Study Ketubot folio 21A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
the witnesses are testifying about their handwriting and authenticating their own signatures. Therefore, if each witness testifies only with regard to his own handwriting, there is only one witness authenticating each signature. According to the Rabbis, the witnesses are testifying about the sum of
The Talmud asks: That is obvious. No analysis is necessary to arrive at this explanation of the dispute. The Talmud answers: The analysis is necessary lest you say that according to R' Yehuda HaNasi there is uncertainty whether they are testifying about their handwriting or whether the witnesses ar
And the practical difference between whether the opinion of R' Yehuda HaNasi is based on certainty or uncertainty is in a case where one of the witnesses who signed the document died. If his opinion is based on certainty that they are testifying about the signatures, one other witness testifying to
That is due to the fact that if it is so that the witnesses are testifying about the sum of 100 dinars that is in the document and only one other witness joined the surviving witness in testifying with regard to that signature, the result would be that the entire sum of money, less 1/4th, is collect
And one would have thought that R' Yehuda HaNasi would rule stringently here: When both signatories are alive they must add another witness with them to authenticate the signatures of the two witnesses, as perhaps they are testifying about their handwriting; and he would rule stringently here: Whe