife.

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  2. How do these distinctions fit Tos' sevara?

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  3. Menachem12:47 PM

    A woman can decide herself to go to someone else- an object cannot. She is mekudeshes in that it is ossur for her to be with another man. The same does not apply with an object.

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  4. Daas Yochid11:24 PM

    "How do these distinctions fit Tos' sevara?"

    I think I was alluding to the exclusivity, which you mentioned as no 2), in the subsequent post. "
    It is this second aspect which allows us to invoke the term "kiddushin," excluded from others."

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  5. Bartley Kulp3:16 AM

    Because we assume that the talis lying in the street is hefker through yeush of the owner. In that case there is no longer any preclusion of access.

    However a wife is differant because she cannot be forgive the term "used" by someone else. A talis can, ownership non-withstanding.

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