We now turn to Mishnah 5 in the tenth chapter of Maseches Kesubos. The previous Mishnah dealt with a man who was married to several wives, and here the Mishnah discusses a man who married four wives one after the other - each in her own time - and then died. As we learned in the first Mishnah of the chapter, the wife who was married first has precedence in collecting her kesubah, and hers is the first claim on the estate.
The order of precedence in collecting:
"Mi shehayah nasui arba nashim umeis - harishonah kodemes lash'niyah, ush'niyah lash'lishis, ush'lishis lar'vi'is" - the order of collection from the estate follows the order of the marriages: the first wife has precedence over the second, the second over the third, and the third over the fourth.
The oath between the wives:
The Mishnah adds an interesting law: the first wife swears to the second, the second to the third, and the third to the fourth. Each wife who collects her kesubah is required to swear to the one who follows her that she has not already collected anything beforehand. For if nothing will be left of the estate after she collects, the wife who follows her wants an assurance that nothing was in fact collected earlier, and she is therefore entitled to demand an oath from her.
"Harishonah nishba'as lash'niyah" - the first wife swears before she collects.
"Ush'niyah lash'lishis, ush'lishis lar'vi'is" - and so too each one swears to the wife who follows her.
"V'har'vi'is nifra'as shelo bishvuah" - the fourth wife collects without any oath at all, since her collecting cannot harm anyone: she is last in line, and she collects only after all the others have already collected.
This of course refers to a case where there are no heirs and no other creditors, for if there were, the wives would be required to swear in order to collect from the heirs.
The opinion of Ben Nanas:
Ben Nanas disagrees and says: "V'chi mipnei shehi acharonah nischarah? Af hi lo tipara ela bishvuah" - should she gain an advantage merely because she is last? She too collects only with an oath.
The Gemara explains his reasoning: the fourth wife too must swear to the wives who preceded her, because of the concern that perhaps one of the fields they collected did not belong to their husband and will yet be seized from them. And if the fourth wife collects her kesubah, nothing further will remain in the estate, since the fourth wife is not obligated to return what she collected. Therefore she too collects only with an oath.
The first Tanna, however, held that the fourth wife does not require an oath, because the law is that if the fields of the earlier wives are seized, they are entitled to come to the fourth wife and seize her field by virtue of their right of precedence - and for this reason no oath is necessary.
Kesubos that were all issued on one day:
What is the law when there is no precedence among them, because all the kesubos were written on the same day? On this the Mishnah says: "V'im yatz'u kulan b'yom echad - kol hakodemes lachavertah afilu sha'ah achas, zachasah" - whichever one precedes her fellow even by a single hour is the one who wins and collects first.
"V'chach hayu kosvin biYerushalayim sha'os" - this was the practice in Jerusalem: they were not content with writing the day of the kesubah, but wrote the hour it was written as well.
"Yatz'u kulan b'sha'ah achas v'ein sham ela maneh - cholkos b'shaveh" - if they were all written at exactly the same hour, and there is only a maneh in the estate, they all divide it equally.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned the order of precedence in the collection of the kesubos of four wives - each one has precedence over the wife married after her; the obligation of each wife who collects to swear to the one who follows her; and the dispute between the first Tanna and Ben Nanas regarding the fourth wife - whether she too requires an oath because of the concern that the fields may be seized, or whether it is enough that the earlier wives can seize from her by virtue of their precedence. Finally, we learned the law of kesubos written on a single day, the practice in Jerusalem of writing the hours, and the equal division when they were all written at the very same hour.