Kiddushin, Daf Yod Bet, Part 1

 

Introduction

Today s sugya begins to discuss Bet Hillel s opinion, that kiddushin can be performed with a perutah.

 

וב"ה אומרים בפרוטה

סבר רב יוסף למימר פרוטה כל דהו

א"ל אביי והא עלה קתני כמה היא פרוטה אחד משמנה באיסר האיטלקי

 

And Bet Hillel says: by a perutah.

R. Yosef thought to rule: A perutah, no matter its size.

Abaye said to him: But was it not taught about this: And how much is a perutah? An eighth of an Italian issar.

 

R. Yosef thought that the perutah that Bet Hillel said was any small coin, no matter how small. But Abaye reminds him that the mishnah actually gives a minimum amount according to the mishnah, the perutah must weigh an eighth of an Italian issar.

 

וכ"ת ה"מ בדורו של משה אבל הכא כדחשבה להו לאינשי

והא כי אתא רב דימי אמר שיער רבי סימאי בדורו כמה היא פרוטה אחד משמנה באיסר האיטלקי

וכי אתא רבין אמר רבי דוסתאי ורבי ינאי ורבי אושעיא שיערו כמה הוי פרוטה אחד מששה באיסר האיטלקי

 

And should you say: That was only in the time of Moses, but now it is as generally considered by people, but when R. Dimi came, he said: R. Simai estimated in his time: how much is the perutah? An eighth of an Italian issar.

And when Rabin came, he said: R. Dostai, R. Yannai and R. Oshiah estimated: how much is a perutah? A sixth of an Italian issar!

 

We might have thought that the absolute value of the issar is an antiquated number. According to this line of thought, a perutah is whatever people call it in their time the smallest coin. It would be of indeterminate size. Countering this, Abaye cites a dispute between several amoraim as to the weight of a perutah. Some say it is an eighth of an Italian issar, others say it is a sixth. But all hold that it must have some determined weight.

 

א"ל רב יוסף אי הכי היינו דתנינא צא וחשוב כמה פרוטות בשני סלעים יותר מאלפים השתא אלפים לא הויין יתר מאלפים קרי להו

 

R. Yosef said back to him: If so, when we taught, Go out and estimate: how many perutahs are there in two sela’s? More than two thousand. Seeing that there are not even two thousand, can he [the Tanna] call it more than two thousand?

 

R. Yosef cites a source in response to Abaye. According to this source, there are more than 2000 perutot in a sela. Now a sela is 4 dinars, and each dinar is 24 issarim. So a dinar equals 192 perutot, and a sela is 768 and two selas is 1536 perutot.

Thus a perutah cannot weigh 1/6 or 1/8 of an issar.

 

אמר להו ההוא סבא אנא תנינא לה קרוב לאלפים

סוף סוף אלפא וחמש מאה ותלתין ושיתא הוא דהויין כיון דנפקא להו מפלגא קרוב לאלפים קרי ליה

 

A certain old man said to him: I taught it, close to two thousand.

But even so, it is only one-thousand-five-hundred-thirty-six!

Since it go beyond half [a thousand], it is called close on two thousand.

 

An old man corrects the baraita so that there are close to two thousand perutot in two selas, not more. While 1536 is not exactly close to 2000, it has gone past 1500 so we can call it close to 2000. Thus R. Yosef is refuted and a perutah does have an official amount. Below we will explain the dispute over whether it is 1/6 or 1/8 of an issar.