[Avodah] The term 'erusin'

[Yitzhak Grossman]

We recently discussed the propriety of calling engagements 'erusin' and
the engaged couple "meorasim".  My friend Andy showed me that the
recently published Nitei Gavriel on Shidduchin and Tenaim (Ch. 23 n.
26, p. 284) cites (and accepts) the following in the name of the "Kol
Aryeh (Nisuin)":

"The custom that has lately become widespread, that when engagements
are announced in newspaper announcements, signs and open letters, they
print that so-and-so and so-and-so are "meorasim", this is incorrect,
since the term "erusin" in the language of the Bible and the Gemara,
and even after the sealing of the Talmud, and until our latest
generation, is used to refer to kiddushin, and not to the execution of
the tenaim, and it is therefore certainly ab initio improper to refer
to a mere tenaim as erusin.  And ab initio one should be concerned for
the Mishneh at the end of Gittin (88b) "yaza shemah ba'ir mekudeshes,
mekudeshes", and sometimes, for various reasons, the shidduch is
dissolved, and why should we publicize in the world that she is
mekkudeshes when there is not even a "re'ah kiddushin"."

I'm not claiming that these sources are authoritative, or that the
logic is compelling; I'm merely noting an interesting source.

Yitzhak
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