Abstract
In this chapter, Mari Rethelyi uses religious studies and textual approaches to consider attitudes towards marital rape expressed in the Jewish rabbinic traditions, particularly the Babylonian Talmud. Rethelyi notes that, from the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmudim up to the present day, rabbinic texts discuss female rape within the context of proper/improper and legitimate/illegitimate sexual relations between married men and women. To explore their approach to marital sexual violence, she considers first the broader topic of sexuality within marriage, which is subject to two distinct legal regulations within Judaism: the laws of onah (regulating male sexuality and men’s conjugal duties) and the laws of niddah (regulating women’s menstrual cycles, purity status, and their “availability” to have marital sexual relations). Drawing on these legal traditions, Rethelyi maps out rabbinic understandings of and responses to marital rape. While the laws do, to some degree, offer women a form of protection from spousal sexual violence, they nevertheless remain rooted within patriarchal discourses, which sustain certain gender inequalities while also evoking rape-supportive understandings of sexuality and gender relations.
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Notes
- 1.
The Hebrew Bible contains narratives and Torah laws that deal explicitly with violent or coercive sexual behaviour (e.g. see Genesis 19; 34; Deut . 22:23–29; Judges 19–21; 2 Sam . 13:1–14), as well as a number of allusions to sexual and physical violence perpetrated against metaphorical female figures within the prophetic traditions (e.g. Isa. 3:16–17; Jer . 13:22, 26; Ezekiel 16; 23). There are also texts that, although not explicitly acknowledging the reality of marital rape as we would define that term today, do allude to marriage by capture, force, or abduction, which, in contemporary terms, would unequivocally suggest non-consensual and coercive sexual relations (e.g. Num . 31:15–18; Deut . 21:10–14).
- 2.
- 3.
For a discussion of biblical Hebrew words that may be used to convey forced sex, see Gravett (2004). For example, the piel form of ‘nh (“to humble, violate”) is sometimes used either alone or with škb (“to lie [with]”) to denote non-consensual sexual intercourse (e.g. see Gen . 34:2; Jdg . 20:5; 2 Sam . 13:14). The verb of seizure, ḥzq (“to take”), may, depending on the context in which it is used, also denote rape (e.g. Gen . 34:2). In Judg . 19:25, yd‘ (“to know”) is used with ‘ll (“to act severely, capriciously”) to describe a violent gang rape. Thus, while there is not a specific word in Hebrew for “rape,” particular verbs of seizure, overpowering, sex, and shaming are utilized to denote a sexual act instigated by force on an unwilling partner.
- 4.
The foundations of the laws of onah have been linked to the story of Onan (Gen. 38:1–11), who refuses to impregnate his Levirate wife Tamar (his brother’s widow) but performs coitus interruptus instead denying Tamar the opportunity to have a child. In rabbinic literature, this story came to be associated with a wife’s “right” to sex, and, thus, to children. The term onah literally means “time” or “season,” and often refers to sexual intercourse that can legitimately occur after a woman’s menstrual cycle (niddah) has ended.
- 5.
The biblical regulations around niddah are in Lev . 15:19–30.
- 6.
This interpretation is based on Deut . 24:5, which rules that a newly married man will be exempt from armed service for one year, so that he can remain at home and bring pleasure to his wife.
- 7.
Historically, celibacy and singlehood have been met with both religious and cultural disapproval within Jewish communities, and this remains (to some extent) a common response to these lifestyles today.
- 8.
Only a married woman is obliged to keep the laws of niddah.
- 9.
Referring to b.Shabb. 13a, and b.Ketub. 48a, Rashi, in his commentary on b.Ketub. 48a, claims that during niddah the husband and wife should go to bed fully clothed while at other times, they should sleep naked.
- 10.
A Beth Din is traditionally comprised of three rabbis, who can be consulted on religious and ritual matters within their community.
- 11.
The Ketubah is a prenuptial contract that outlines a husband’s obligations to his wife and guarantees her financial security during the marriage and payment of a stipulated sum of money in the event of divorce or widowhood.
- 12.
For a fascinating survey of religious Jewish women’s views on sexuality see Friedman et al. (n.d.).
- 13.
The criterion for determining whether or not to believe the woman’s rape claims is based on where the sexual event took place. A woman who maintains that she was raped in the countryside is always to be believed, because (according to the lawmakers’ logic) no one would have heard her cry out for help (Deut . 22:25–27). If she insists that she was raped in the city, however, she is automatically not believed, as her cries for help (had she made any) would surely have been heard (vv. 23–24). This changed in the Middle Ages, when Nachmanides defined rape in terms of whether the woman knew there were rescuers who could save her. If she knew but did not call out, then it is not rape; it is illicit sex regardless of the location. If no one was there to rescue her, the sexual act that occurred is considered rape and she is deemed innocent, whether she called out or not.
- 14.
This teaching is further stressed in later Medieval Jewish Responsa. For example, Maimonides’ twelfth-century text, Mishneh Torah: ‘[A man] should never compel [his wife] to engage in sexual relations against her will. Instead, [relations] should be with her agreement, [preceded by] conversation and a spirit of joy (Hilchot Ishut 15:17). Similar instructions are given in the sixteenth-century Code of Jewish Law, which prohibit marital sex in the event that husband and/or wife are drunk, in a state of fear, sleeping, or angry (Sh. Ar. OḤ 240:3). Medieval rabbinic discourses on marriage, gender, and sexual relations are discussed further in Rosen (2003).
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Rethelyi, M. (2018). Rabbinic Understandings of Marital Rape in the Talmud. In: Blyth, C., Colgan, E., Edwards, K. (eds) Rape Culture, Gender Violence, and Religion. Religion and Radicalism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72224-5_11
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