Tractate Ketubot has ranged widely over many aspects of the laws of marriage, in the process revealing some of the rabbisâ?? key assumptions about gender relations and sexuality. But the name of the tractate comes from the actual contract, the ketubah, that makes a Jewish marriage official; marriage law, in the Talmud, is a subset of contract law. In Chapter 9, which Daf Yomi readers covered this week, the fine points of that contract were at issue, as the rabbis determined how to deal with the tricky property claims that can arise in the context of marriage and inheritance. This chapter shows the Talmud as a code of civil law, rooted in the Bible but worldly in its distinctions and concerns.
Under Jewish law, a husband gains legal control over his wifeâ??s earnings and property. The rationale for this, as we saw earlier, is that he also bears responsibility for her sustenance. But just as a wife can opt out of this arrangement, declining to be supported by her husband and to share her money with him, so, we learn in Ketubot 83a, a husband can renounce his rights to his wifeâ??s property. Exactly why a husband might do this is not clearâ??perhaps it would be a tactic in a marriage negotiation, making the prospect of marriage seem more attractive to the woman by guaranteeing her control over her own assets.
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