The gemara says that although one is technically not obligated to support their children past the age of 6 (we still embarrass him into it as the gemara said on 49b), but very young children under the age of 6 one is obligated to support. The gemara proves this from the fact that a child under 6 is tied to his mother (and therefore follows her eiruv techumin rather than the fathers), so rashi explains "just as he must feed the mother, he must also feed the child with her". The Ran offers a slightly different approach that a young child and a mother are considered "like one body". According to both explanations, the Ran maintains that the requirement of the father to support his young child is a'gav the mother, but if the mother passes away then the father would not have an obligation to even support a very young child, since his entire obligation is simply to add extra food for the mother from which she can feed the child.
It would also seem from this Ran that if a mother would give up her own support by saying "don't feed me and don't take my earnings", it would be the mother's obligation (if any) to feed the child, but the father would not be obligated since his obligation is only when he is feeding the mother.
However, in Shulchan Aruch (71:1) this distinction is not made, and the Beis Shmuel points out that we do not follow the Ran, so a father must support a child even if the mother passes away.
3 comments:
i didn't understand the gemara, the gemara tries to prove from our mishna this din of rav asi, but according to rav asi the mishna should've said not only מניקה but any mother of a child up to 6? the mishna seems to say a specific din to מניקה if anything its a proof against rav asi???
The Ran deals with precisely that point. The proof from the mishna is not for the amount of time that the father must support the child, rather just to the fact that the father must support a child who is tied to the mother. The only rationale that the gemara could think of to explain why he has to feed the child is because the child is drawn after the mother (which would extend beyond the nursing period). Therefore, since we know for the eiruv din that a child is tied and drawn to the mother for six years, it must be that a father must support the child for 6 years.
shkoyach, i will look up.
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