May these words of Torah serve as a merit le’iluy nishmat Menachem Mendel ben Harav Yoel David Balk a”h.
Kiddushin 63
How to Treat Employees
The Baraita taught that a man can betroth a woman with working for her as an employee. If he tells her, “Become married to me from the work that I will do for you,” if he then performs the labor she would be married to him. An employee deserves to get paid. Since he deserves wages, performing the labor is considered giving a gift to the woman and she becomes married to him through the gift.
Rav Zilberstein was asked the following question about paying employees. A man made a wedding in a fancy hall. Typically at a wedding, the members of the band sit and eat at a table near the bandstand during one of the courses and play a recording to maintain a nice atmosphere in the hall. The band members sat down to eat at a table and put on a CD for the enjoyment of the guests. The father of the bride approached them. He told them that he did not have enough space for his guests. Each plate cost him more than 200 shekel. He told them to please get up from the table so that others could sit there. The band members did so. They were hungry though. So they ordered pizza. Fifteen minutes later the pizza delivery man walked through the fancy hall carrying a tray of pizza and soda. The band members ate pizza for supper and played music for the duration of the wedding. After the wedding, the father of the bride had a complaint. “You humiliated me. True I did not give you to eat and you were hungry. However, why did you have the delivery man walking through our fancy hall? Why eat in public? You could have eaten outside? You owe me money for causing me shame. I wish to only pay you half of your price.” Who was right?
Rav Zilberstein ruled that the band members were right and the host wrong. The Mishnah teaches in Bava Metzia that one who hires employees must treat them according to the practice in the land. If the normal practice is to feed them while they work, he must feed them while they work. The normal practice with band members is to allow them to eat at the wedding. The host had no right to refuse to feed them. He caused himself his own embarrassment by not giving them the meals that they were entitled to. As a result, he owed them the full price for their labor. (Chashukei Chemed)
Kiddushin 64
May a Younger Sibling Marry Before an Older Sibling?
Rav Moshe Feinstein was asked about the following case: A man had found a wonderful shidduch for his young son. The couple were amenable and the father of the bride wanted the marriage to occur quickly before the groom would reach the age of 20. The father of the groom wished to delay. He had an older son. The older brother would feel bad were his younger brother to marry before he did. Perhaps, the younger brother should wait until the older brother found a spouse and married? Perhaps, only after the marriage of the older brother would it be correct for the younger brother to marry?
Rav Moshe ruled that the younger brother should marry and not wait for his older brother. He proved this ruling from Kiddushin 64. The Mishnah taught that if a man married off his daughter but did not specify which daughter he intended to marry off, he certainly married off the daughter who was a minor and not the daughter who was an adult. The Gemara explained that the Mishnah was discussing a scenario where the adult daughter had appointed her father to serve as her shaliach to marry her off. Nevertheless, we are sure that the father married off the younger daughter. The reason for this is that a father has an obligation to marry of his daughter who is not yet an adult, and he would not ignore this obligation to first help his daughter who was no longer his obligation. This is difficult. In truth, a father always has an obligation to marry off his daughter. Even if she has reached adulthood he has a mitzvah to marry her off. Why, then, did the Gemara characterize him as being more obligated to his younger daughter than to his older daughter? Rav Moshe explained that only the father had the obligation to marry off the younger daughter; the older daughter, however, was obligated herself to find a spouse in addition to her father’s obligation to help her. The Gemara meant to say that a father would certainly first fulfill the obligation that was exclusively his before fulfilling the obligation that was partially his and partially upon his daughter. If it is morally wrong for a younger child to marry before the older child, how can Halacha be sure that the father married off his younger child before his older child? A father would not want to perform an act that was forbidden or discouraged. We see from the Gemara that it is not wrong for a younger sibling to marry before the older one gets married. Therefore, Rav Feinstein instructed the young couple to marry promptly. (Daf al hadaf)
By Rabbi Zev Reichman
