daf bit: Gittin 41

It was taught: if a man makes his field the security for a debt and the field is flooded by a river, the creditor may seek compensation from other property belonging to the man. If, however, the debter stipulated "you may recover only from this field", then he cannot. It was taught in a baraita that the creditor may always claim other property for a debt or a woman for her ketubah; Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel said yes for the debt and no for the ketubah, because it is not seemly for a woman to have to go to court. (41a)

(That last part is a bit of a head-scratcher for me. The rabbis seem to be concerned with her having to disentangle claims on his other property and possibly sue the other creditors for her ketubah. However, if the alternative is that she doesn't get it at all, I'm not sure why pursuing it is such a problem.)

NHC: services

The "H" in "NHC" stands for "havurah" [sic :-) ], which suggests a certain style of prayer: participatory, musical, casual. (I don't know if it's fair to equate chavurah with the Renewal movement, but there's clearly overlap.) The institute actually had a variety of services, and some of what I found surprised me.

( Read more... )