Certain Ashkenazi rabbis considered battering just like the reasons for pressuring a guy provide good Writ away from (religious) separation rating

In his responsum, Radbaz typed you to Sim

Rabbi Meir b. 1215–1293) produces you to “A Jew need to award his spouse more than the guy remembers themselves. If one influences an individual’s partner, you need to end up being punished even more seriously compared to striking another individual. For example are enjoined so you’re able to honor your spouse it is maybe not enjoined so you can honor one another. . When the the guy continues within the striking their unique, he are going to be excommunicated, lashed, and you will endure the latest severest punishments, also towards the the amount from amputating his arm. In the event the their partner is actually willing to take on a separation, the guy need to breakup their unique and you will shell out their own the fresh new ketubbah” (Even ha-Ezer #297). He says you to definitely a female who’s hit by their own husband is actually entitled to an immediate split up in order to have the money owed her in her own relationship settlement. His pointers to reduce from the hands away from a habitual beater of his fellow echoes regulations when you look at the Deut. –a dozen, where strange discipline of cutting-off a hands try applied to help you a lady which attempts to save yourself her spouse in an effective manner in which shames the newest beater.

So you’re able to justify their view, Roentgen. Meir spends biblical and you can talmudic material to legitimize their feedback. At the end of this responsum the guy talks about the latest courtroom precedents because of it choice about Talmud (B. Gittin 88b). Ergo he stops one “even yet in the actual situation in which she was prepared to deal with [unexpected beatings], she never undertake beatings as opposed to an end coming soon.” He items to the fact that a thumb provides the prospective to destroy and therefore if comfort is impossible, the newest rabbis should try in order to convince your to divorce case their particular away from “their own 100 % free tend to,” but if you to proves impossible, force him to help you divorce proceedings their (as is welcome by-law [ka-torah]).

This responsum is found in a collection of R. Meir’s responsa and in his copy of a responsum by 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.

Baruch out of Rothenburg (Maharam, c

R. Simhah lists all the possible sanctions. If these are of no avail, he takes the daring leap and not only allows valentime’den hesabД±mД± nasД±l silebilirim 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. However, they were overturned by most rabbis in later generations, starting with R. Israel b. Petahiah Isserlein (1390–1460) and R. David b. Solomon Ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz, 1479–1573). hah “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 and a man other than her husband or by incest. mamzer )” (part 4, 157).