In the responsum, Radbaz typed you to definitely Sim
Rabbi Meir b. 1215–1293) produces you to definitely “A beneficial Jew need honor their partner more the guy remembers themselves. If one effects your wife, you will need to end up being penalized much more honestly compared to striking another person. For just one is enjoined so you’re able to prize a person’s wife it is perhaps not enjoined in order to award one another. . If the guy lasts in the striking their particular, he can be excommunicated, lashed, and you may experience the latest severest punishments, even to the the quantity away from amputating their sleeve. If the his wife are willing to take on a divorce case, he need divorce proceedings their unique and shell out their unique the ketubbah” (Also ha-Ezer #297). According to him one to a woman who is hit of the her spouse is eligible to an immediate divorce or separation in order to have the currency owed their in her wedding settlement. His suggestions to slice from the hands of a habitual beater regarding their other echoes regulations from inside the Deut. –several, where unusual discipline out of cutting-off a hand is used to help you a female exactly who attempts to save their own partner during the an excellent manner in which shames the beater.
To validate his viewpoint, Roentgen. Meir uses biblical and you will talmudic material so you’re able to legitimize their feedback. After so it responsum the guy covers the latest judge precedents for it decision in the Talmud (B. Gittin 88b). Hence he concludes that “even yet in the actual situation in which she try willing to take on [periodic beatings], she don’t accept beatings versus a finish in sight.” He points to the fact that a digit gets the potential to eliminate and therefore in the event the serenity is hopeless, brand new rabbis should try to convince your in order to splitting up their unique off “his very own 100 % free will,” however, if one demonstrates impossible, push your in order to divorce her (as it is welcome 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 out of 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 hottest guams girls you’ve ever seen, 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).