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Can a man marry half a woman now and half later? The Gemara (גמרא) analyzes whether partial kiddushin creates hispas (expansion to full marriage), whether a woman can be partially betrothed, and what the man intends when he says "chatzi hayom chatzi l'machar." The conclusion: ein ishah miskadeshes el chatzi—half an ishah is nothing, yet the precise logic remains elusive.
This shiur analyzes a difficult sugya in Kiddushin 7b concerning the concept of hispas (expansion or completion) when a man attempts to marry a woman in two halves—half now and half later. The central question is whether such partial kiddushin has any validity or creates any binding status. Rabbi Zweig begins by presenting the Gemara (גמרא)'s discussion in Tamid concerning whether hispas works by an oath. The Gemara is uncertain whether an oath can undergo hispas, and this uncertainty extends to kiddushin. The Rashba explains that the reason there is no hispas by a woman is because the woman does not want to be married in halves—she either wants to be fully married or not at all. Yet if she says "shenichtech b'prutah" (you have betrothed me for a prutah), she clearly wants to give herself entirely. This creates a fundamental difficulty: if she wants to be fully married, why isn't she mekudeshes?
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Kiddushin 7b
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