Legal document: AIU VII.D.34

Description

Fragment from a responsum dealing with matters of betrothal. The fragment was written by the same scribe who wrote AIU D 75 which is a fragment from Siddur R. Shelomo ben Natan that was written in the twelfth century. Thus, the document must have been written in the twelfth century or after it. It appears that the question involved a betrothal that was carried out with haste (see line 3) by an inexperienced man. The respondent expresses his displeasure that the betrothal was conducted by someone who was not 'experienced in the matter of marriage and divorce' and requests to know how exactly the marriage was conducted: were the objects of betrothal handed directly to the bride or her representatives, and were those appointed in front of two witnesses? Was the expression 'for the purpose of complete betrothal' uttered when then objects of betrothal were handed over? He asks the person who presented the responsum to warn the public that such cases should not happen again.