Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer · Siman 105

Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer 105 — English translation

Translation: Sefaria Community Translation. Section numbers match the Hebrew text above.

1. 1A woman is allowed to sell or give to others her marriage contract whether it is all of it or just part of it. The buyer or the receiver take her place that if she should become a widow or a divorcee they get to receive her marriage contract. But if she should die during the lifetime of her husband then they get nothing. If she sold it to her husband, the sale is a sale and there cannot be a delay unless he would write her another one that would be in the spirit of the marriage contract.
2. 2The woman who sells her ketubbah to others and her husband dies in her lifetime, if she died before she swore regarding her ketubbah, the one who bought it and the one who accepted it [do not receive] anything. Regarding what are we speaking? When she is widowed and she died, [in the case] when she was not able to pay [off the debt] from [being upon] the orphans except by oath. But if she was divorced and she died, the purchasers swear an oath that they have not left an order, and they take. And specifically when she died, but if she is alive, she needs to swear that it will be paid, and if she does not want to swear, the purchasers will lose [their money]. If she said that she will be paid after she sells [her ketubbah], she is believed, because if she had wanted to forgive [the debt]. But if she said that it will be paid before the sale, she is not believed.
3. 3The one who died and leaves children and a widow [behind], and the widow died before she swore [an oath] regarding the ketubbah, the first born takes two times [as much].
4. 4The one who sells her ketubbah, either to her husband or to others, she does not lose anything from the conditions of the ketubbah. But the one who forgives her ketubbah to her husband [so that he does not have to pay], she loses all of the conditions of the ketubbah. Ribash: And even her dowry is lost, if she is not visable. Mahariv: And there are those who say that her dowry is not lost except if she said so: All that is in the document is forgiven to you.
5. 5One who gives up her marriage contract does not need to effect a transaction and does not need witnesses, as long as her words can be relied upon, and they are not words of jest and jeering or words of astonishment, but rather have the proper mindset. Rem"a: For example, if he had been constantly quarreling with her and she gave up her marriage contract to him so that he might dwell with her in harmony, her absolution is nullified even though she did not claim that it was forced (Responsa of the Rashb"a #883).
6. 6One who sells a debt document to his fellow, and then he goes back and forgives the debt, it is forgiven. And even the inheritor may forgive. Therefore, if she sells her ketubah and her husband dies and then she dies, her son can forgive the debt, and the sale will be invalid. And even if she has no inheritor except for this son, and it turns out that he has to pay her the ketubah, he can forgive it for himself in order to annul the sale and then he inherits the ketubah.
7. 7If, in the life of his father, a man sold the ketuba of his mother, so that in the circumstance that his father died first, and then his mother died, and he would consequentially inherit his mother's ketuba, and the purchaser would stand in his place to collect the ketuba from the estate, and he made a condition that if his mother complained about the sale, that [the purchaser] would not remove her from her complaint; and she subsequently died without having complained about the sale; the son may not say, "I stand in the place of my mother, and just like she could have complained about the transaction, I can also complain about the transaction and hereby abrogate it," for he has definitely relinquished his own right to complain.

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