Kiddushin, Daf Yod, Part 3

 

Introduction

Here Rava tries to bring proof that intercourse effects betrothal, not marriage.

The baraita that he cites refers to sex with very young girls. I will reiterate what I have said before. Talking about things that are possible is not the same as condoning such activities. While the rabbis (and all ancient people) had different notions of childhood, they did not condone sex with young girls. Rabbis talk about things that are possible, actions have legal significance, without stating their moral opinion about such subjects. This is simply the nature of this literature. I, as I usually do when it comes to such passages, will talk about them in a clinical manner, in the same way I might talk about murder without condemning murder, assuming the reader knows that I, and the text I m interpreting are not supportive of murder. I hope that my reader knows enough to realize that I do not condone sex with girls close to the age of three.

 

אמר רבא תא שמע בת שלש שנים ויום אחד מתקדשת בביאה ואם בא עליה יבם קנאה וחייבין עליה משום אשת איש ומטמאה את בועלה לטמא משכב תחתון כעליון ואם נישאת לכהן אוכלת בתרומה ואם בא עליה אחד מכל עריות שבתורה מומתין על ידה והיא פטורה ואם בא עליה אחד מן הפסולין פסלה מן הכהונה קתני ביאה וקתני נישאת

 

Rava said: Come and hear: A girl aged three years and a day may be betrothed by intercourse, and if the yavam has intercourse with her, he acquires her. The penalty of adultery may be incurred through her: [if a menstruant,] she defiles him who has connections with her, so that he in turn defiles that upon which he lies, the bottom as the top. If she married a priest, she may eat terumah. If any of the forbidden degrees of incest found in the Torah had intercourse with her, they are executed on her account, but she is exempt. If an unfit person had intercourse with her, he disqualifies her from priesthood.

Thus [here too] it teaches intercourse, and also if she is married !

 

The baraita basically teaches that intercourse with a girl over three years old counts. What this means is that it renders her a non-virgin (as we learned in Ketubot). The baraita now enumerates a number of ramifications. First of all, she can (not should, but can) be betrothed by intercourse. If she has already been married before this age, and her husband dies, the yavam can acquire her through intercourse. If betrothed, adultery with her is punishable by death (to the man, not her). If she menstruates she defiles as does a menstruant. If she is married to a priest, she may eat terumah. Incest with her is also punishable by death (again, for the male not her).. And if she has intercourse with someone prohibited to her, she may no longer marry a priest.

The issue at stake here is that first the baraita says that she is betrothed, and then its states that she is married. Like Abaye did yesterday, Rava reads this as two stages, even if betrothal is done through intercourse. Thus intercourse creates betrothal, not marriage.

 

הכי קאמר אי הני נשואין דכהן נינהו אוכלת בתרומה

 

This is what it might mean: If this marriage was with a priest, she may eat terumah.

 

The Talmud rejects Rava s proof. We do not need to read if she married as a second stage, but rather we can read it as connected to what immediately follows if she married a priest.