Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

> Mehullelet (a woman who has been profaned).  Incidently  Moshe 
> Shulman is perfectly right that when the Ketuba was a real contract 
> and not a ceremonial one,


I never disputed this, the Ketuba IS a legal document, and I never 
ever said or implied that it was a ceremonial one.  Not at all.  And 
the word Betula was used to denote a woman not previously married, 
because her LEGAL status and rights according to Ketuba and the 
rabbis who instituted it, are different than those of a woman who was 
already married and widowed or divorced.

The Ketuba was not a document whose purpose was to morally judge a 
woman's virtue - the rabbis were wise enough then, to leave that as a 
private matter.

The purpose had to do with material sustenance and protection of 
women, and the desire to discourage divorce and subsequent 
intermarriage.



> the husband had the right to come into the Beit DIn the next morning 
> and ask for a get (without the woman getting her Ketuba money) if 
> the betulim were missing.


Was this true , do you think, in the fifth century BC, as the oldest 
preserved Ketuba is dated, and in the second century, BC, when the 
text was improved and finalized?

(Did you know - not every woman bleeds the first time she has sex, 
even if she did not ever go horseback riding?  Do you think no one 
knew that then?)


Shoshanna




> However, this was more or less nullified by the provisions that a) 
> it did not work if the husband had ever previously been alone with 
> the bride or b) she explained that the betulim were missing 
> consequent to a "mukach Etz" (the local equivalent of too much 
> horseback riding).  I.B. Singer points out that as late as the 19th 
> century, the custom was for the men at the wedding to dance with the 
> bloody sheet so all would know the bride's status.  No doubt the 
> invention of Ketchup did much to undermine this custom
>
>
> Steve Oren
>
> Chicago, IL
>
> ----------
> > >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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