First of all, I would like to thank you for providing this excellent service. It really has helped my learning in a very big way.
I am having a bit of a difficulty with what the Tosafos on sneigor ya'aseh kteigor is saying. If I am understanding it correctly, the idea of sneigor ya'aseh kteigor cannot apply to an amah ivriah because the money goes different places when she is hired, so to speak, and when she leaves. By marriage, Tosafos says everything goes to the hands of the husband.
What I don't understand is the following: in the case of divorce, the get goes to the wife. Even more so, the wife then gains the freedom of being available to any other man (save for kohanim, of course). We know that money doesn't work by divorce, so that isn't going to the husband's hand either.
Thank you very much in advance for your help. Have a wonderful day!
Respectfully yours,
Steven Kaplan, Jerusalem, Israel
Tosfos is drawing a distinction between betrothing a woman and divorcing her on the one hand, and selling an Amah Ivriyah and redeeming her on the other. In the former case, seeing as it is the man who effects both, it would mean that he first betroths her with money (Saneigor) and then sends her away with money (Kateigor), which we cannot allow, on account of the principle "Ein Saneigor Na'asah Kateigor".
By Amah Ivriyah however, where it is the master who acquires her by giving money to her father, and the father who acquires her back by returning the money to the master, the principle of "Ein Saneigor" is not applicable, seeing as the two transactions are being carried out by two different people. And it is only natural, Tosfos adds, that the person who sells an object, redeems it by returning the money to the purchaser.
be'Virchas Kol Tuv,
Eliezer Chrysler