Meir’s responsa and also in their content out of an excellent responsum by the R
Rabbi Meir b. Baruch out of Rothenburg (Maharam, c.1215–1293) writes one to “A beneficial Jew have to prize their spouse more the guy honors himself. If one strikes an individual’s wife, you will need to getting penalized much more severely compared to striking someone else. For starters was enjoined to honor your wife it is not enjoined in order to honor the other person. . If the the guy lasts into the striking their unique, the guy will be excommunicated, lashed, and suffer the latest severest punishments, actually into the total amount off amputating their arm. If his wife try prepared to deal with a separation and divorce, he need to splitting up their own and you can shell out her new ketubbah” (Even ha-Ezer #297). According to him that a woman that is struck of the their spouse are permitted an immediate divorce and get the currency due their inside her wedding payment. His guidance to reduce off of the give off a habitual beater out of his other echoes legislation inside Deut. –several, where the uncommon discipline of cutting-off a hands was used to a lady which tries to conserve their own partner into the an effective manner in which shames the fresh new beater.
To justify his advice, R. Meir spends biblical and you can talmudic thing to help you legitimize Plovdiv sexy girls his feedback. At the conclusion of this responsum he talks about the fresh new legal precedents for it decision regarding Talmud (B. Gittin 88b). Hence the guy concludes one “inside the scenario in which she are willing to accept [occasional beatings], she you should never deal with beatings instead an end around the corner.” He things to the point that a thumb contains the potential to help you eliminate and this in the event that comfort is impossible, the new rabbis need to help you persuade him to help you divorce case their own away from “his own totally free have a tendency to,” in case you to definitely shows impossible, force your to help you splitting up her (as it is enjoy by-law [ka-torah]).
This responsum is found in a collection of R. Simhah b. Samuel of Speyer (d. 1225–1230). By freely copying it in its entirety, it is clear that R. Meir endorses R. Simhah’s opinions. R. Simhah, using an aggadic approach, wrote that a man has to honor his wife more than himself and that is why his wife-and not his fellow man-should be his greater concern. R. Simhah stresses her status as wife rather than simply as another individual. His argument is that, like Eve, “the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20), she was given for living, not for suffering. She trusts him and thus it is worse if he hits her than if he hits a stranger.
not, they were overturned of the very rabbis into the later on years, starting with R
R. Simhah lists all the possible sanctions. If these are of no avail, he takes the daring leap and not only allows a compelled divorce but allows one that is forced on the husband by gentile authorities. It is rare that rabbis tolerate forcing a man to divorce his wife and it is even rarer that they suggested that the non-Jewish community adjudicate their internal affairs. He is one of the few rabbis who authorized a compelled divorce as a sanction. Many Ashkenazi rabbis quote his opinions with approval. Israel b. Petahiah Isserlein (1390–1460) and R. David b. Solomon Ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz, 1479–1573). In his responsum, Radbaz wrote that Simhah “exaggerated on the measures to be taken when writing that [the wifebeater] should be forced by non-Jews (akum) to divorce his wife . because [if she remarries] this could result in the offspring [of the illegal marriage, according to Radbaz] being declared illegitimate ( Lit. “bastard.” Offspring of a relationship forbidden in the Torah, e.g., between a married woman and a man other than her husband or by incest. mamzer )” (part 4, 157).