Kiddushin, Daf Mem Heh, Part 6

 

Introduction

The first part of today s sugya deals with a case where we do not know if the father consented to the marriage or not. He did consent to the betrothal.

 

נתקדשה לדעת וניסת שלא לדעת ואביה כאן רב הונא אמר אינה אוכלת רב ירמיה בר אבא אמר אוכלת

 

If she became betrothed with [her father s] knowledge and married without his knowledge, and her father is present: R. Huna said: She may not eat [terumah]; R. Yirimiyah b. Abba said: She may eat.

 

The betrothal was done correctly, with the father s knowledge. But the marriage was not done with his consent. Since a woman does not eat terumah (if married to a priest) until she enters the huppah, the question we need to ask is whether or not her entrance to the huppah, i.e. marriage, is legally acceptable in order to allow her to eat terumah.

 

רב הונא אמר אינה אוכלת ואפי’ לרב דאמר אוכלת התם הוא דלא איתיה לאב אבל הכא דאיתיה לאב האי דאישתיק מירתח רתח

 

R. Huna said: She may not eat. Even according to Rav who said she may eat [in the first case], that is only there, where the father was absent; but here, where the father is present, the reason he is silent is that he is angry.

 

Earlier Rav had said that if the father is overseas she may eat terumah. Rav said that she can eat terumah, because we can assume that since her father consented to the betrothal, he would also consent to the marriage. R. Huna says that in this case Rav would agree that she may eat not eat terumah. The father s silence should be interpreted as anger.

 

רב ירמיה בר אבא אמר אוכלת ואפי’ לרב אסי דאמר אינה אוכלת התם הוא דשמא יבוא אביה וימחה אבל הכא מדשתיק איתנוחי איתנחא ליה

 

R. Yirmiyah b. Abba said: She may eat: even according to R. Assi, who ruled that she may not eat: it is only there, for her father might return and protest; but here, since he is silent, [it shows that] he does consent.

 

R. Assi had said that if the father was overseas she does not eat terumah lest the father return and protest against the marriage. But R. Yirmiyah b. Abba argues that in this case, the father was here. The fact that he did not protest can be interpreted as a sign that he consents to the marriage.

 

נתקדשה שלא לדעת אביה וניסת שלא לדעת ואביה כאן רב הונא אמר אוכלת רב ירמיה בר אבא אמר אינה אוכלת

 

If she became betrothed without her father s knowledge and married without her father’s knowledge, and her father is present, R. Huna said: She may eat [terumah]: R. Yirmiyah b. Abba said: She may not eat.

 

In this case she was both betrothed and married without her father s knowledge, but he was there and did not protest. R. Huna argues, in a very puzzling manner, that we assume that her father s silence is a sign of consent. R. Yirmiyah b. Abba shifts his opinion and argues that since the father did not concede to the betrothal or the marriage, she may not eat terumah.

 

אמר עולא הא דרב הונא (משלי י, כו) כחומץ לשנים וכעשן לעינים השתא ומה התם דקידושי דאורייתא אמרת לא אכלה הכא לא כל שכן נראין דברי תלמיד

 

Ulla said: This [ruling] of R. Huna is as vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes (Proverbs 10:26). Now if there, where her kiddushin was biblically valid, you say that she may not eat, how much more so here! [Hence] the disciple’s view is preferable.

 

Ulla points out that R. Huna s opinion seems absurd. If she does not eat terumah when the father consented to the betrothal, why should she eat terumah when her father did not consent? Hence, in this case we rule like R. Yirmiyah b. Abba who is a mere student in comparison with R. Huna, one of the great Babylonian amoraim.

 

אמר רבא מאי טעמא דרב הונא הואיל ונעשה בה מעשה יתומה בחיי האב

Rava said: What is R. Huna s reason? Because she was treated as an orphan during her father’s lifetime.

 

Rava explains why R. Huna allows her to eat terumah. Since her father allowed her to be betrothed and married without saying a word, means that he was treating her like an orphan, by not paying attention to what she was doing. Thus he is in a sense, no longer her father. Her marriage is valid if she consents to it herself. This is an excellent example of how Rava and other late amoraim will defend all opinions, even those that seem to make little sense to them.