Study Kiddushin folio 12B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
לאו היינו דיהודית דביתהו דרבי חייא, (דהוית) [דהוה] לה צער לידה, אמרה ליה: אמרה לי אם: קביל ביך אבוך קידושי כי זוטרת. אמר לה: לאו כל כמינה דאימך דאסרה ליך עילואי.
Rav Ḥisda explained: Is this not similar to the case of Yehudit, wife of R' Ḥiyya, who would have painful childbirths and therefore wished to leave R' Ḥiyya? She said to R' Ḥiyya: My mother told me: When you were young your father accepted betrothal on your behalf from another man, which would render Yehudit forbidden to R' Ḥiyya. He said to her: It is not in your mother’s power to render you forbidden to me, as this testimony is insufficient.
Returning to the incident with the blue marble stone, the Talmud relates that the rabbis said to Rav Ḥisda: Why do you say that she is not betrothed because the item is not worth one peruta in the place where the betrothal occurred? After all, there are witnesses in Idit who know that on that day it had the value of one peruta. Rav Ḥisda said to them: Now, in any event, they are not here, and therefore their potential testimony is disregarded.
לאו היינו דרבי חנינא, דאמר רבי חנינא: עידיה בצד אסתן, ותיאסר?!
Rav Ḥisda cites a proof for his statement: Isn’t this the same as the opinion of R' Ḥanina? In the case of a woman who appeared before the court and said that she was taken captive but remained undefiled, if there are no witnesses that she was captured, her entire claim must be accepted, and therefore she is permitted to her husband. Although there are witnesses elsewhere who can testify that she was taken captive, and consequently, the court need not rely on her statement alone, as R' Ḥanina says: When her witnesses are far away in the north [istan], will she be forbidden?