daf bit: Ketuvot 61

[cellio]

A mishna teaches: if a married man makes a vow of celibacy, Beit Shammai says his wife must tolerate it for two weeks. Beit Hillel says one week. Rav says that this is only so when the man specifies a duration for the vow; if he does not, Rav says that both Shammai and Hillel require him to immediately divorce his wife and pay her ketubah. Samuel permits him to delay the divorce while looking for a way to be excused from the vow. (61b)

(There is no discussion here of limits on the duration, but I'll bet there is later in the gemara. Oh, and I don't know who Samuel is.)

This same mishna also gives the requirements for how often a man owes his wife intercourse (if she wants it), by the way. It varies by occupation, ranging from daily for men who don't work at all to every six months for sailors. I don't see scholars on the list. :-)

Comments

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

When I learned about this passage many many years ago, I thought that scholars were listed as once a week.

As for the vow of celibacy, Shammai's ruling makes a lot of sense in view of the usual practices of taharat hamishpachah (sp?). Unless of course the man vows to be celibate for the two weeks following his wife's trip to the mikveh. In which case he could well be vowing celibacy for 4 weeks, and Hillel makes a whole lot of sense.

I love this section of Talmud. For me it illustrates that the Rabbis were thinking about real life.

[cellio]

I've definitely heard a frequency for scholars; I was surprised to not see it in this mishna. I haven't reviewed all the gemara yet; maybe it's there or maybe it came later.