Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Sage-shopping in the Talmud?

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Marriage: A Math Problem. Studying who’s owed what, when, and how much in cases of divorce, widowing, and inheritance.
In practice, however, it’s easy to imagine that this open-ended legal system could present some problems. If two Sages followed different legal traditions, rival litigants could easily engage in “sage-shopping,” finding the one who would be most sympathetic to their claim. And if rabbis of equal sanctity made opposite rulings in a case, whose view would prevail? Exactly this problem came up in this week’s Daf Yomi reading, in Ketubot 94b. Chapter Ten of Ketubot deals with complex issues of inheritance and debt, one of which is how to deal with rival deeds to the same property that were issued on the same date. Say that Yaakov owns a house, and he signs a deed giving it to Reuven, but later the same day he signs another deed giving it to Shimon. Who gets the house?
Marital financial law is complicated. Especially financial law for polygamous marriages.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.