Study Nazir folio 12B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אלא הכי קאמר: אי משכחנא דהוי נזיר, אגלחיה. הכא נמי, הכי קאמר ליה: אי משכחת דמיגרשה, קדיש לי.
Rather, it can be explained that this is what he is saying: If I find someone who becomes a nazirite, I will shave him. Here too, in the case of betrothal, this is what the one who appointed the agent is saying to the agent: Even if the woman you find is married at this moment but when you come to her you discover that she has been divorced in the meantime, betroth her to me. If so, he would be prohibited from marrying her sister, contrary to the ruling of Rava.
אמרי: לא משוי איניש שליח אלא במילתא דמצי עביד השתא, במילתא דלא מצי עביד ליה השתא — לא משוי.
The Talmud rejects this comparison: The rabbis say that there is a distinction between the two cases: A person appoints an agent only for a matter that he himself can perform now, at the time of the appointment, but for a matter that he cannot perform now, he does not appoint an agent. Consequently, the agent cannot betroth a woman who was married at the time of his appointment. The one who appointed the agent may therefore marry the sister of the recently divorced woman, as stated by Rava.
ולא? תא שמע, האומר לאפוטרופוס שלו: ״כל נדרים שתדור אשתי מכאן עד שאבוא ממקום פלוני — הפר לה״, והפר לה, יכול יהו מופרין — תלמוד לומר: ״אישה יקימנו ואישה יפרנו״, דברי רבי יאשיה. ורבי יונתן אומר: מצינו בכל מקום ששלוחו של אדם כמותו.
The Talmud asks another question on the ruling of Rava: And can one not appoint an agent to betroth a woman in this manner? Come and hear a baraita that indicates the contrary: One who says to the steward [apotropos] of his affairs: All vows that my wife will vow from now until I come from such and such a place, nullify for her, and the steward nullified them for her, one might have thought they are nullified. Therefore, the verse states: “Her husband sustains the vow and her husband nullifies the vow” (Numbers 30:14); this is the statement of R' Yoshiya. The repetition of “husband” teaches that it is the husband alone who may nullify his wife’s vows. And R' Yonatan says: We have found in all places that the legal status of a person’s agent is like that of himself. Therefore, a steward, who serves as the husband’s agent, may nullify the wife’s vows.