Talmudigest For The Week Ending 1 Dec 2007 / 21 Kislev 5768

TALMUDIGEST
- For the week ending 1 December 2007 / 21 Kislev 5768
- from Ohr Somayach | www.ohr.edu


-- Ketubot 93 - 99 ------------------------------------------------
by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach
http://ohr.edu/yhiy/article.php/3300



- Dividing the deceased husband's funds between his wives
- Dividing the profits when one partner invested more than the other
- Two documents of sale bearing the same date
- The mother who gifted two sons the same property
- The wife who waived her claim to the property mortgaged for payment
of her ketubah while the other wife did not
- A gift made to one recipient on condition that after him it should
go to another designated party
- Obligations of the heirs towards the widow
- The disciple's obligations towards his teacher
- The widow who failed to demand support from the heirs and the one
who sold the inherited property for her support
- Selling her ketuba rights for support
- When the agent buys a bargain who gains the difference
- When the agent or the one who sent him is guilty of embezzlement of
sacred property
- Other dimensions of the law of agency



SERVING THE MASTER
__________________
- Ketubot 96a

The disciple of a Sage has a responsibility to serve his teacher as a
slave serves his master. This ruling of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi is
followed by a warning from Rabbi Yochanan that the teacher who denies
his disciple the ability of serving him is guilty of withholding
kindness from him.

To what form of service is Rabbi Yochanan referring?

One approach is that he is referring to the actual physical service
such as that mentioned by Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. This is based on the
concept mentioned in Pirkei Avot (4:12) by Rabbi Elazar bar Shamma that
"respect for your teacher must be like respect for Heaven". Denying the
disciple this opportunity to express his respect for Heaven in this
tangible way is therefore considered a withholding of kindness.

A different approach is that the service mentioned by Rabbi Yochanan is
participating with the Sage in the study and application of halacha.
Regarding such denial Rabbi Shimon Chasida has stated (Sanhedrin 91a)
that one who withholds the teaching of halacha from a disciple is
cursed even by the children still in their mothers' wombs. The meaning
of service in this approach is learning the halachic process from the
teacher. Although this seems to negate the physical service mentioned
in the first approach there is actually a connection between the
service mentioned by Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi and that of Rabbi
Yochanan. The reason for the disciple's obligation to physically serve
his teacher is that he should always be near to him and thus learn
halacha from him.


WHAT THE SAGES SAY
__________________

"The teacher who denies his disciple the opportunity to serve him is
guilty of removing from him the fear of Heaven."

- Rabbi Nachman bar Yitzchak - Ketubot 96a