Some Ashkenazi rabbis believed battering given that known reasons for pushing a man provide an effective Writ out-of (religious) split up score

Meir’s responsa as well as in their duplicate of an effective responsum by R

Rabbi Meir b. Baruch away from Rothenburg (Maharam, c.1215–1293) produces you to definitely “Good Jew need to award his partner more he remembers himself. If a person strikes a person’s spouse, you need to getting penalized a great deal more really compared to hitting another person. For starters is actually enjoined in order to honor your spouse it is maybe not enjoined to honor the other person. . If the the guy continues within the striking their particular, the guy will be excommunicated, lashed, and you will suffer the fresh new severest punishments, actually towards the total amount off amputating his case. In the event the his partner are ready to undertake a divorce, he must divorce proceedings their particular and you may shell out her the brand new ketubbah” (Also ha-Ezer #297). He says one a female who’s strike by the their partner try permitted a primary split up and receive the currency due their unique inside her relationship settlement. His advice to reduce off of the hands out of a habitual beater out-of his fellow echoes regulations inside Deut. –12, the spot where the strange punishment away from cutting-off a hands is actually applied in order to a woman whom tries to save your self their own husband inside the good manner in which shames the newest beater.

So you can justify their opinion, Roentgen. Meir uses biblical and you can talmudic issue so you’re able to legitimize his viewpoints. At the end of it responsum he covers the brand new judge precedents for it decision in the Talmud (B. Gittin 88b). Hence he ends one to “even yet in the way it is where she try prepared to accept [periodic beatings], she try not to accept beatings as opposed to an end in sight.” The guy what to the fact that a little finger gets the potential to eliminate and that in the event that comfort was hopeless, the newest rabbis need so you can convince him so you can separation their away from “his own totally free usually,” however, if one proves impossible, push your so you can separation and divorce their own (as is invited by-law [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.

However, these people were overturned by the very rabbis inside later on years, beginning with R

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.” Finsk kvinnelige personer 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).