Language:
English
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2021) 45–57
Keywords:
Husband and wife (Jewish law)
;
Taḳanot (Jewish law)
;
Divorce (Jewish law)
Abstract:
While executing a halakhic divorce is a positive commandment in Judaism, rabbinic Judaism has historically honored taqqanot, alterations to halakhah, when they are issued by recognized authorities in response to various perceived needs and concerns. An example is the geonic taqqanah of the moredet, enacted in 650/1 CE, which enabled rabbinic courts to coerce a husband to divorce his wife immediately if she claimed he was repugnant to her and if she relinquished some or all of her financial rights. This taqqanah also came to be accepted in medieval Spain and Ashkenaz. In Ashkenaz the taqqanah empowered unhappy wives to initiate coerced divorces by refusing to immerse in the ritual bath (miqveh). By the sixteenth century, this taqqanah had disappeared from Jewish jurisprudence and is not mentioned in the Shulḥan ʿarukh. This chapter discusses the taqqanah’s origins; reviews evidence of its use in medieval Cairo and in Ashkenaz; and relates its subsequent decline under pressure from Ashkenazic rabbinic authorities. It also explores how, over a period of almost a millennium, some women, often with the aid of supportive relatives, used this taqqanah to engineer divorces within a legal system in which they were at a profound disadvantage.
DOI:
10.1163/9789004460942_004
URL:
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