Kiddushin, Daf Ayin Daled, Part 3

 

Introduction

Today s section discusses Abba Shaul who calls the shetuki a beduki, which comes from the word examine. As we shall see, this implies that Abba Shaul

 

אבא שאול היה קורא לשתוקי בדוקי מאי בדוקי אילימא שבודקין את אמו ואומרת לכשר נבעלתי נאמנת כמאן כרבן גמליאל תנינא חדא זימנא דתנן היתה מעוברת ואמרו לה מה טיבו של עובר זה אמרה להם מאיש פלוני וכהן הוא רבן גמליאל ור’ אליעזר אומרים נאמנת ורבי יהושע אומר לא מפיה אנו חיין ואמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל הלכה כרבן גמליאל

 

Abba Shaul used to call the shetuki beduki. What is a beduki ?

If we say that we examine his mother, and if she says, I had relations with a fit person, she is believed? Then with whom does he agree? With R. Gamaliel! But we already taught this once. For we taught: If she [an unmarried woman] is pregnant and is asked: What is the nature of this child? and she replies, He is from So-and-so, who is a priest : R. Gamaliel and R. Eliezer say: She is believed; R. Yehoshua say: We do not live by her words.

And Rav Yehudah said in the name of Shmuel: The halakhah agrees with R. Gamaliel!

 

If beduki implies that we examine the mother and ask her who the father is and if she says that he is genealogically fit we believe her, this halakha was already stated when we ruled like Rabban Gamaliel in a Mishnah in the first chapter of Ketubot. So why would we need to teach the same teaching again here?

 

חדא להכשיר בה וחדא להכשיר בבתה הניחא למאן דאמר לדברי המכשיר בה פוסל בבתה אלא למ"ד לדברי המכשיר בה מכשיר בבתה אבא שאול מאי אתא לאשמועינן

 

One is to declare her [the mother] fit; the other is to declare her daughter fit.

Now, that goes well according to the one who says that he who declares her [the mother] fit, declares the daughter unfit. But according to the one who says that he who declares her fit declares her daughter fit [too], what does Abba Shaul come to teach us?

 

In Ketubot there is a debate whether Rabban Gamaliel also declares the daughter fit. According to the one who says that he does not, Abba Shaul adds that not only is the mother fit when she answers that the man she had relations with was fit, the daughter is fit as well. But if Rabban Gamaliel already says the daughter is fit, what does Abba Shaul come to add?

 

דאבא שאול עדיפא מדרבן גמליאל דאי מהתם ה"א התם דרוב כשרין אצלה אבל היכא דרוב פסולין אצלה אימא לא צריכא אמר רבא הלכה כאבא שאול

 

Abba Shaul s [ruling] is preferable to R. Gamaliel’s. For if from there, I might argue, [It is only] there, where most [men] are fit for her; but here, where most [men] are disqualified for her, I might say, [she is] not [believed].

Hence it is necessary.

Rava said: The halakhah accords with Abba Shaul.

 

Abba Shaul goes one step further than Rabban Gamaliel. Rabban Gamaliel was referring to a situation where the woman was unmarried and most men in the town were fit. But Abba Shaul refers even to a betrothed woman and even to an unmarried woman in a town where most men are not fit. The woman is believed in any case.

The halakhah follows Abba Shaul if the mother says the father is fit, we believe her. Therefore, a shetuki who is genealogically unfit would only be in a case where the mother does not admit whom the father was.