How do you assign value to something that is priceless? As the saying goes though, the best things in life are free.

As we discussed in yesterday’s daf, the kesubas benin dichrin is a circumvention of Torah inheritance law designed to encourage the father of the bride to give generous dowries. We also discussed that they only allowed the Kesubas Benin Dichrin clause to be activated when there would be at least one dinar left from the estate inherited equally by all his sons, after both kesubos were given to each of the step children. This way there is still a fulfillment of the traditional inheritance (Kesuvos 52b).

We might ask, where does the amount of a Dinar come from? Usually, a perutah is taken as the minimum Torah shiur for monetary matters. Damages and theft less than a peruta are not considered financially significant (see Mishna Bava Metzi’a 4:7). Why require in this case a dinar?

In certain scenarios we require more than a minimum amount, and in the rabbinic system, a dinar is considered to be something substantial beyond the minimum. (This comes up in a number of halachos, see Tosafos Yom Tov Peah 8:8.)

Most famously, the first Mishna in Kiddushin discussed the minimum gift that must be given to a woman to enact Kiddushin. Beis Hillel says a perutah, but Bais Shammai says it must be a dinar. Why a dinar? 

Gemara Kiddushin (12a) explains:

רָבָא אָמַר הַיְינוּ טַעְמָא דְּבֵית שַׁמַּאי שֶׁלֹּא יְהוּ בְּנוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל כְּהֶפְקֵר

Rava says, in order that the daughters of Israel not be treated as cheap and hefker. 

Bais Shammai holds that a perutah is too cheap and disrespectful to use as the coinage to enact Kiddushin.

But we now have a problem on our hands. Are we to say that Bais Hillel is fine with the daughters of Israel being cheapened? That cannot be so! I believe the answer is the same as why some things are priceless, literally. Bais Hillel felt that putting any amount, even an astronomical sum, would still cheapen marriage. It is similar to the Gemara (Berachos 33b), where Rabbi Chanina sarcastically rebuked someone who composed excessive prayers praising God beyond the rabbinic nusach, “Have you completed praising your master?”

Perhaps this is also reflected in another dispute between Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel found in Kesuvos (17a):

כַּלָּה כְּמוֹת שֶׁהִיא. וּבֵית הִלֵּל אוֹמְרִים: ״כַּלָּה נָאָה וַחֲסוּדָה״. אָמְרוּ לָהֶן בֵּית שַׁמַּאי לְבֵית הִלֵּל: הֲרֵי שֶׁהָיְתָה חִיגֶּרֶת אוֹ סוֹמָא, אוֹמְרִים לָהּ: ״כַּלָּה נָאָה וַחֲסוּדָה״? וְהַתּוֹרָה אָמְרָה: ״מִדְּבַר שֶׁקֶר תִּרְחָק״! אָמְרוּ לָהֶם בֵּית הִלֵּל לְבֵית שַׁמַּאי: לְדִבְרֵיכֶם, מִי שֶׁלָּקַח מִקָּח רַע מִן הַשּׁוּק, יְשַׁבְּחֶנּוּ בְּעֵינָיו, אוֹ יְגַנֶּנּוּ בְּעֵינָיו? הֱוֵי אוֹמֵר: יְשַׁבְּחֶנּוּ בְּעֵינָיו. מִכָּאן אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים: לְעוֹלָם תְּהֵא דַּעְתּוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם מְעוֹרֶבֶת עִם הַבְּרִיּוֹת.

Bais Shammai says, One recites praise of the bride as she is, emphasizing her good qualities. And Beis Hillel say: One recites: A fair and attractive bride. Beit Shammai said to Beis Hillel: In a case where the bride was lame or blind, does one say with regard to her: A fair and attractive bride? But the Torah states: “Keep you from a false matter” (Exodus 23:7). Beis Hillel said to Beis Shammai: According to your statement, with regard to one who acquired an inferior acquisition from the market, should another praise it and enhance its value in his eyes or condemn it and diminish its value in his eyes? You must say that he should praise it and enhance its value in his eyes and refrain from causing him anguish. From here the Sages said: A person’s disposition should always be empathetic with mankind, and treat everyone courteously. In this case too, once the groom has married his bride, one praises her as being fair and attractive.

We can say that Bais Shammai is consistent in the sense that they will fairly and pragmatically assign a value to the Kallah. While Bais Hillel considers every bride priceless (at least to her groom) and therefore in Kiddushin we assign no number, represented in the perutah, and in her praise, well the sky is the limit.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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