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Can a gift conditional on return (matanah al menas lehachzir) create kedusha or kedushin on only half an item? The Gemara (גמרא) compares sanctifying half an animal (regel shezu olah) to betrothing half a woman (chatzi isha). Two approaches emerge: Rambam (רמב"ם) holds there's no fundamental prohibition against chatzi isha—only that kedushin spreads by necessity—while Rashi (רש"י) holds chatzi isha is fundamentally invalid, requiring the maimar itself to expand (hispashtus dibur).
This shiur examines Kiddushin 7a and the principle of hispashtus (spreading out) in both kedusha (sanctity) and kedushin (betrothal). The central question is whether kedusha or kedushin can take effect on half an item, and if so, how it extends to the whole. The Gemara (גמרא) opens with a difficulty: can you sanctify half an animal (regel shezu olah—"this leg is an olah offering")? By kedusha, such a statement seems to work—the kedusha spreads from the starting point (the leg) to the entire animal. But by kedushin, the Gemara states that you cannot betroth "chatzi isha" (half a woman)—either because "isha ve'lo chatzi isha" (the Torah (תורה) requires a whole woman) or because "itzbei trei lo chazia" (she cannot be available to two men). If chatzi isha doesn't work at all, how can we say the kedusha "spreads out" (venifshetu kedusha bekula)?
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Kiddushin 7a
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