Some Ashkenazi rabbis believed battering due to the fact grounds for pressuring a guy to provide a good Writ from (religious) breakup rating
Meir’s responsa and in their content out of a beneficial responsum from the R
Rabbi Meir b. Baruch off Rothenburg (Maharam, c.1215–1293) writes you to “An effective Jew need to honor their wife over he celebrates himself. If one strikes a person’s wife, you ought to become penalized way more really than for striking someone else. For just one are enjoined to honor a person’s partner it is perhaps not enjoined so you can prize the other person. . When the he lasts inside striking their own, the guy might be excommunicated, lashed, and you will experience the newest severest punishments, actually towards the the quantity out-of amputating his arm. In the event that their wife is actually ready to accept a divorce or separation, the guy must split up their particular and you may pay her the new ketubbah” (Actually ha-Ezer #297). According to him you to a lady who’s hit by the their partner is entitled to a primary splitting up and also to receive the currency due their particular in her own wedding settlement. Their information to cut from the hands off a habitual beater away from their other echoes the law inside the Deut. –a dozen, where the unusual abuse from cutting-off a hand was used so you can a woman which attempts to save yourself their own husband from inside the an effective way that shames the beater.
To validate his opinion, Roentgen. Meir spends biblical and you can talmudic situation in order to legitimize their opinions. After so it responsum he covers the brand new court precedents because of it decision throughout the Talmud (B. Gittin 88b). Hence the guy closes one “inside possible in which she was willing to take on [periodic beatings], she try not to undertake beatings instead of an-end in sight.” The guy things to the point that a fist contains the possible so you can kill and that if peace try impossible, the fresh rabbis should try so you’re able to convince your so you’re able to divorce or separation her regarding “his very own totally free commonly,” but if one to demonstrates impossible, force him to divorce proceedings their own (as it is welcome legally [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.
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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).
