Jump to content

Beautiful captive woman

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Part of a series on the
Anthropology of kinship
Basic concepts
Descent
Linealities
Household forms and residence
Terminology
By group
Case studies
Feminist
Sexuality
Major theorists
Related articles
Social anthropology
Cultural anthropology

Beautiful captive woman (Hebrew: אשת יפת תואר, eshet yefat to'ar) is a biblical concept, found in the Hebrew Bible (Deuteronomy 21:10–14),[1] allowing for a Jewish soldier who participates in a voluntary war, at a time when the people of Israel dwell in their own land and when the Sanhedrin is in authority, to take by force a non-Jewish woman belonging to enemy captives, and to engage in conjugal affairs with her, with or without her consent and irrespective if she was a single woman or a woman married to another man. This act, though universally thought-of as being repugnant, is explained in rabbinic literature as being a concession to man's evil inclination, so that Jewish soldiers on the battlefield may remain blameless.[a]

Halacha

[edit]

The Hebrew Bible accepts as a given the possibility that a Jewish soldier might encounter a captive woman and wish to sleep with her, something that was common in wars from biblical times to recent times. In response, the Torah permits this with a number of conditions and legal restrictions:

The Jewish soldier is permitted to forcibly have marital relations with a beautiful gentile woman who had been made a prisoner of war, when his intent is to marry her.[2] The Talmud (Kiddushin 21b) calls this act a concession to man's evil inclination.[3] Even so, when she is brought to his house, he must shave her head and allow her fingernails to grow out[b] without cropping them and separate himself from her for one-month during her time of mourning, in order to be dissuaded from consummating a marriage with her.[4] The female captive is given a month in this state, to mourn her fate and to recouperate. If, after all has been done, he still desires to take the woman as his wife, he may do so, on condition that she agrees to adopt the Jewish religion and is immersed in a ritual bath.[5][6] The Law, moreover, enjoins that female captives who were forced to cohabit with their victors and who do not wish to convert to Judaism should not be sold as slaves.[7]

Other details

[edit]

The Sefer ha-Chinukh (pericope Ki Teitzei, commandment no. 532) claims that the Jewish soldier must restrain his potential sexual urges, writing that "it is for this reason that the Scripture has shut the door before him, in order to make her disagreeable in his eyes, and it has commanded that he shave her head, so that she would lose the otherwise natural description of her beautiful hair, and for her to grow out her fingernails to make her hands look uncomely, and that he would allow her to cry [for her parents] for the first month in order to make her face look ugly and that her eyes become wasted away with tears... all this, in order to make her look disgusting in his eyes, to the end that he comes in and goes out and looks upon her and sees her in her unkempt state." If the Jewish soldier is repulsed by her appearance, he is forbidden to turn her into a slave and is required to set her free. He is forbidden to make merchandise out of her by selling her to another. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra mostly agreed with this interpretation, only that he explained the words "and she shall do her fingernails" as a physical alteration in preparation for the eventuality that the Jewish soldier would indeed take her as a wife.[8]

According to the Talmud (Sanhedrin 59a), the laws relating to a ‘beautiful captive woman’ apply only to the men of Israel, but do not apply to gentile soldiers. Moreover, Gentile nations are not authorized to wage a war of conquest (Hebrew: לאו בני כיבוש נינהו‎), meaning, before they can even consider the performance of this act, they must first realize their limitations to the right of conquest. This is explained by Adin Steinsaltz as meaning, "permission has not been given to the Gentiles to make war for the sake of conquest, while this law concerning the ‘beautiful [captive] woman’ was said only with respect to a war where there was conquest [by Israel] (Deut. 21:1–ff.), and, therefore, the matter is permitted unto a fellow Jew, but prohibited unto a non-Jew."[9]

Although the Gentile nations are not authorized to wage a war of conquest against another nation, still, if they should do so and take away lands belonging to another nation by force, they legally take possession of that captured territory.[10] This is expressed in the Talmud (Gittin 38a), where it says, "Ammon and Moab were purified by Sihon" (Hebrew: עמון ומואב טהרו בסיחון‎).[c]

Negative aspects

[edit]

The Talmud is quick to point out that King David took in marriage a 'beautiful captive woman', from whom was born his son Absalom. The Talmud goes on to say that the downside of taking in marriage a 'beautiful captive woman' is that, in the end, he will hate her and the offspring born of such union will be a wayward and rebellious son (Hebrew: בן סורר ומורה).[13][14]

International law vs. religious law

[edit]

When it comes to traditional laws of armed conflict, these laws often contradict and stand in direct violation of international law. Today, for example, women are protected under the laws of the UN against rape and other forms of sexual violence committed by soldiers of the occupying forces (The Third Geneva Convention of 1949 [in Articles 13 to 16]).[15] In contrast, religious Jews view the laws bequeathed to them by their forefathers as immutable.[16] The conceptual-jurisprudential question that is to be asked by students of International law is whether or not the inner circle of religious Jews should be forced to comply to the norms of international law and whether violators should be punished for any breach thereof when it comes to conquest by war, or can it be said that these laws override international law, since they themselves are a form of legal jurisprudence?[17] Moreover, can laws rendered by non-Jewish courts of law become binding upon the people of Israel who are governed by different laws? According to Quincy Wright, there have been legal precedents where, in a conflict between a newer statute having international implications (such as a law enshrined in 19th-century law and an older, more provincial law), the older and more provincial law prevailed.[18]

During the Israeli-Lebanese war of 1982–1985, a Jewish soldier took as a wife a Lebanese woman whom he met while seeing action.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Deuteronomy 21:10–14
  2. ^ Meiri 2006, pp. 57–58 (Kiddushin 21b), s.v. כבר ידעת‎
  3. ^ Eisenstein 1970, p. 229, s.v. מלחמה‎; Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 21b–22a; Sifre on Deuteronomy 21:10–14; Maimonides 2016, p. 269 (Hil. Melekhim 8:2); Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 59a (Rashi, s.v. לאו בני כיבוש נינהו‎)
  4. ^ Lehman 1988, pp. 313–316
  5. ^ Eisenstein 1970, pp. 169–170, s.v. יפת תואר‎
  6. ^ Maimonides 2016, p. 270 (Hil. Melekhim 8:5)
  7. ^ HaLevi 1958, pp. 321–322 (§ 533 and § 534), P. Ki Teitzei
  8. ^ Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 21:13
  9. ^ Steinsaltz 1994, p. 255 (Sanhedrin 59a)
  10. ^ Gilat 2009, p. 99 (note 23), quote: "And in any case, a kingdom that went up against another kingdom until it completely uprooted its fellow nation and put others in their place, lo, that [newly instated] one has the status of a new kingdom, and, [in doing so], it has legally acquired its possession, just as they said, Ammon and Moab were purified in Sihon (Gittin 38a). What it has taken is valid and there is nothing left for the [original] owners, even if they had not despaired [of their loss]."; Ibn Abi-Zimra 1749, pp. 78–79, s.v. Part III, responsum no. 533
  11. ^ a b Gilat & Jabareen 2016, p. 236, citing Isaiah di Trani
  12. ^ Gilat & Jabareen 2016, p. 232
  13. ^ Ginzberg 1938, pp. 100–101; Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 107a
  14. ^ Cf. Deuteronomy 21:18–21.
  15. ^ Gardam & Charlesworth 2000, p. 157 (note 55)
  16. ^ Bleich & Jacobson 2012, p. Preface, quote: "Judaism is fundamentally a religion of law, a law that governs every facet of the human condition. Jewish tradition maintains that the Torah – the first five books of the Bible that include the Written Law transmitted by Moses at Mount Sinai as well as the Oral Law accompanying it – contains not merely a set of laws, but also canons of interpretation and principles according to which conflicts among the rules of law may be resolved. Maimonides, the pre-eminent early medieval philosopher and expounder of the Torah, records the doctrine that the Torah will not be altered, either in its entirety or in part, as one of the Thirteen Principles of Faith. The divine nature of the Torah renders it immutable and hence not subject to amendment or modification."
  17. ^ Wright 1917, p. 3, quote: "The more important question, however, is that of the attitude of national courts to international law in case it conflicts with a rule embodied in some other source of law. This question must be answered for each country with reference to its own jurisprudence."
  18. ^ Wright 1917, p. 7

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ The concession was made only after the fact that, in warfare, a soldier would have given vent to his passions anyway, whether he was allowed to do so or not, and the Torah wanted the men of Israel to be blameless, therefore, it excused the first act of passion.
  2. ^ "must allow her fingernails to grow out," this interpretation follows the Aramaic Targum on Deuteronomy 21:12, Maimonides (Hil. Melekhim 8:1–3), Rashi's commentary on Deuteronomy 21:12, as well as the author of Sefer ha-Chinuch (§ 532), unlike the popular English translations for the same verse. Nachmanides, in his commentary on Deuteronomy 21:12, mentions that the interpretation is disputed, some rabbis (Sifra) holding that the sense is for her to pare her fingernails. Cf. Talmud, Yebamot 48a.
  3. ^ Meaning, their land was originally forbidden to Israel, as it is written: "Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land," etc. (Deut. 2:5-7, 9, 1). However, when Sihon came and took it, it was then permitted unto Israel to take such territory.[11] Sihon acquired it by force and Ammon and Moab despaired of their claim and because they despaired, Israel came and legitimately took it from Sihon.[11] By Sihon having taken away the lands from Ammon and Moab, this enabled Israel to take away the same lands from Sihon, which, previously, Israel was unable to do when the lands belonged to Ammon and Moab. This, then, was the argument of Jephthah (Judges 11:13–22) when the Moabite king complained to him that Israel had wrongfully taken away lands belonging to Moab.[12] Israel had not taken the land from Moab, but rather from Sihon.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Bleich, J. David; Jacobson, Arthur J. (2012). "The Jewish legal tradition". In Mauro Bussani; Ugo Mattei (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Law. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139017206.017.
  • Eisenstein, Judah D. (1970). A Digest of Jewish Laws and Customs - in Alphabetical Order (Ozar Dinim u-Minhagim) (in Hebrew). Tel-Aviv: Ḥ. mo. l. OCLC 54817857. (reprinted from 1922 and 1938 editions of the Hebrew Publishing Co., New York)
  • Gardam, Judith; Charlesworth, Hilary (2000). "Protection of Women in Armed Conflict". Human Rights Quarterly. 22 (1). The Johns Hopkins University Press. JSTOR 4489270.
  • Gilat, Israel Zvi (2009). "The Enigma of "Conquest by War" as a Manner of Transferring Rights in Jewish Law". Shenaton ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri: Annual of the Institute for Research in Jewish Law (in Hebrew). 26. JSTOR 23419358.
  • Gilat, Israel Z.; Jabareen, Amal M. (2016). "The Effect of Military Conquest on Private Ownership in Jewish and Islamic Law". Journal of Law and Religion. 31 (2). JSTOR 26336674.
  • Ginzberg, Louis (1938). The Legends of the Jews. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America.
  • HaLevi, Aharon (1958). Sefer ha-Chinuch on the 613 biblical commandments (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Eshkol. OCLC 762447043.
  • Ibn Abi-Zimra, David (1749). David Ashkenazi (ed.). The Responsa of the Radbaz (in Hebrew). Vol. 1. Venice. (reprinted in Israel, n.d.)
  • Lehman, Menashe Raphael (1988). "A beautiful woman and other laws in the Temple scroll (אשת יפת-תואר והלכות אחרות במגילת המקדש)". Beit Mikra: Journal for the Study of the Bible and Its World (in Hebrew). 33 (3). Bialik Institute, Jerusalem: 313–316. JSTOR 23505022.
  • Maimonides (2016). Mishneh Torah by Moses Maimonides (Book of Shoftim) (in Hebrew). Vol. 14. Jerusalem; Bnei Brak: Shabse Frankel. OCLC 989980005.
  • Meiri (2006). Daniel Bitton (ed.). Beit HaBechirah (Chiddushei ha-Meiri) (in Hebrew). Vol. 5. Jerusalem: Hamaor Institute. OCLC 181631040.
  • Steinsaltz, Adin (1994). Talmud Bavli – Mesekhet Sanhedrin (in Hebrew). Vol. Sanhedrin. Jerusalem: The Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications. ISBN 9789653014435. OCLC 232954939.
  • Wright, Quincy (1917). "Conflicts of International Law with National Laws and Ordinances". The American Journal of International Law. 11 (1): 1–21. JSTOR 2187270.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beautiful_captive_woman&oldid=1263708785"