One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הלכות איסורי ביאה
Issurei Biah 18
Sefer Kedushah · Forbidden Intercourse · what the term zonah actually means in law, who the court will and will not believe about a woman's status, and the leniencies built for a woman returned from captivity
3
Years old before relations register
2
Majorities required, not one
1
Witness enough for a captive woman
0
Weight of a rumor of witnesses
Part 1A Status, Not a Verdict on Character
- Who the term covers. By the Oral Tradition the term reaches a woman who is not a native-born Jewess, a Jewish woman who had relations with a man she was forbidden to marry under a prohibition that applies universally, including one stemming from a positive commandment, and a woman who had relations with a challal, even though she is permitted to marry him (18:1)
- Grave sin does not create the status, and a permitted act can. Relations with a man a woman is not forbidden to marry do not place her in the category even where she is liable for lashes or worse, and a woman who wantonly makes herself available to the unmarried is not placed in it. Marriage to a challal, which is entirely permitted, does place her in it. The Rambam states the principle outright: the matter depends on the blemish alone, not on whether the relations were forbidden (18:1-18:2, 18:5)
- Who else is included, and who is not. A female convert or freed maidservant is included, even if converted or freed under the age of three, since she is not native-born; so is a woman who had relations with a gentile, a mamzer, a netin, certain converts, a man whose reproductive organs were destroyed, or a challal, and a yevamah who had relations with a man other than her yevam. An aylonit is permitted to a priest. The Ra'avad disputes several of these inclusions, and the Shulchan Aruch follows the Rambam (18:3)
- When it attaches, and when the law looks past it. Disqualification takes effect at the first stage of relations, whether she acted willingly or was forced, knowingly or inadvertently, provided she is at least three years old and the man nine. Rabbinic prohibitions do not create it: relations with the shniot, or with a woman after chalitzah or her relatives, leave her outside the category, since Scriptural law does not forbid them (18:4, 18:6)
RememberThe gravest transgression in the chapter can leave a woman outside this status while a fully permitted marriage puts her inside it; it measures eligibility, never character
Part 2Who the Court Will Not Believe
- Neither her own word nor one witness forbids her to her husband. When the wife of a priest says she was raped or had relations inadvertently, or one witness testifies to adultery willing or unwilling, she is not forbidden to him: testimony binds only from two witnesses, a person's word is not used against herself, and we suspect she may have set her eyes on another. If he himself believes her or the witness, he should divorce her so no doubt remains (18:8)
- The raped wife: an Israelite's wife stays, a priest's wife does not. All married women are forbidden to their husbands after adultery; the Torah carves out one exception, the wife of an Israelite who was raped, from the words and she was not seized. The wife of a priest remains forbidden, and a priest who has relations with her afterward is liable for lashes. The raped wife of an Israelite, though permitted to him, is still barred from the priesthood once he dies (18:7-18:8)
- Doubt counted one way or two. When a priest consecrates a woman and then claims she was not a virgin, she is forbidden on a single doubt, whether the relations preceded or followed the consecration. An Israelite making the same claim raises two doubts, before or after, and willing or forced, so the ruling is lenient. A girl consecrated under the age of three presents only one doubt and is forbidden. A woman warned as a sotah who entered seclusion and never drank the waters, for any reason at all, is barred from the priesthood on the unresolved question (18:10-18:12)
- Probability, and the two majorities. An unmarried woman seen with a man who left, even visibly pregnant, is believed when she says he was acceptable. The Sages then required a thoroughfare and two majorities, of the passersby and of the inhabitants of the city they came from, because standards of lineage were raised. In a city, where men are in their fixed places, even one disqualifying resident makes the doubt evenly balanced and she should not marry a priest, though if she married she is not divorced. A woman who is deaf or mute, says she does not know, or was too young to judge is of questionable status and must be divorced absent a twofold majority (18:13-18:16)
RememberA woman's own confession and a single witness are both inadmissible against her; the husband is left with a moral obligation and nothing to enforce
Part 3The Captive Woman, and Every Rule Relaxed
- Barred by doubt, cleared by one voice of any kind. A redeemed captive of three years or older is barred from the priesthood lest a gentile had relations with her. One witness that no gentile entered seclusion with her makes her acceptable, and that witness may be a servant, a maidservant or a relative; two women taken captive together may testify for each other; a minor's words spoken in the course of conversation suffice, as in the case of the boy who said he kept thinking of his mother while drawing water and gathering wood. The reason given is that prohibitions resting on doubt are Rabbinic, so they ruled leniently for a captive (18:17-18:18)
- Her own mouth, and whose word is barred. A woman who says she was taken captive but is pure is believed, because the mouth that forbade her granted her license, and this holds even against one witness to her captivity; against two witnesses she needs one person to testify to her purity, and a woman or maidservant qualifies. A husband may not testify for his captive wife, nor may her own maidservant, though his maidservant may, and her maidservant's words in conversation are accepted (18:19, 18:21)
- License once given is not taken back. A woman permitted by a court may marry a priest even if two witnesses to her captivity come afterward, and even if her captor appears and she is plainly still in his power; she is guarded until redeemed instead. A rumor that witnesses to her defilement exist does not delay the license, and the court does not wait for witnesses she says will vouch for her. Two witnesses that she was defiled do undo it, and she is divorced even after bearing children. Where she is forbidden to her priest husband only by doubt, she may live in the same courtyard under the watch of his household (18:22-18:23, 18:25)
- Sieges, fathers and prisons. If a conquered city was sealed so tightly no woman could slip out, all the women are barred; but one escape route, or one hiding place able to hold a single woman, saves them all, since each can then be believed. A battalion that pillaged and moved on does not bar them, having no time. A father is believed that he married his minor daughter off and divorced her, but not that she was taken captive, since the Torah made him trustworthy only about marriage. A woman jailed over money is permitted, over a capital charge forbidden, and where gentiles hold power even a debtor is barred (18:24, 18:26-18:30)
RememberOne hiding place nobody used, big enough for one woman, restores every woman in a conquered city, because it makes each of them believable