Daily Talk
A widow's house begins to fall and she offers to rebuild it with her own money, and the Rambam rules that she may not, not even to seal the walls. She lives in it as it was, or she leaves. Yet the same chapter lets her keep a talent of gold she has taken from the estate for her food. Why does the law of a widow's support guard the shape of a house more closely than it guards the money?
The House She May Not Rebuild
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About This Talk
Chapter 18 sets out the support a widow draws from her husband's estate, ruling that it lasts as long as she remains a widow and ends the moment she demands her ketubah in court, sells or pledges all of it, or is betrothed, while selling part of it leaves her support intact. She keeps her wardrobe, utensils, servants and the dwelling she shared with him, a sale of which by the heirs is of no consequence, but she may not rebuild or even repair it at her own expense, and her standing rises to her husband's and never descends, even after his death. The chapter sets her share as a member of the household at large, divides illness into open ended care from the estate and limited treatment from her ketubah, frees the heirs from redeeming her from captivity, leaves with her movable property she has seized for her support even a talent of gold, lets her block but not undo a sale of estate land, and supports several widows equally. The Rambam then rejects the view that a widow is supported without an oath, which confused her with a wife whose husband is overseas, and follows his teachers in requiring one, before setting the sale of property six months at a time, withholding support from a widow who cannot produce her ketubah, giving a woman who returns from overseas claiming divorce support up to the value of her ketubah, presuming a waiver after two years of silence for a poor widow and three for a rich one, shifting the burden of proof onto her once she remarries, and treating the additional sum like the fundamental one.