[Avodah] [Areivim] Beyom Chasunaso

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Sep 03, 2007 at 10:17:15AM +0300, Danny Schoemann wrote:
:> How much of this makes sense if the kallah picked out the ring and
:> knows *exactly* how much it cost her chasan?

: True, but then it becomes the norm; "everybody" will do it, and you're
: back at the original problem. One could argue "lo plug".

The minhag is because she might overestimate the value and thus her
acceptance would be a meqach ta'us. (As the original poster, RMK,
guessed.)

But once it's a minhag, the fact that the rationale doesn't really apply
is irrelevent. Otherwise, I would have a wider menu for Pesach.

There was a time when Ashkenazi men gave their wives far from simple
and easy to price rings, with a house sculpted on top. Here is a 14th
cent example <http://tinyurl.com/2dxmzn>.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             "Fortunate indeed, is the man who takes
micha at aishdas.org        exactly the right measure of himself,  and
http://www.aishdas.org   holds a just balance between what he can
Fax: (270) 514-1507      acquire and what he can use." - Peter Latham