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The Torah Learning Library of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah

Kiddushin

Kiddushin: Ownership or Partnership? Part 5: Kinyan and Kiddushin in Competition – Gemara and Rishonim

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on August 3, 2016

Introduction We have seen how the mohar transformed from money up front and a type of bride-price to money paid at the end of the marriage, becoming our Rabbinic ketuvah.  We have also seen how parallel to that the money given at the beginning of the marriage changed from being a significant sum to a small symbolic amount –a perutah – thus transforming the act from one of kinyan to one of kiddushin.  …

Kiddushin: Ownership or Partnership? Part 4: From Kinyan to Kiddushin in the Talmud

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on August 3, 2016

Introduction In Section A, we looked at the history of the ketuvah, and saw how it evolved from the Biblical mohar, and how this came with a raising of the wife’s status in the marriage. Here, in Section B, we will see how the shift from mohar to ketuvah was paralleled by a shift from kinyan to kiddushin in the act of the marriage itself.  …

Kiddushin: Ownership or Partnership? Part 3: From Mohar to Ketuvah

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on July 31, 2016

In the previous lecture we saw how the institution of marriage in the Torah seems to be based on a concept of ownership, and that this is paralleled by the way in which the marriage is effectuate – the giving of a mohar or bride-price from the groom to the father of the bride.  …

Kiddushin: Ownership or Partnership? Part 2: The Act of Marriage – Mohar and other Marriage-Monies

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on July 31, 2016

Part I – In the Torah Section B – The Act of Marriage – Mohar and other Marriage-Monies   We now turn to look at not the state of marriage, but the act of effectuating marriage.  What act made an unmarried woman into an arusa, a betrothed woman?   …

Kiddushin: Ownership or Partnership? Part 1: Torah Laws

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on July 31, 2016

Our concept of marriage is one of a mutually entered partnership between husband and wife.  But is this the Torah’s and halakha’s understanding of the institution?  In this lecture, we will look at how the legal/halakhic institution of marriage is conceptualized in the Torah and how that has evolved through Rabbinic times until today.  …

Two Stages of Marriage

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on February 12, 2010

As is well known, there are two stages of marriage, kiddushin and nissuin. Kiddushin is referred to in the Torah as erusin, and nissuin is referred to as either kicha, taking (“Who is the man who has betrothed a woman and not taken her” – Deut 20:7) or beulat ba’al, a woman who has had sex with her husband (see Deut 22:22-23).…

Kiddushin as a Speech Act

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 29, 2010

The act of kiddushin, the giving of the ring, is accompanied by a verbal statement – harei at mekudeshet li bi’taba’at zo ki’dat Moshe vi’Yisrael, “behold you are betrothed to me with this ring, according to the laws of Moshe and Israel.”…

Kiddushin: Acquisition or Partnership?

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 22, 2010

When studying kiddushei kesef – kiddushin through the giving of an object of value – one must ask: is kiddushin is an actual kinyan, act of acquisition, or not? The two sides of this question can be seen in the development of the practice of giving a ring.…