virgin: _BETHULAH_ and/or _(ALMAH_

Shoshanna Walker rosewalk at concentric.net
Mon Jan 29 23:17:08 EST 2001


>Sorry but this is not true.  Betula in a Ketuba means a physical 
>virgin.  Indeed, ancient ketubot used a different term to designate 
>unmarried but sexually experienced women.


What exactly is the term?

Shoshanna



> Nowadays (perhaps unrealisticly), the Rabbis assume that every 
>previously unmarried woman from a Jewish home is a "betula" (just as 
>in the US, any previously unmarried bride gets to wear white) but 
>there are stories about the difficulties that ensue when some of the 
>potential (male) witnesses to the marriage have good reason to know 
>that this rabbinical assumption is untrue in the instant case.
>
> 
>Stephen Oren
>




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