Meir’s responsa plus his copy away from good responsum because of the Roentgen
Rabbi Meir b. Baruch away from Rothenburg (Maharam, c.1215–1293) writes you to definitely “A great Jew must award his spouse more the guy celebrates himself. If an individual effects a person’s spouse, you will need to end up being punished way more really compared to hitting someone. For 1 try enjoined so you can honor one’s wife but is not enjoined to award each other. . When the the guy lasts from inside the hitting their unique, he are going to be excommunicated, lashed, and you will endure the brand new severest punishments, actually to your the total amount away from amputating their sleeve. When the their spouse was happy to deal with a breakup, the guy need certainly to separation and divorce their unique and you can shell out their the ketubbah” (Actually ha-Ezer #297). He says you to definitely a female who is strike of the her husband is permitted a primary divorce case and to have the money due their unique in her relationship payment. His recommendations to reduce from the give out-of a habitual beater of his other echoes regulations inside the Deut. –a dozen, where in fact the unusual abuse out-of cutting-off a hands try applied so you’re able to a lady exactly who attempts to save yourself their unique husband inside a great way that shames new beater.
To help you justify their viewpoint, Roentgen. Meir uses biblical and you will talmudic situation to help you legitimize his viewpoints. After it responsum the guy discusses the new legal precedents for this choice from the Talmud (B. Gittin 88b). For this reason he concludes you to definitely “even yet in the outcome in which she is willing to undertake [occasional beatings], she don’t accept beatings in the place of an-end in sight.” He what to the reality that a digit gets the prospective so you can eliminate and that in the event the tranquility is actually hopeless, the rabbis should try so you’re able to persuade your so you can breakup their own from “his or her own free tend to,” but if one to proves impossible, push him to help you splitting up their own (as it is greeting for legal reasons [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 https://brightwomen.net/tr/sri-lankan-kadinlar/ 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.
However, they certainly were overturned by most rabbis into the later years, you start 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).