Fact-Checking the Torah -- women as persons

We’re working on the laws in Deuteronomy 22:13-29.  These laws allow a groom to charge his bride with adultery if he thinks she wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night, a charge subject to all the same due process rules as murder.  But if it’s his fault, and her father doesn’t forbid it, he has to marry her and can’t divorce her.

But the girl isn’t stuck in the marriage.  A long time ago I pointed out “the law of daughters,” which says that a man who takes more than one wife has to allow all of them proper food, clothing, and their conjugal rights.

If the husband hates the wife he was forced to marry and refuses her conjugal rights, she can get somebody to go to court for her, and the court can force the husband to agree to a divorce.  It’s his fault, and the money he put down for her marriage contract goes to her.  Mishnah prescribes the situations in which she can demand this divorce.  For example, if he is in logistics and goes with his caravans to far-away cities, she may have to put up with only a couple of nights a year with him.

If he refuses to clothe and feed her, there’s another situation.  Mishnah describes the minimum support a poor man has to give his wife, and then says “and it’s all according to his wealth.”  It reflects badly on a man if he has a median income but his wife has to dress like a poor woman because he won’t pay for more.  What’s more, whatever she does around the house, she can use for income.  In those days, women were responsible for turning the family wool into fabric.  She was allowed to sell this.  If her husband failed to support her, she kept the money.

Mishnah also made the husband responsible for paying for the wife’s burial, for redeeming her if she is kidnapped, and for paying medical bills when she is sick or after childbirth.

Two other situations could lead to divorce.  If a husband took a performance oath not to fulfill his responsibilities, and the court tried to annul the oath but he wouldn’t co-operate, they could force him to divorce her.

Finally, if the husband refused to let his wife go to weddings and funerals, he turned his wife into a social outcast.  His only justification was if he could name people who frequented the house who had bad reputations or even were known criminals.  If he couldn’t do that, the court could force him to agree to a divorce, and he had to pay her the money put down with the marriage contract.

In the west women became non-persons upon marriage.  It was extremely difficult to get a divorce, no matter what the situation.  Usually she had to prove both ill treatment and abandonment, while the husband only had to prove adultery to divorce his wife.  What’s more, the husband could and sometimes would take entire possession of the wife’s property at and after marriage, waste it and leave her to starve.  She couldn’t do a thing about it, except possibly run away, and he could sue to make her come back, because the man had the conjugal rights and he could sue to enforce them.
For next week study Leviticus 21:7 and 9, 13 and 14, because I will set aside your objections based on verse 9.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

Bit at a Time Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 2:20

Genesis 2:20

 

כ וַיִּקְרָא הָאָדָם שֵׁמוֹת לְכָל־הַבְּהֵמָה וּלְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּלְכֹל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה וּלְאָדָם לֹא־מָצָא עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ:

 

Transliteration: va-yiqra ha-adam shemot l-khal-ha-b’hemah u-l’of ha-shamaim u-l’khol chayat ha-sadeh u-l’adam lo-matsa ezer k’negdo.

Translation:    The man gave names to all the domestic animals and the flyer of the sky and all the wild animals but no help opposite him did he find for the man.

Vocabulary in this lesson:

מָצָא

He found

 

See lesson 56 on Genesis 2:10 for the conjugation of yatsa.  Matsa is identical, except in the future/aorist, because yatsa has that yod at the start which frequently disappears in the future, while matsa has a mem which never disappears.  So I’m only going to give you the future/aorist of matsa.

 

Future/aorist

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
אֶמְצָא	נִמְצָא	First
תִּמְצָא	תִּמְצָאוּ	Second/masculine
תִּמְצְאִי	תִּמְצֶאנָה	Second/feminine
יִמְצָא	יִמְצְאוּ	Third/masculine
תִּמְצָא	תְּמְצֶאנָה	Third/feminine

 

Notice that this is NOT the same word as matso, the unleavened bread of Passover.  Matso ends with a heh, not an alef.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

Fact-Checking the Torah -- "You knew all along"

We’re working on the laws in Deuteronomy 22:13-29.  These laws allow a groom to charge his bride with adultery if he thinks she wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night, a charge subject to all the same due process rules as murder. 

The charge falls to the ground without witnesses, or if the judges can’t vote a supermajority to convict.

The girl could raise three defenses: migo, admitting the facts but with an explanation of accident.  She could also say “you did it”; according to some local customs, the groom was secluded with the bride before the wedding ceremony.

The third defense is this.  If the girl is put on trial for adultery, and convicted, the court has the option of declaring a delay in the execution to bring in witnesses.  This actually happened once to somebody accused of trying to convert Jews to paganism.  He got 40 days in jail while the court waited for these witnesses. 

During this period messengers go out announcing the criminal’s name, crime, verdict, and witnesses.  Anybody who knows of exonerating testimony is expected to show up and prove that the witnesses were false.  The court can declare a delay as long as through the entire cycle of three pilgrimage festivals; a crime that took place the day after Sukkot ends could potentially result in a delay through the next Sukkot.

Because of arguments over the ketubbah, and the hardship and expense of travel in those days, the groom might have been in town between the signing of the contract and the wedding ceremony, and he would have known about his fiancee’s transgressions through gossip in the town. If the ketubbah was signed early, he might have heard about the adultery from the messengers who were looking for witnesses.  He went through with the marriage anyway.   The girl’s defense is “You knew what I was and you married me anyway.”

This also is the background for the verses saying that the man can never divorce her.  If he was the one who took her virginity, either in the city or in the town, he has to marry her unless her father absolutely forbids it.  Then he can never divorce her. 

Which brings up another issue that separates Jewish family law from western family law over the last, oh, 25 centuries.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

Bit at a Time Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 2:19

Genesis 2:19

 

יט וַיִּצֶר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהִים מִן־הָאֲדָמָה כָּל־חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה וְאֵת כָּל־עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וַיָּבֵא אֶל־הָאָדָם לִרְאוֹת מַה־יִּקְרָא־לוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָא־לוֹ הָאָדָם נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה הוּא שְׁמוֹ:

 

Transliteration: va-yitser **** elohim min-ha-adamah kal-chayat ha-sadeh v-et kal-of ha-shamaim va-yave el-ha-adam lirot mah-yiqra-lo v’-khol asher yiqra-lo ha-adam nefesh chayah, hu sh’mo.

Translation:    **** Gd formed from the earth all wild animals and all flyers of the sky and brought [them] to the man to see what he would call them and everything that the man called them, a living soul, that was its name.

Vocabulary in this lesson:

לִרְאוֹת	To see
יָּבֵא	Brought, causative of “come”

 

Here is the conjugation of “come, go” because it is an extremely common verb, whilc “bring” is not.  The root of “come, go” is bet vav alef. 

 

The difference between the feminine third singular present and past is that in the past tense, the stress is on the first syllable and in the present tense, the stress is on the last syllable.  Normally the stress in Hebrew words is on the last syllable, but in a past tense verb it is on the next to last syllable and that’s the only thing that distinguishes the feminines in this verb.

 

We are now at the end of the second aliyah.  Go to the Navigating the Bible page and listen to the Second Reading for Bereishit.

http://bible.ort.org/books/torahd5.asp?ACTION=displayid&id=35

 

Present

Singular	Plural	Gender
בָּא	בָּאיִם	Masculine
בָּאָה	בָּאוֹת	Feminine

 

Past

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
בָּאתִי	בָּאנוּ	First
בָּאתָ	בָּאתֶם	Second/masculine
בָּאתְ	בָּאתֶן	Second/feminine
בָּא	בָּאוּ	Third/masculine
בָּאָה	בָּאוּ	Third/feminine

 

Future/aorist

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
אָבוֹא	נָבוֹא	First
תָּבאוֹ	תָּבוֹאוּ	Second/masculine
תָּבאִי	תָּבוֹאנָה	Second/feminine
יָבוֹא	יָבוֹאוּ	Third/masculine
תָּבוֹא	תָּבוֹאנָה	Third/feminine

 

 © Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

Outdoors -- February

What would February be without snow?
But it's not all bad.
Yesterday temps were above freezing and the way things have been, that was a heat wave.
The sun shone all day, and in February it's already quite strong and warm.
My backyard planter was completely in the sun at noon.
The sky is light until almost 6 and actual sunset is after 5:30.
My cardinal and the black-crested titmice are calling regularly to establish their turf.
Your trees should be budding and your shrubs will do so soon -- my privet is flushed yellow which shows the sap is rising.
Hang on, spring is coming!
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

DIY -- reminder

We should have known this if we were adults 12 months ago and living where it snows.
You have to listen to weather reports and take snow forecasts seriously.
Stock up on canned and other food that won't go bad.
Things you don't have to cook to eat.
Things you can cook in advance that won't spoil without refrigeration.
You also have to plan for burst pipes by keeping bottled water in the house.

When there's snow in the forecast, you have to plan for NOT getting to a restaurant to eat.
For at least a day.
Probably longer.
Because the restaurant's suppliers won't be able to bring in supplies.
You have to plan for NO recharging for phones and tablets and video games.
You have to plan for limited lighting.
You have to plan for your heating system not coming on because the thermostats don't work.

I'm counting my blessings right now because even in the heavy winds Sunday night into Monday
My power stayed on
I kept my car battery charged
I got to the store before the snow started.
If it stays on I'll be baking an apple pie, making an omelet, reheating sauerkraut and kielbasa, frying potatoes with spinach, knitting, working on Bible studies and other reading........
Because I DIY including planning to survive storms.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

Fact-Checking the Torah -- defenses against adultery

We’re working on the laws in Deuteronomy 22:13-29.  These laws allow a groom to charge his bride with adultery if he thinks she wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night, a charge subject to all the same due process rules as murder. 

The charge falls to the ground if they can’t find the necessary witnesses, or the examination of witnesses doesn’t allow enough of the judges to vote to convict.

But the girl has three defenses to the charge; they are described in Mishnah and Gemara.

One is called migo.  If she says, “You’re right, my parents don’t have the tokens of my virginity, but it was an accident,” the court believes her.  She could have denied the charge of non-virginity, but she admits it.  American law has a similar admission against penal interest, and in Jewish law the explanation serves to clear the girl.

Another is called “the man has to drink from his own pot.”  The girl can say “You’re right, my parents don’t have the tokens of my virginity, but my betrothed is the man I had sex with.”  A man can’t complain about a situation he was responsible for.

This situation particularly existed in Jerusalem where, according to Mishnah, it was the custom to seclude the bride and groom after they signed the contract but before the wedding ceremony.  There’s a sad kind of logic to that which reflects the verses in Deuteronomy.

Some of the verses say “if he caught her in the city and lay with her,” then she can be accused of adultery if she didn’t scream.

If she screamed for help, she can’t be accused of adultery.

But there’s a twist.  Remember, whether she screamed or not, people have to intervene and try to stop the adultery or they can’t testify against her in court.

The point is that in a big city, a girl sent out on errands ran a certain amount of risk, and a man who contracted a marriage with her accepted the risk that she wasn’t a virgin.  The custom of secluding the bride and groom together saved face for her, because she could use the “your fault” argument instead of having to undergo an adultery trial.

The issue resolved here, that western societies rejected until about a century ago, is this.  The girl is married at the point that the virginity issue came up.  In western culture, a married girl became a non-person.  Her “person” was absorbed into that of her husband.  She could not sign contracts; she could not own property. 

In Jewish law, women were always persons once they became adults.  They signed their own wedding contracts.  They could own land and other property.  They could bequeath property independent of their husbands.  On which more later.  But first, another legal excuse for the woman.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved