An example of a beneficial rabbi whom realized one to Maimonides’s terms warranted overcoming an individual’s wife for an effective “good” result in is R
Zemah ben Paltoi, Gaon of Pumbedita (872–890), “calls upon a man to flog his wife if she is guilty of assault.” Rabbi Yehudai b. Nahman (Yehudai Gaon, 757–761) writes that: “…when her husband enters the house, she must rise and cannot sit down until he sits, and she should never raise her voice against her husband. Even if he hits her she has to remain silent, because that is how chaste women behave” (Ozar ha-Ge’onim, Ketubbot 169–170). The ninth-century Gaon of Sura, Sar Shalom b. c. 859 or 864), distinguishes between an assault on a woman by her husband and an assault on her by a stranger. The Gaon of Sura’s opinion was that the husband’s assault on his wife was less severe, since the husband has authority over his wife (Ozar ha-Ge’onim, Bava Kamma, ).
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In Muslim Spain, R. Samuel ha-Nagid (936–1056) try one of the primary sages to suggest the fresh spouse in order to overcome his dominating wife to make certain that she stay in their unique set. Their thoughts with the the fresh new domineering lady is that she can be hit-in order to coach their. He writes in the publication Ben Mishlei: “Hit your lady instead doubt when the she attempts to dominate your such as for example men and you may introduces their own head [too high]. Try not to, my child, right become your wife’s wife, if you are your spouse would be their particular partner’s partner!” Underlying their terms is the fact that greatest lady is but one exactly who was subservient; the fresh crappy lady is but one who is disputatious.
In the following period, known as that of the “ Rabbinic authorities/halakhic decisors/ biblical commentators of the mid-11 th to mid-15 th c.. The period of the rishonim followed that of the geonim and preceded that of the a h aronim. Rishonim ,” Moses ben Maimon (Rambam), b. Spain, 1138 Maimonides (1135–1204) recommends in his Code, the Mishneh Torah she-bi-khetav : Lit. “the written Torah.” The Bible; the Pentateuch; Tanakh (the Pentateuch, Prophets and Hagiographia) Torah , that beating a bad wife is an acceptable form of discipline: “A wife who refuses to perform any kind of work that she is obligated to do, may be compelled to perform it, even by scourging her with a rod” (Isshut ). Some rabbis, such as Shem Tov b. Abraham ibn Gaon (d. Safed, 1312), in his commentary Migdal Oz on Maimonides, understand the referent to be the rabbinic court (beit din), since the word “force” (kofin) is in the plural, rather than the singular. However, most commentators concur that Maimonides means that it is the “husband” who can force her. R. Vidal Yom Tov of Tolosa, the well-known fourteenth-century interpreter of Maimonides’s Mishneh Torah, writes in the Maggid Mishneh that “Nahmanides wrote that we force her with a stick and it is also the view of Rabbenu (i.e., Maimonides) and the major rabbis.” It should be noted that turkey brides Maimonides was most liberal in grounds for divorce, allowing sexual incompatibility, “me’is alai” (lit. “He is repulsive to me”) as grounds (cf. also Ket. 63b).
Jonah ben Abraham Gerondi (c. 1200–1263), just who accepted the theory you to definitely a spouse will get overcome his wife in the event the she transgresses: “One cannot overcome their neighbor. . The person whom sounds their neighbor transgresses a couple negative precepts. And thus it’s towards the man just who beats his spouse. He transgresses a couple of bad precepts, in the event that the guy failed to strike their so you’re able to reprove their particular for most transgression” [stress mine] (Iggeret Teshuvah, Constantinople, 1548). Therefore R. Jonah distinguishes between spouse physical violence and you will stranger physical violence. One can just assault an individual’s spouse in the event the justified, but one could never ever assault an individual’s women neighbor.