Bava Metzia 67A

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Text Excerpt

הוה יתיבנא קמיה דרב נחמן, ובעי לאותביה אונאה, ואודיק, חזיתן איילונית. והרי אונאה דמחילה בטעות היא, ולא הויא מחילה! ואודיק, חזיתן איילונית: הרי איילונית דמחילה בטעות היא, והויא מחילה.

I was sitting before Rav Naḥman when he said that mistaken forgiveness is valid, and I wanted to raise an objection to him from the halakha of exploitation, and he observed me, anticipated my objection, and showed me that he was correct based on the halakha of a sexually underdeveloped woman who is incapable of bearing children [ailonit]. The Talmud explains: Rava wanted to ask: But there is the case of exploitation, where the price paid in a sale was in excess of the market value (see 50b), which is a case of mistaken forgiveness at the time of the sale, and yet it is not considered forgiveness. The seller must return the excess money paid. And he observed me and showed me the halakha of an ailonit. Doesn’t the case of an ailonit involve mistaken forgiveness, and yet it is valid forgiveness?

דתנן: הממאנת והשנייה והאיילונית, אין להן לא כתובה ולא פירות ולא מזונות ולא בלאות.

Rava explains: As we learned in a Mishnah (Ketubot 100b): In the case of a minor girl married off by her mother or brother who refuses to continue living with her husband, and in the case of a woman who is a secondary forbidden relative, and in the case of an ailonit, each of these women is not entitled to payment of a marriage contract, and they are not entitled to remuneration for the produce that the husband consumed from her property while they were together, and they are not entitled to sustenance, and they are not entitled to their worn clothes that were brought into the marriage as part of their dowry and became worn out during the marriage. The ailonit granted the rights to the profits the husband earned from her property while under the mistaken premise that she was married. Yet after the marriage was determined to have been contracted in error, the husband does not have to return these profits.

Text data via Sefaria: William Davidson Edition - English and William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic, CC-BY-NC; edition provenance: Koren. Display terminology has been modernized for readability.