Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

> 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