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b-hebrew - Re: virgin: _BETHULAH_ and/or _(ALMAH_

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  • From: Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: virgin: _BETHULAH_ and/or _(ALMAH_
  • Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 23:17:08 -0500


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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