A Book Called Holiness

About This Talk

Chapter 1 of Hilchot Issurei Biah opens Sefer Kedushah. One who willingly enters a union with any of the arayot is liable to kareit, both the man and the woman, and if they transgressed unknowingly each brings a fixed sin offering. Some of these unions are also punishable by the court. Execution requires two witnesses and a warning that the transgressors disregarded, and this holds even for a Torah scholar, since the warning exists to distinguish the inadvertent from the deliberate; kareit applies in every case regardless. Stoning applies to relations with one's mother, father's wife, daughter-in-law, a male, or an animal; burning applies to a wife's daughter or granddaughter or mother or grandmother during the wife's lifetime, and to one's own daughter or granddaughter; strangulation applies only to adultery, except that a priest's daughter who commits adultery is burned and a betrothed maiden and her partner are stoned. All other arayot carry kareit alone, and with witnesses and warning the court gives lashes. Unions forbidden by a negative commandment bring lashes to both; the rabbinic shniyot bring stripes for rebellious conduct; unions forbidden only by a positive commandment carry no set punishment, though the court may discipline. One who is compelled is not liable at all, and a woman compelled at the outset is not liable even if she later consented, since her nature was compelled; the Rambam holds that for a man the act itself implies will. Liability begins at the first stage of the union, not its completion, in every manner and position. Where there was no capacity for an act of union it is not considered relations, though it disqualifies a woman from terumah and the court gives stripes for rebellious conduct. One who enters a forbidden union without intent is still liable for an offering. Relations with a deceased woman carry no liability; with one who is mortally ill or still in her last movements, liability remains. A minor is never punished and the adult always is, with defined ages below which an act is not considered relations, though it remains forbidden. Male relations are punished by stoning for adults; an androgynus is treated as male in one respect, and doubtful cases such as a tumtum bring stripes for rebellious conduct; an androgynus may marry a woman. Relations with an animal bring stoning for the person and the animal, with rules for minors and for inadvertent acts. Between any two parties, the minor, the sleeping, the inadvertent and the compelled are spared while the other bears the full liability. Witnesses need not see the act in detail; seeing a couple in the posture of intimacy suffices. Family relationships are judged by established presumption, as in the incident of the woman who raised an infant in Jerusalem, and as proven by the law of striking or cursing a father. A couple from overseas who live openly as married for thirty days are treated as married for capital purposes, and within thirty days the court does not execute on that presumption. A woman presumed among her neighbors to be a niddah is treated so, and her husband is lashed. A priest whose warned and secluded wife is accused by one witness is lashed for relations with her as a zonah. A father who says his daughter is consecrated to a certain man is believed. (The stored English text for this chapter ends partway through this final halacha.)