[Avodah] If a woman can say "you do not need to redeem me and I will not give you peros"

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 05/18/2015 05:31 PM, Chana Luntz via Avodah wrote:
> RZS writes:
>
>> It should be borne in mind that there are still countries (including ones
>> with substantial Jewish communities) where the need for pidyon is at least
>> as common now as it probably was in Chazal's day.
>
> Are you thinking of South America?

Well, Latin America (so as to include Mexico).  There are also other such
countries, such as India, the Philippines, Nigeria, where the need for
pidyon is common, but there are not a lot of Jews living there.


> But I don't
> think the existence of a place in the world, that one would never
> contemplate living in (and is not the locus of the ketuba), is relevant to
> the obligations under that ketuba which must relate to the places that the
> couple live and the governments under which they live.

Even a couple marrying in such a country must contemplate the possibility
that one or both might one day travel to a country where kidnapping is common,
and be kidnapped.   Even in Chazal's day the danger was not so much where people
lived as on the highways and the seas, where they might travel.

Also, I am not at all sure that it is actually illegal in most normal countries
to pay ransom.  What is illegal is giving *anything* to groups that are officially
listed by that country's government as terrorists.  If the kidnappers are not on
the list, so that it would be legal to give them a gift, then I don't think there's
a law against paying them ransom.  (Perhaps there should be.)

-- 
Zev Sero               I have a right to stand on my own defence, if you
zev at sero.name          intend to commit felony...if a robber meets me in
                        the street and commands me to surrender my purse,
                        I have a right to kill him without asking questions
                                               -- John Adams