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Erev Shabbat Shalom!
Please excuse my brevity.
Perek Eleven works out the mechanics of how a widow may collect her Ketubah and the ongoing personal sustenance payments due to her from the estate of her late husband. If needed, she is authorized to sell some of her late husband's holdings (now in the possession of his heirs) in order to collect the funds that are due her.
One of the debates in the Mishnayot is about whether and when she must first receive the authorization of the Bet Din in order to proceed with these sales. As a general rule, she need not do so as long as she retains her legal status as "a widow who is due sustenance payments" (See Perek 4:12 to remind yourself of these details). The logic of this is that we presume that it was the will of her late husband that his widow be spared the trouble and annoyance of going to Bet Din every time she needs to pay her grocery bills, and that his heirs inherit his property with this understanding in mind.
The perek also explores (in Mishna 4) situations in which the widow either made a handsome profit over the market-value of the property which she sold, or if she sold it below market-value, and how this affects her ledger with her late husband's heirs.
Finally, Mishna 6 explores the question as to what kind of marriages do NOT result in a Ketubah pay off when they end. Interestingly, many forbidden (but not incestuous) marriages DO have Ketubah, with those marriages which were retroactively never marriages to begin with, do not.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Sunday's Zoom shiur with Rabbi Broyde! It was really terrific.
And please save the date for our next Zoom shiur, with Rabbi Shlomo Weissman the administrator of the Beth Din of America, on March 17th. Save the date!
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