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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