One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
אִישׁוּת
Marriage 13
Sefer Nashim · What a husband owes his wife in cloth, furniture, walls and cosmetics, how long each of his vows may stand before the court makes him choose, and why the chapter keeps deciding its cases by what the neighbors will see
50
Zuz a year in clothing in the Talmudic period in Eretz Yisrael, six and a quarter dinarim of pure silver, and no fixed sum at all in any other age or country
4
Cubits by four, the smallest dwelling he must rent her, with a yard outside for her use and a latrine nearby
6
Years and under, the age of the sons and daughters he must clothe, furnish and house alongside his wife
3
Lands that Eretz Yisrael is counted as for the laws of marriage: Judea, Transjordan and the Galilee
Part 1What the household owes, and to what standard
- A figure, withdrawn two sentences later. He owes her fifty zuz a year in clothing, new garments in the rainy season and last year's frayed ones as her own, yet that amount held only in that period and in Eretz Yisrael, and in other ages and countries there is no fixed sum, since he owes whatever the least a married woman wears in that country. (13:1, 13:2)
- Goods, walls and ornaments. Included in clothing are household goods and a dwelling: a bed and its spreads, a mat, a pot, a plate, a cup and a bottle, a rented dwelling of four cubits by four with a yard and a latrine, and ornaments such as colored head cloths, eye makeup and rouge, so that she should not appear unattractive to him. (13:3, 13:4)
- Measured against the man, with a floor beneath him. All of that describes a poor man in Israel, while a wealthy man is judged by his wealth and compelled to provide silk, embroidery and gold if that suits him, and a man who cannot meet even the poor man's minimum is compelled to divorce her, the ketubah standing as a debt until he has the means. (13:5)
- The obligation follows the dependents. Clothing, goods and a dwelling are owed to his sons and daughters of six and under as well, though for them only their needs and not his wealth, and wherever a court sells property for a dependent's subsistence it sells for clothing, goods and dwelling too. (13:6)
- The one line the court will not fund. Where a husband has gone abroad the court allots subsistence, clothing, goods and rent but not ornaments, since she has no husband present for whom to make herself attractive, and yet a woman whose husband lost his mental faculties or became a deaf mute is granted the ornaments. (13:7)
RememberThe number is a specimen and the principle is the street. What he owes her is whatever a married woman where they live actually wears.
Part 2Vows, and the clock that runs on each of them
- Ornaments carry the longest clock. A vow barring his wife from every ornament may stand a year where the couple are poor and a month where they are wealthy, after which he must either have the vow annulled or divorce her and pay her ketubah. (13:8)
- The bathhouse and shoes run shorter. A vow barring the bathhouse and a vow barring shoes each carry their own limit, counted differently in a large city and in a village, after which the same choice falls to him. (13:9)
- The sieve and the neighbors. A vow barring her from lending and borrowing the things neighbors always lend and borrow, a sifter, a sieve, a mill or an oven, must be annulled or he divorces her and pays, since it gives her a bad reputation among her neighbors. (13:10)
- Her father's house, on a clock of its own. A vow barring her from her father's house allows him one month where her father lives in the same city, and until the first festival where he lives in another, after which he must divorce her and pay. (13:12)
- Mourning and weddings admit no delay at all. A vow barring her from a house of mourning or from weddings must be annulled or he divorces her and pays, since this is like placing her in jail and locking her in, unless he claims indecent people were present at that particular house and it is discovered that they were. (13:13)
RememberEvery vow in this chapter is priced by how fast it becomes visible to other people, and the clock is set to the street rather than to the household.
Part 3Doorways, neighbors and whole countries
- A veil so that she can go out. Where custom requires more than a cap he must provide a veil, the cheapest kind if he is poor and one befitting his wealth if he is not, so that she can visit her father, a house of mourning and a wedding, since a woman is not confined in a jail from which she cannot come and go, though it is uncouth to be constantly out and once or twice a month as needed is the measure. (13:11)
- Who may cross the threshold. A husband may refuse to have her father, mother, brothers and sisters enter his domain, so that she visits them when something happens to them and her father's house once a month and on each festival, and she may equally refuse to live in one courtyard with his mother and sisters. (13:14)
- Bad neighbors override ownership. Either party may insist on leaving a neighborhood of wicked or indecent people, even where the dwelling belongs to her, and her demand is followed even where he says he does not object to them, since she may answer that she does not want a bad reputation in those neighborhoods. (13:15)
- Lands, and the moves he may compel. The world divides into lands and Eretz Yisrael counts as three for marriage, Judea, Transjordan and the Galilee; a man who married a woman of another land may compel her to follow him home or accept a divorce without her ketubah, while a man who married in his own land may move her from city to city and from village to village within it. (13:16, 13:17)
- Eretz Yisrael overrides the rest. A woman is compelled to move from the diaspora to Eretz Yisrael even from pleasant surroundings to unpleasant ones, nobody leaves it for any improvement, and where he wishes to go and she refuses he divorces her without a ketubah while if she wishes to go and he refuses he divorces her and pays, with the same rule for Jerusalem. (13:19, 13:20)
RememberA woman is not confined in a jail, from which she cannot come and go. That sentence is the standard the whole second half of the chapter is measured against.