Rabbi Meir b. Baruch out-of Rothenburg (Maharam, c.1215–1293) writes you to definitely “An effective Jew need certainly to award their partner over the guy celebrates themselves. If one effects an individual’s wife, one should end up being penalized significantly more seriously than for striking another individual. For starters was enjoined to help you prize a person’s spouse but is maybe not enjoined so you’re able to award each other. . If he persists in the hitting her, he shall be excommunicated, lashed, and you can suffer the severest punishments, also into the amount away from amputating their sleeve. If the his wife was prepared to accept a breakup, the guy must separation and divorce their and you can shell out their own brand new ketubbah” (Also ha-Ezer #297). He says you to a female who’s hit by their husband are entitled to a primary divorce or separation and to have the currency owed their within her relationship payment. His recommendations to cut off of the hands from a chronic beater of his fellow echoes what the law states in Deut. –several, where in fact the unusual punishment out-of cutting-off a give is actually applied so you’re able to a woman who attempts to cut her spouse from inside the an effective manner in which shames new beater.
So you’re able to justify their advice, Roentgen. Meir uses biblical and you can talmudic matter so you’re able to legitimize their opinions. At the end of that it responsum he covers the newest judge precedents for this decision regarding Talmud (B. Gittin 88b). Hence he stops one to “inside the situation in which she are ready to take on [periodic beatings], she don’t undertake beatings versus an-end coming soon.” He points to the fact that a digit gets the prospective to help you destroy and therefore in the event that comfort are hopeless, the fresh new rabbis should try to persuade him in order to divorce proceedings their particular out of “his own 100 % free have a tendency to,” in case one shows impossible, push your to help you split up their unique (as well as enjoy legally [ka-torah]).
This responsum is found in a collection of R. Simhah b. Samuel of Speyer (d. 1225–1230). By freely copying it in its entirety, it is clear that R. Meir endorses R. Simhah’s opinions. R. Simhah, using an aggadic approach, wrote that a man has to honor his wife more than himself and that is why his wife-and not his fellow man-should be his greater concern. R. Simhah stresses her status as wife rather than simply as another individual. His argument is that, like Eve, “the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20), she was given for living, not for suffering. She trusts him and thus it is worse if he hits her than if he hits a stranger.
R. Simhah lists all the possible sanctions. If these are of no avail, he takes the daring leap and not only allows a compelled divorce but allows one that is forced on the husband by gentile authorities. It is rare that rabbis tolerate forcing a man to divorce his wife and it is even rarer that they suggested that the non-Jewish community adjudicate their internal affairs. He is one of the few rabbis who authorized a compelled divorce as a sanction. Many Ashkenazi rabbis quote his opinions with approval. Israel b. Petahiah Isserlein (1390–1460) and R. David b. Solomon Ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz, 1479–1573). In his responsum, Radbaz wrote that Simhah “exaggerated on the measures to be taken when writing that [the wifebeater] should be forced by non-Jews (akum) to divorce his wife . because [if she remarries] this could result in the offspring [of the illegal marriage, according to Radbaz] being declared illegitimate ( Lit. «bastard.» Offspring of a relationship forbidden in the Torah, e.g., between a married woman single damer av Haiti and a man other than her husband or by incest. mamzer )” (part 4, 157).