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Table of Contents – Laws of Judaism Concerning Women and Men

 

 

Laws of Religion

Laws of Judaism Concerning Women and Men

 

2.  Equality and Inequality of Women and Men

from the Biblical Books of Moses (Torah),

the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah)

and the Shulchan Aruch

 

 

Equality and Inequality of Women and Men

From the Biblical Books of Moses (Torah)

 

The Torah says that the first man and the first woman were created in the image and likeness of God.[1] It also says that the first man was created from the dust of the ground[2] and then the first woman was created from the man’s rib[3] to help and sustain him[4]. The woman was created only after each wild and domestic animal and every type of bird was found not to be capable of helping and sustaining the man.[5] Because the woman was formed from part of the man’s body, a man will leave his parents and cling to his wife.[6]

 

When God questioned the man about his disobedience in eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the man blamed the woman for giving him the fruit.[7] God then punished the woman by making childbirth painful, causing women to desire men and having men rule over women.[8] God punished the man for listening to the woman and eating the fruit by causing men to have to work hard to grow food to sustain themselves.[9] And he drove them out of the Garden of Eden so they would not be able to eat from the tree of life, which would enable them to live forever.[10]

 

Aaron, the brother of Moses, was a Levite[11] whose male descendants were designated by God as the priests in charge of the Tabernacle of Congregation (or Tent of Meeting) as the Israelites wandered from Egypt to Canaan.[12] (As a result, they became the priests of the Temple in Jerusalem when that was established.)

 

The Lord commands that every firstborn Israelite son shall be given to him.[13] However, the Levites shall, instead of all the firstborn Israelite sons, serve the Lord and the parents of the firstborn Israelite sons shall pay to redeem their sons from the requirement to serve.[14] It is only the male Levites who shall assist the priests (the male descendants of Aaron) in their duties.[15]

 

Some of the offerings made by the Israelites to the priests shall be eaten only by the male priests. But other portions shall be eaten by both males and females of the priestly families[16]

 

A vow made by a man is valid. A vow made by a woman may be nullified by her father if she is young and still in his house, or by her husband. The vows of widows and divorced women are valid.[17]

 

Both women and men, as well as children and resident aliens, are to assemble to hear the reading of the teachings every seven years, on the Sabbatical years, at the time of the festival of Sukkot.[18]

 

Every Israelite male,[19] including slaves of Israelites[20] and those who live among the Israelites and observe the Passover,[21] must be circumcised. Those who are not circumcised, those souls will be cut off from their people.[22]

 

When a man sells his daughter to be a slave and her master marries her, the master must not reduce her food, clothing or marital rights if he takes an additional wife.[23] (Editor’s note: This establishes the principle in the Torah that a husband is required to provide his wife with food, clothing and sexual intercourse.)

 

When a person vows to make an offering of the monetary equivalent of a human being, that monetary value for a person 20 to 60 years old shall be 50 shekels of silver for a man and 30 for a woman. For those 5 to 20 years old, it shall be 20 shekels for a male and 10 for a female. For males under 5 years old it is 5 shekels and for females 3. And for those 60 years or older, it is 15 shekels for a man and 10 for a woman. (Thus, the monetary value of a male is considered to be significantly greater than that of a female.)[24] 

 

If men are fighting and harm a pregnant woman such that she miscarries, the man responsible will be fined an amount required by the husband or by the judges of the court. If the woman herself is harmed, then the guilty man shall be harmed accordingly, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.[25]

 

A woman who gives birth to a son is ritually impure for seven days and requires purification for thirty-three days.[26] If the baby is a female, the mother is impure for two weeks and the period of purification is sixty-six days.[27] A sacrificial sin offering of a lamb and a bird to a priest was required at the end of the period of purification so the priest could atone for the mother and she would become pure.[28] The mother was not permitted to touch any Hallowed Thing or enter the sanctuary until her purification was completed.[29]

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Equality and Inequality of Women and Men

Jewish Law (Halakha) from the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah)

 

Contents:

 

Betrothal and marriage

 

Studying and Observing the Law

 

Food and Maintenance

 

Betrothal and marriage (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). If a man gives a woman money and declares that she is betrothed^* to him, then it is done.[30] However, no betrothal occurs if a woman gives money to a man and either she or he declares that she is betrothed to him.[31]

 

A father cannot effect the betrothal of his daughter to a man without her consent if she is a mature woman (bogeret)^**.[32] However, if a man is forced to betroth a woman, the betrothal is valid.[33]

 

If a man stipulates at the time of betrothal that the betrothal is conditional upon the woman having no defects and the woman does have one or more of the defects that make her unsuitable, then the betrothal is not valid[34] even if she then gets the defect cured by a physician.[35] However, if the betrothal is conditional on the man's being free from defects and he has defects that are then cured by a physician, then the betrothal is valid.[36]

 

The obligation to have children to fulfill the commandment to "be fruitful and multiply" applies only to men, not to women.[37] Thus a man is required to take a wife but a woman is permitted to remain unmarried. A man should not marry a barren woman, a woman too old to have children, a woman (aylonit) with masculine characteristics or a minor female not able to give birth, unless he has already fulfilled his obligation to be fruitful and multiply or he takes another wife who can bear children. A woman may marry a eunuch.[38]

 

 

Studying and Observing the Law (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). A father is obligated to teach Torah to his young son.  Women, like slaves, are not obligated to study Torah.  Nor are they obligated to teach it to their sons.[39] A woman who does study Torah will be rewarded, but her reward will be less than that of a man since her study is not required. A man should not teach Torah to his daughters because most women have minds that are not capable of concentrating and they will turn the teachings of the Torah into trivial matters.[40]

 

Women, like slaves, are not permitted to be witnesses in legal cases.[41] However, there are times when the statement of a woman is sufficient.  For example, a woman's assertion that the husband of another woman has died is sufficient to permit that other woman to remarry.[42] The testimony of a woman that another woman committed adultery is sufficient to render the accused woman forbidden to her husband forever; she must be divorced by her husband and not receive the amount of her ketubah.[43] When twins are born, the statement of the midwife or the mother is to be believed as to which twin was born first.[44]

 

All of the prohibitions of the Law apply to women as well as to men with two exceptions: the prohibition against shaving the temples and the corners of the head and the prohibition against priests defiling themselves through contact with the dead.[45]

 

Of the positive commandments of the Law that men are required to follow at certain times but not all the time, women are required to follow these: to sanctify of the Sabbath (by reciting the blessing); to eat unleavened bread on the night of Passover; to slaughter and eat the lamb at Passover; to assemble once every seven years on Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles) to hear the reading of the Torah; and to celebrate the festivals that women are obligated to observe.[46] Thus, women, like slaves and children, are obligated to participate during Purim in the reading of the Megillah (Biblical book of Esther),[47] which may be fulfilled by hearing it read.[48] Women, like men, are obliged to drink four cups of wine during the Passover meal.[49] Women and slaves are also obligated to recite grace after meals.[50] Women, like slaves and children, are not required to dwell in booths during Sukkot[51] or to hear the sound of the ram's horn (shofar) on Rosh HaShanah.[52]

 

Both women and men are obligated to light a lamp for the Sabbath[53] before the sun sets and the Sabbath begins. This obligation falls more heavily on women than on men because women are usually at home engaged in household tasks.[54]

 

A woman or a slave or a minor may perform a circumcision if no adult male is available to do it. However, a non-Jew should not perform a circumcision.[55]

 

Congregational prayer is to be done only when there are at least ten free (not slave) adult males present.[56] Every day a man should recite a blessing thanking God that God has not made him a woman, a slave or a non-Jew.[57]

 

A woman should not read from the Torah publicly out of respect for the community.[58] While women and slaves are exempt from the requirement to have tzitit (fringes, tassels) on each corner of their four-cornered garment, they are permitted to do so without reciting the blessing that men must recite.[59]

 

A naked man may not recite prayers or blessings without covering his private parts.[60] A naked woman may recite blessings if she is sitting with her private parts toward the ground.[61]

 

A Torah scroll or mezuzah written by a woman, a slave, a non-Jew, an apostate, a person who betrays a Jew to a non-Jew or a minor is to be entombed.[62] However, women and slaves are, like men, obligated to affix a mezuzah to the doorpost of their homes,[63] and a woman may hold a Torah scroll even when she is menstruating.[64]

 

When a person is gravely ill on the Sabbath, the rules of the Sabbath are suspended because the life of the sick person takes precedence over the observance of the Sabbath.[65] Any medical treatment in such a case is to be administered only by an adult and scholarly Jewish man and not by a woman, a slave, a non-Jew or a child. This is so observance of the Sabbath will not be seen as unimportant.[66] A woman in the process of giving birth is considered to be in danger of dying and so the rules of the Sabbath may be violated in order to assist her, including bringing a midwife from a distant place.[67] For three days after she gives birth, the Sabbath is to be violated in order to care for her – and up to seven days after the birth if she needs such care.[68]

 

No violation is incurred if the minimum amount of a forbidden food is consumed to satisfy the craving of a pregnant woman or a sick person or if it is used to feed someone in the wilderness who has no other food or someone who is suffering greatly from extreme hunger.[69] (Similarly, pregnant and nursing women are exempted from participating in communal fasts conducted as a result of some great community difficulty,[70] though they must fast along with everyone else on the ninth day of the month of Ab,[71] a fast day that commemorates several important calamitous events in history that befell the Jewish people.[72] On Yom Kippur, if a pregnant woman smells food and craves it even after being reminded that it is Yom Kippur, she should be given the food to eat until her craving is gone.[73])

 

 

Food and Maintenance (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). The Torah (Exodus 21:10, cited above) requires that a man provide his wife with three things: food, clothing and her marital rights to sexual intercourse.[74] The Sages have taught that a man should eat less than is appropriate for his income, dress as is appropriate for his income and provide for his wife and children in a manner that exceeds what is appropriate for his income.[75]

 

A poor man is obliged to provide two meals daily for his wife including bread, a vegetable dish, oil and fruit. If they live in a place where it is customary for women to drink wine, he must also provide her with wine. On the Sabbath, he must provide his wife with three meals including meat or fish as is customary in the place where they live.[76] If the man is too poor to provide his wife with the bread she needs, he must divorce her. A wealthy man is to provide his wife with food commensurate with his wealth, even if that means giving her meat more than once each day.[77] A man who vows not to support his wife must divorce her after thirty days.[78] A husband is obliged to eat with his wife at least once each week, on the eve of the Sabbath (Friday night).[79] However, if the man betrothed the woman on the condition that he will not be responsible for providing her with food, that condition is valid and he need not provide her with food.[80]

 

A man is required to maintain his children until they are six years old. He is also to provide them with food until they grow up and if he refuses to do so he is to be publicly exposed and humiliated. However, a man is not to be coerced to maintain his children more than six years of age unless he is known to be wealthy enough to do so.[81]

 

A poor wife must bake bread for her husband and do it early in the morning so some is available to the poor. She must also cook for her husband, feed the animal he rides, nurse her child and watch the grinding of the grain. If the local custom is to grind the grain with a hand mill, then she should do this herself.[82] If the couple has a female servant (slave) or is wealthy enough to purchase one, then the wife does not have to bake bread, feed her husband’s animal or watch the grinding of the grain. If they have or can purchase two female servants, then the wife is also relieved of responsibility for cooking and she may give her child to a maidservant to nurse.[83]

 

A nursing wife should be given extra wine and other things that benefit her milk production. Her work load should also be reduced. If she craves more food than the amount her husband is required to give her, she can use her own money to buy all that she desires. Since alleviating her suffering takes priority, her husband cannot complain that she is eating too much or that if she eats harmful foods the child will die.[84]

 

A husband should hire a wet nurse for one child when there are twins. He cannot compel his wife to nurse both of them. A man may prevent his wife from nursing the child of a female friend even if she wants to, so that only his child will be nursed by his wife.[85] He may also compel his wife to nurse their own male or female child until it is twenty-four months old, even if she does not want to. However, if the wife is poor and does not want to nurse the child while the husband has enough money hire a wet nurse or purchase a female servant (slave) to nurse the child, he must do so. If she does want to nurse their child, the husband cannot prevent her from doing so for the purpose of preserving her attractiveness; the pain she would feel in being separated from the child takes precedence.[86]

 

In the case of divorce, a nursing mother must continue to nurse the child until it is twenty-four months old if it is capable of recognizing her, even if it is blind. The father must pay his ex-wife her fee for nursing their child in addition to providing for the child’s other needs such as food and clothing. However, the man has no obligation to provide anything to his ex-wife while she is pregnant. Before the time a nursing child recognizes its mother, a divorced mother may refuse to nurse her child and turn it over to its father, who is then responsible for its care.[87]

 

A man must provide for the maintenance, including food, of his wife and daughters out of his estate upon his death.[88] If he was married to more than one woman when he died, then each of his wives is entitled to the same level of maintenance from his estate.[89] The maintenance of a widow takes precedence over that of a daughter if the estate is not sufficient to support them both, in which case the daughter is to go begging.[90] Although sons are to inherit the property of their father, and also the money that their mother brought to the marriage if the mother predeceased her husband, the sons must support their sisters until the sisters are espoused or come of age (at twelve years of age, at the earliest[91]).[92] When the estate contains real property (i.e., real estate), the maintenance of the daughters takes precedence over that of the sons to the extent that the sons are to be left to beg if there is only enough in the estate to provide for the maintenance of the daughters. If there is no real property in the estate, then the daughters and the sons must share in it to receive whatever maintenance is possible, however inadequate.[93] Certain daughters, though entitled to maintenance by their living fathers, are not entitled to maintenance from their fathers’ estates. This exclusion includes a daughter whose mother was espoused (promised in betrothal but not yet married to the father[94]), was a victim of rape (who, after becoming pregnant with the daughter, married the rapist[95] as described in Deuteronomy 22:28-29) or was a “second degree” relative of the daughter’s father (in which case the marriage is prohibited by Scribal laws on incest[96]).[97]

 

With regard to the destitute, the feeding and clothing of a woman takes precedence over that of a man because it is common for a man to go begging but a woman will feel great shame in doing so.[98] When a man and a woman come to the door, the woman should be given the poor tithe before the man.[99]

 

Equality and Inequality of Women and Men

Jewish Law (Halakha) from the Shulchan Aruch

 

Women and slaves are not required, as men are, to recite the shema because the recitation of the shema is a positive, time-bound commandment.[100] Women and slaves are, however, required to pray because prayer is not a positive, time-bound commandment.[101]

 

The obligation of the blessing over the wine (kiddush) applies to women as well as men.[102] Women, like men, are obligated to recite grace after meals.[103]

 

Similarly, women are obligated in Havdalah.  Isserles^*** says: Women should not recite Havdalah, but rather should hear men recite it.[104]

 

Women, as well as men, may perform the ritual slaughter of animals. Isserles says: By custom and tradition, women do not do this.[105]

 

Men must wear a garment (tallit) with fringes (tzitzit) while reciting certain prayers,[106] but women and slaves are exempt from this requirement because it is a time-dependent commandment.[107] A man must wear tefillin when reciting certain prayers,[108] but women and slaves are exempt from the requirement to wear tefillin because it is a positive time-bound commandment.[109]

 

A man must make a blessing every day to God for making him a Jew, for not making him a slave and for not making him a woman. A woman's blessing is for making her as she is rather than for not making her a woman.[110]

 

A man blesses the Torah[111] while a woman blesses the Blessing of the Torah.[112]

 

The person who leads the congregation in prayer is to have a full beard.[113]

 

Every Jewish man is required to study Torah. If he is unable to do so, he must support another Jewish man's study.[114] Torah here means the Torah, the Mishnah and the Talmud.[115] However, one should not teach one's daughter Torah because of the intellectual limitations of most women. Nevertheless, a woman who studies Torah will receive a reward. This reward is not like a man's reward for studying Torah because she is not obligated to study. Isserles^*** says: A woman still must study the laws that women are required to follow.[116]

 

If a man objects to his wife's hiring a teacher for their son, the contract is voided even though the wife generally manages the household.[117]

 

If a man and a woman both ask for food or for clothing, the woman is to be given precedence. Similarly, if a male and a female orphan need money in order to get married, it is to be given first to the woman.[118]

 

If a man and a woman are held as captives, the woman is to be ransomed first unless it is in a place where men commonly have sex with each other, in which case the man is to be ransomed first.[119]

 

A judge is to hear a lawsuit case brought by an orphan before a case brought by a widow, a widow before a scholar, a scholar before one who is not educated, and a woman before a man.[120]

 

A woman may not serve as a judge in a Jewish court.[121]

 

Women,[122] like non-Jews and slaves,[123] cannot testify as witnesses in court. However, a midwife who is a trusted individual can say which of three infants born at the same time is a kohen (priest), which is a Levite and which is a mamzer.[124] Also, a woman or a slave is to be believed if they state that a Jewish woman who was taken captive was never secluded with a non-Jew and so that woman may marry a priest.[125] Similarly, a woman or a slave is to be believed if they state that a man who traveled overseas is now dead,[126] so that his wife may now marry another man.[127] The word of a woman or a slave or a minor is also accepted to verify that a widow and her brother-in-law meet the qualifications for the ritual of halitzah such as that the widow's dead husband had no viable offspring, that the dead husband and the brother-in-law were alive at the same time, that the brother-in-law is the eldest brother, and that the woman was the wife of the man's brother.[128]

 

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^*Betrothal: In the historical times being described by Maimonides, two separate steps were required to achieve a full marriage. The first step, kiddushin or erusin, is the consecration of the woman to the man and is referred to in our texts as "betrothal." The reversal of this process required a get (a bill of divorce). A man was not responsible for supporting a woman who was betrothed to him.[129] Also, after betrothal the couple was not permitted to have sexual relations until the finalization of the marriage (nisu'in) even if the betrothal had been carried out through sexual intercourse.[130]

The marriage was finalized by nisu'in – the woman moving into the man's house to live there. In the times being described by Maimonides, this second step might have occurred one year after the betrothal.[131]

In the present era, both steps, betrothal (kiddushin) and finalization of the marriage (nisu'in), occur in a single ceremony when the couple marries under the chuppah – the wedding canopy that symbolizes the couple's home.

 

^**A mature woman (bogeret) is one who is at least 12-1/2 years of age and has had at least two pubic hairs for at least six months.[132]

 

^***The Shulchan Aruch, written by Joseph Caro in the 16th century, represents his Sephardic background. Printed copies of the Shulchan Aruch always include the comments of Moses Isserles, which are written from an Ashkenazi perspective.

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Table of Contents – Laws of Judaism Concerning Women and Men

Abbreviations used in footnotes:

Gen: The Biblical book of Genesis.

Exod: The Biblical book of Exodus.

Lev: The Biblical book of Leviticus.

Num: The Biblical Book of Numbers.

Deut: The Biblical Book of Deuteronomy.

 

MT:  The Mishneh Torah of Maimonides (Code of Maimonides). The names of the specific books and treatises within each book are given according to the Yale University Press translation and also the Moznaim/Touger Hebrew transliterations to facilitate locating the texts posted here.

F:  indicates page numbers in the Feldheim Publishers, Ltd., translation of Book 1 of the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, the Book of Knowledge.

M:  indicates page numbers in the relevant volume of the Moznaim Publishing Corporation’s Touger translation. (Some of the books of Mishneh Torah are published in several volumes by Moznaim, so the Moznaim volume numbers do not correspond to the Book numbers of Maimonides’ work.)

Y:  indicates page numbers in the translation of the Yale University Press Judaica Series.

 

SA:  The Shulchan Aruch of Joseph Caro, with the comments of Moses Isserles noted, as appropriate. Our summaries are based on the Sefaria English translation, which is not yet complete. The four sections of the Shulchan Aruch are on Sefaria at the following links: Orach Chayim, Yoreh De'ah, Even HaEzer and Choshen Mishpat.

    

●  The sources cited are described on the page Source Texts Used for Laws of Judaism.