Some Ashkenazi rabbis thought battering once the cause of forcing a person supply a good Writ of (religious) separation get

Within his responsum, Radbaz authored you to Sim

Rabbi Meir b. 1215–1293) writes one “A beneficial Jew have to prize his partner over he celebrates themselves. If one strikes your wife, you need to become penalized more really than for striking another individual. For just one is actually enjoined to help you award your spouse it is perhaps not enjoined to help you award one another. . In the event the the guy continues in hitting their, he would be excommunicated, lashed, and you can experience new severest punishments, even towards the the quantity from amputating his sleeve. If the his partner are willing to accept a divorce or separation, the guy have to split up their and spend her the new ketubbah” (Also ha-Ezer #297). He states you to a lady who’s struck from the their spouse try permitted a direct divorce or separation and to get the money owed her inside her matrimony settlement. Their suggestions to cut off the give out-of a habitual beater out-of his other echoes regulations when you look at the Deut. –twelve, in which the strange abuse away from cutting-off a hands are applied so you can a woman whom attempts to save her spouse inside the an effective way that shames brand new beater.

To help you validate his thoughts, Roentgen. Meir uses biblical and you may talmudic procedure to legitimize his views. After it responsum he covers brand new court precedents for this choice throughout the Talmud (B. Gittin 88b). Hence the guy ends up one “even in your situation in which she was ready to accept [unexpected beatings], she never accept beatings versus a finish coming soon.” He what to the fact a hand has hot latvian girl got the possible to kill and therefore if peace is actually hopeless, this new rabbis need in order to encourage him in order to splitting up their unique away from “his personal free tend to,” however, if one shows hopeless, push your in order to divorce case their unique (as well as allowed by law [ka-torah]).

This responsum is found in a collection of R. Meir’s responsa and in his copy of a responsum by 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.

Baruch away from Rothenburg (Maharam, c

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. However, they were overturned by most rabbis in later generations, starting with R. Israel b. Petahiah Isserlein (1390–1460) and R. David b. Solomon Ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz, 1479–1573). hah “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).