Kiddushin

Can a na'arah appoint an agent to receive a divorce from her husband?1 Does she rank as her father's hand, or as his court-yard?2 Does she rank as her father's hand: just as her father can appoint an agent, so can she too appoint an agent. Or perhaps, she is as her father's court-yard, and [hence] she is not divorced until the Get actually reaches her hand. Now, is Raba doubtful about this? But Raba said: If he [the husband] writes a Get and places it in her slave's hand,3 and he is asleep while she watches over him, it is a [valid] divorce; but if he is awake, it is not a [valid] divorce.4 Now, why is it not a [valid] divorce if he is awake? [Surely] because he is as a court-yard guarded without her instructions. But if you think that she [a na'arah] is as her father's court-yard, then she should not be divorced even when the Get reaches her hand, since she is as her father's courtyard that is guarded without his instructions! Hence it must be obvious to him [Raba] that here she is as her father's hand, but this is his problem: is she as strong as her father's hand, so that she can appoint an agent, or not? — She cannot appoint an agent, he answered him. He raised an objection: If a minor [ketannah] says: ‘Accept my divorce on my behalf,’ it is not a valid divorce until it reaches her hand.5 Hence in the case of a na'arah it is a [valid] divorce!6 — The reference here is to one who has no father.7 But since the second clause teaches: If her father says to him [the agent], ‘Go and accept the Get for my daughter’, should her husband wish to retract,8 he cannot:9 this proves that the first clause refers to one who has a father? — The text is defective, and should read thus: If a minor says: ‘Accept my Get for me,’ it is not a [valid] divorce until it reaches her hand; but in the case of a na'arah it is a [valid] divorce. When is that said? If she has no father. But if she has a father and he says: ‘Go and accept the Get for my daughter’, and [then] the husband wishes to retract, he cannot. It has been stated: If a minor [ketannah] is betrothed without her father's knowledge,10 Samuel said: She requires both Get and mi'un.11 Said Karna: This is inherently open to objection:12 if Get, why mi'un, and if mi'un, why Get?13 Said they [the scholars] to him: But there is Mar ‘Ukba and his Beth din at Kafri.14 Then they reversed it15 and sent it to Rab. Said he to them, ‘By God! she requires both Get and mi'un, yet Heaven forfend that16 the seed of Abba b. Abba17 should say thus.’18 And what is the reason? — Said R. Aba son of R. Ika: She needs a divorce, in case her father consented to the kiddushin,19 while she needs mi'un, in case her father did not consent to the kiddushin, and it is said that the kiddushin with her sister [by the same man] is invalid. 20 R. Nahman said: Providing that they negotiated [with the father].21 ‘Ulla said: She does not even require mi'un.22 [What!] even though there were negotiations?23 — He who learnt this did not learn the other.24 Others say: ‘Ulla said: If a minor [ketannah] is betrothed without her father's knowledge, she does not even require mi'un.25 R. Kahana objected: And if [any among] all these26 died, protested,27 were divorced,28 or found to be constitutionally barren,29 their fellow-wives are permitted [to the yabam]. Now, who betrothed her?30 Shall we say, her father betrothed her? is then mi'un sufficient? She requires a proper Get!31 Hence it must surely mean that she betrothed herself, yet it is taught that she requires mi'un!32 — He raised the objection and he [himself] answered it: [We] suppose she had been treated as an orphan during her father's lifetime.33 R. Hamnuna objected: He [her father] may not sell her to relations. On the authority of R. Eleazar it was said: He may sell her to relations. or she herself can receive the divorce. It further postulates that the power is actually vested in him, her own being in virtue of his, and the problem is whether she is regarded as his hand or as his domain. For if the Get is placed in his domain she is divorced, and so it may be that the Rabbis reason that she herself is no worse (being under her father's authority), and on that score only can she accept her divorce. her own will, not at the instance of another person. Now, a Gentile slave is as her domain: if he is asleep and she watches over him, he is guarded through her. But if he is awake he guards himself, and so falls within the latter category. a na'arah who has a father. dissolves a marriage that has Rabbinical force only. Kafri which is nearer to us. The reference is to ‘Ukba I. v. Funk. op. cit. I Note iv.] Kafri is a town in S. Babylon, Obermeyer, op. cit., p. 316. name would carry more weight. Consequently, should the same man then betroth her sister, it is quite invalid, since she is his divorced wife's sister (v. Lev. XVIII, 18, which is interpreted as applying to such a case). But her father may not have consented, and so neither the betrothal nor the divorce are Biblical, wherefore her sister's betrothal is valid and requires a divorce for its dissolution. (He could not keep the sister, for fear that the first marriage was legal.) Hence she needs mi'un, to draw attention to this possibility. knowledge, her father may thereafter consent, whereby the kiddushin becomes retrospectively valid, and so she needs a divorce. But otherwise she needs no divorce. his ruling even if there were no previous negotiations. interdicted to B, his brother, on the score of consanguinity, e.g., she is B's daughter, and A dies childless, all his other wives are exempt from yibum or halizah (q.v. Glos.), providing that C is alive and married to him at the time of his death. ‘Ulla. — Mi'un only applies to the marriage of a minor. no more authority over her, and she is technically regarded as an orphan in her father's lifetime. If she then betroths herself while still a minor, her marriage is Rabbinically valid, and she can dissolve it on attaining her majority by mi'un.