Ketubot 64b — the Talmud in English

But

he—

the husband—

is adding more

to his wife’s ketuba when he rebels against her,

it appears

that the addition which he adds to her on Shabbat to her ketuba appears

as Shabbat wages,

which are forbidden by rabbinic decree, as a safeguard because of buying and selling and renting.

He said

in astonishment

to Rava, Rabbi Hiyya bar Yosef:

What is the difference between a rebel,

who adds only half a tarpá'ik,

and a rebellious woman,

from whom they deduct a full tarpá'ik!?

He said to him,

Rava to Rabbi Hiyya bar Yosef:

Go out and learn

from the market of prostitutes—

who hires whom!?

Certainly the man is the one who hires. And necessarily, his distress is greater than the woman’s; therefore she “pays” more when she rebels against him.

Alternatively: this one—

the husband—

his inclination is outside,

for his erection is noticeable, and he is disgraced.

And this one—

the woman—

her inclination is inside,

and she is not disgraced.

Mishna:

A husband

who provides

[feeds]

his wife through a trustee,

that is: he does not support her with him in his house, but gives her food in the trustee’s house —

This one

may not deduct from her

in one week

less than two kav of wheat, or four kav of barley,

according to the customary eating of most of the city.

Rabbi Yose said: He did not establish barley for her, except Rabbi Ishmael, who was near Edom,

and his words are explained in the Gemara.

And he gives her

also every week:

half a kav of legumes, half a log of oil, and a kav

of dried figs

[dried figs],

or a maneh of pressed figs

[figs pressed into a round cake and sold by weight].

And if he does not have

dried figs and pressed figs, then

he determines fruits corresponding to them from another place.

And he gives her: a bed

to eat upon or to sleep upon.

And likewise

a soft mat

which is soft

and a mat,

as will be explained in the Gemara.

And he gives her

also annually:

a head-covering

[a scarf]

for her head, and a girdle for her loins.

And shoes,

new ones he gives her

from festival to festival,

that is: on each of the three pilgrimage festivals.

And

he gives her

garments

[clothing]

worth fifty zuz from year to year.

And they do not give her

the clothing:

Not

when they are

new during the hot season,

because they are too warm.

And not

when they are

worn

[worn out]

during the rainy season,

because they are too cold.

Rather, he gives her garments

new

worth fifty zuz during the rainy season, and she covers herself with their rags during the hot season.

And the worn garments

which remained for her from them after the hot season are

hers,

even though he bought her new ones for the rainy season.

And

he gives her a silver ma’a—

every week—

for her needs,

for small things.

And she eats with him

with her husband

from one Shabbat eve to the next Shabbat eve,

and it will be explained in the Gemara whether “eats” is understood literally, or whether the intention is marital relations.

And if he does not give her a silver ma’a for her needs,

then

her handiwork is hers.

And what does she do for him,

and as we learned above [59b], “And she works with wool”:

A weight of five sela

of spun

warp thread—

for spinning it is twice as difficult as spinning weft thread because of the fineness of the spinning —

in Judea, which are

a weight of

ten sela in the Galilee,

for the sela of the Galilee are double those of Judea.

Or a weight of ten sela

of spun

weft thread in Judea, which are twenty sela in the Galilee.

And if she was

the woman

nursing, they deduct from her handiwork and add to her food.

In what case are these words said—

that this is the measure that the husband gives his wife for food and clothing—

with regard to the poorest person in Israel.

But with regard to a respected person, everything is according to his honor,

even several cooked dishes every day.

Gemara:

We learned in the Mishna: He may not deduct from her—for a week—less than two kav of wheat.

It follows according to the view of our Mishna that from two kav of wheat she can make bread needed for two meals seven times during the week, and the Gemara raises an objection to this:

According to whose view is our Mishna,

according to whose view does our Mishna hold in the dispute among the tannaim concerning the measure of wheat needed for bread for one meal—

For the words of the Mishna are

not

according to

Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka, nor

according to

Rabbi Shimon,

who disagreed about this!?

For we learned

in tractate Eruvin: One who wishes to go outside the Shabbat boundary must place food at the beginning of Shabbat at the end of two thousand cubits, which is the Shabbat boundary, and it is considered as though he spent Shabbat in that place; he is permitted to walk two thousand cubits in every direction from the place where he placed his food, and this is called an eruv of boundaries.”

And how much

is

its measure,

of an eruv of boundaries:

Food for two meals for each and every person,

of those participating in the eruv,

his food for a weekday and not for Shabbat, the words of Rabbi Meir.

Rabbi Yehuda says:

His food

for Shabbat and not for a weekday.

And both this and that

[Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda]

intend to be lenient.

That is, one needs only the measure of a meal for a weekday or for Shabbat, whichever is smaller between them; except that Rabbi Meir ate less bread on a weekday than on Shabbat, whereas Rabbi Yehuda ate less bread on Shabbat, so it follows that both of them are lenient concerning the measure of the meal.

Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka says,

the measure of two meals for making an eruv of the boundary is:

A loaf purchased

from the baker

for a pundion

[forty-eight pundions equal one sela]—

from four seah

of wheat

for a sela.

That is, the size of the loaf is one that is purchased for a pundion when four seah of wheat are purchased for a sela.

And it might enter your mind that this refers to a loaf made from flour ground from an amount of wheat that is one part out of forty-eight of four seah.

And since in every seah there are six kav, in four seah there are twenty-four kav.

And if we divide twenty-four kav by forty-eight, we obtain half a kav of wheat.

And it follows that the measure of one meal is a quarter of a kav of wheat, according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka.

Rabbi Shimon says:

The measure of two meals is:

Two-thirds of a loaf, from three loaves to a kav.

Two-thirds of such a loaf, for three like it are made from a kav of wheat.

And it follows that the wheat needed for one meal is one-ninth of a kav.

Half

of such a loaf, which Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka and Rabbi Shimon stated, is the measure of remaining for the duration of eating, which is the measure that determines the reception of impurity, for one who enters

a house afflicted

and remains there.

And half of its half,

that is, a quarter of such a loaf—both according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka and according to Rabbi Shimon—is the measure of eating impure foods that cause

the body to be disqualified

[the person’s body] from eating teruma.

And half

of half of its half

of such a loaf—both according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka and according to Rabbi Shimon—is the measure

for receiving food impurity.

And

according to whose view

is our Mishna, which requires two kav of wheat for the meals of the entire week!?

If it is Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka,

who holds that a quarter of a kav of wheat is the measure of one meal, then from two kav of wheat

there are eight

[eight] meals only

there are,

and this is insufficient for the meals of the entire week.

And if it is Rabbi Shimon,

who holds that one-ninth of a kav is the measure of one meal, then from two kav of wheat—

there are eighteen

[eighteen] meals

there are,

whereas for a week she needs only fourteen meals, two meals each day.

And if so, according to whose view is our Mishna!?

And we answer:

In any event,

our Mishna

is Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka

it is.

As Rav Hisda said,

that this is how to explain the measure that Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka stated, “A loaf purchased for a pundion, from four seah for a sela”:

Remove from them—

from the amount of wheat that the baker received in order to make a loaf—

one-third

for the payment of the labor of the

shopkeeper

[the baker]—

When you calculate the size of the loaf, and you have before you two facts, one being the price of the loaf that the baker takes and the other being the price of the wheat, you must take into account that the baker takes one-third of the wheat as payment for his labor.

It follows that a loaf purchased for a pundion—which contains food for two meals—contains wheat only in the approximate amount of two-thirds of a pundion, that is, two-sixths of a kav per loaf, and not half a kav per loaf, as the questioner calculated.

Here too,

also here,

bring a third and cast it upon them.

You must add one-third [“from outside,” from the entire sum], that is, half the amount, to the number of meals that the questioner calculated from two kav of wheat.

For that same amount of wheat which, according to the questioner’s view, you need for one meal, in truth you need only two-thirds of it.

And from the remaining third left to the woman from each loaf, she can make another half meal.

And the Gemara still asks: Behold,

still,

there is still no possibility of obtaining fourteen meals from two kav of wheat.

For even if we add four meals to the eight meals, which are half the amount [which, as stated, is one-third from outside of the total sum]—

twelve

[twelve] meals only

there are!

And the difficulty has still not been resolved: how will two kav of wheat suffice for fourteen meals, two meals each day!?

And we answer: We learned in our Mishna that she

eats with him on the night of Shabbat,

so it follows that she does not need wheat for fourteen meals.

And the Gemara raises an objection to the answer, for regarding the explanation of the words of the Mishna, “and she eats with him from the evening of Shabbat to the evening of Shabbat,” the amoraim disagreed

And if so,

this works out well according to the one who says

that “she eats” with him from the evening of Shabbat to the evening of Shabbat means

actual eating

, she does not need food for fourteen meals.

But according to the one who says: “eating”

means

marital relations

—what is there to say?

For according to his words, even the meal of the evening of Shabbat she eats from her own [food]!

Furthermore

, one can raise an objection: What have we gained by saying that she does not need [food] from the wheat for all the meals of the week, since she eats one meal with her husband, when in the end there are only

thirteen

meals

there are

—that is, from two kav of wheat she has thirteen meals, after adding to the twelve meals that she has from the wheat that she received another meal that she eats at her husband’s, while she nevertheless needs fourteen meals!?

Rather

, really, our Mishna is according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka.

And

as Rav Hisda said

in order to explain differently the measure of Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka in the Mishna in Eruvin

Subtract from them

—from the quantity of wheat given to the shopkeeper— \-

half for the

shopkeeper’s labor

grocer

—here too

, that is, therefore,

half comes

[the half that comes from outside, meaning: double the quantity],

and place it upon them

. You must double the quantity of meals that the objector calculated for two kav of wheat. For in fact, in one meal the woman consumes only half the quantity of wheat that the objector calculated, and the remainder remains in her possession for another meal .

And the Gemara wonders: If so,

Rav Hisda’s statement contradicts Rav Hisda’s statement!?

And we answer:

It is not difficult!

This

—where Rav Hisda said that the shopkeeper takes one-third as his wage—

is in a place where they provide firewood

[in a place where it is the buyer who provides the wood to burn it for the purpose of baking].

This

—where Rav Hisda said that the shopkeeper takes half as his wage—

is in a place where they do not provide firewood

[in a place where the buyer does not provide the wood, but it is at the seller’s expense, and therefore he takes more wheat as his wage] .

And the Gemara still wonders:

If so

—that you double the quantity of meals that can be made from two kav of wheat—for

sixteen

[sixteen meals]

there are

from two kav of wheat, while she needs only fourteen meals!?

Shall we say that our Mishna is

according to whom? According to Rabbi Hidka

[and thus the anonymous Mishna is according to Rabbi Hidka],

who says: A person is obligated to eat four meals on Shabbat

, so there are sixteen meals for her in the week, and therefore she needs two kav of wheat!?

And the Gemara explains that it is not necessary to establish our Mishna according to Rabbi Hidka.

Rather,

you may even say

that our Mishna is according to the words of

the Sages

, who say that a person is obligated to eat only three meals on Shabbat, and thus she needs fifteen meals in the week.

And as for the fact that from that quantity of wheat she makes sixteen meals, this is not difficult—

subtract one

[remove one surplus meal]

for guests and passersby

, whom she can give food to !

And the Gemara adds:

Now that you have arrived at this

[now that you have arrived at this point], namely, that she needs some of the meals for guests, there is no longer any need to explain our Mishna as being according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka, according to whose view sixteen meals can be made from two kav of wheat—

Rather,

you may even say that our Mishna is according to Rabbi Shimon

, and from two kav of wheat she can make eighteen meals in the week. Even so, our Mishna is well explained, for:

According to the Sages

, who hold that one is obligated to eat three meals on Shabbat, and thus she requires fifteen meals—

subtract three

[remove three surplus meals]

for guests and passersby

.

But according to Rabbi Hidka

, who requires four meals on Shabbat, which are sixteen meals in the week,

subtract

two

meals

for guests and passersby

, for the woman also needs to feed guests and needy people who come to her.

We learned in the Mishna:

Rabbi Yosei said: He prescribed barley

—only Rabbi Ishmael, who was near Edom:

And the Gemara wonders:

Rather, is it only in Edom that they eat barley, and everywhere else they do not eat it

, that is, did they eat barley only in Edom, while there are no places anywhere in the world where they eat barley!?

And the Gemara explains:

This is what the tanna says

, the tanna of our Mishna:

He did not prescribe barley in double the quantity of wheat

[as we learned: He should not provide her with less than two kav of wheat or four kav of barley]—

but Rabbi Ishmael, who was near Edom, because Edomite barley

is bad.

We learned in the Mishna:

And he gives her half a kav of legumes:

But

“he gives her

wine” was not taught.

And if so,

it supports

our Mishna

in favor of Rabbi Elazar!