Ketubot 86b: If He Does *Not* Set Her Up As A Shopkeeper

The Mishna in Ketubot 86b, reads, according to the printed version of the Rif:

Mishna:

המושיב את אשתו חנונית או שמינה אפוטרופא הרי זה משביעה כל זמן שירצה
לא הושיבה חנונית ולא מינה אפוטרופא ה"ז אינו יכול להשביעה
רבי אליעזר אומר אפילו על פלכה ועל עיסתה

If one sets up his wife as a shopkeeper or appoints her as an adminstratrix, he may compel her to swear to him whenever he wants.
If he does not set her up as a shopkeeper or as an administratrix, he is not able to compel her to swear to him.
Rabbi Eliezer says: Even on her spindle and her dough.

However, Bach says to cross out the second sentence, לא הושיבה חנונית ולא מינה אפוטרופא ה"ז אינו יכול להשביעה. Indeed, it is not in our Mishna in the gemara, and is not in the same Mishna in Yerushalmi.

This is relevant because our gemara has a discussion of the meaning of Rabbi Eliezer's statement. Is he talking lechatchila or bedieved. That is, is he saying that ab initio, without any status of shopkeeper of administratrix, he can make her swear about her spindle and her dough, such that he is arguing with the Tanna Kamma? Or (this goes with the ab initio bit), is he saying that by virtue of the fact that she works with spindle and dough for him, she is a sort of administratrix, such that he can compel her to swear? Or is he saying {as a bedieved} that once he makes her swear about her duties as shopkeeping, he can roll over am additional oath about her spindle and her dough?

In other words, does אפילו in Rabbi Eliezer's statement go on the things he can make he swear about {the "cheftza"} or on the status of the woman he can make swear {the "gavra"}?

This is somewhat more ambiguous without the words that Bach tells us to remove from the text of Rif's Mishna. For the Tanna Kamma says he can compel her to swear whenever, and he is perhaps extending the subject matter upon which she swears, with the words אפילו. Thus, it can be read as an extension of the Tanna Kamma.

But with these words inserted, it is being stressed that there are situations where he cannot compel her to swear. Juxtapose Rabbi Eliezer's statement of אפילו with this, and it reads more as an argument with the Tanna Kamma, that he even allows swearing where she is not an administratrix. Perhaps for some unknown reason, or perhaps because work on spindle and dough is enough to consider her an administratrix.

Indeed, with the words inserted, it matches the words in the brayta {and if we argue the words were not initially present in the Mishna, perhaps we can say they were accidentally copied from this brayta}. That brayta reads {86b}:

ת"ש הרי שלא פטר את אשתו מן הנדר ומן השבועה והושיבה חנוונית או שמינה אפוטרופיא הרי זה משביעה כל זמן שירצה
לא הושיבה חנוונית ולא מינה אפוטרופיא אינו יכול להשביעה
רבי אליעזר אומר אע"פ שלא הושיבה חנוונית ולא מינה אפוטרופיא הרי זה משביעה כל זמן שירצה שאין לך אשה שלא נעשית אפוטרופיא שעה אחת בחיי בעלה על פילכה ועל עיסתה
אמרו לו אין אדם דר עם נחש בכפיפה
שמע מינה לכתחלה שמע מינה

Note that the statement לא הושיבה חנוונית ולא מינה אפוטרופיא אינו יכול להשביעה is present. And that Rabbi Eliezer is expanded, such that אפילו is expanded into אע"פ שלא הושיבה חנוונית ולא מינה אפוטרופיא הרי זה משביעה כל זמן שירצה, and על פלכה ועל עיסתה is expanded so that it is clear that it is because of her dough and spindle that he can make her swear, for she is now considered an administratrix: שאין לך אשה שלא נעשית אפוטרופיא שעה אחת בחיי בעלה על פילכה ועל עיסתה.

This represents a Tannaitic expansion of the shorter version, and thus an interpretation of the shorter version.

Now, perhaps we should therefore say the girsa in the Mishna should be as without the sentence there. After all, the Mishna needs to be ambiguous in order for the setama digmara to feel compelled to resolve this. However, we might answer that that part, in and of itself, is not sufficient to remove all ambiguity. It is only the phrases inserted in to Rabbi Eliezer's position (rather than the Tanna Kamma's position) that makes this brayta entirely unambiguous.