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To: wideawake

Rambam (Ishut 21:10):

Any wife who refrains from doing a labor among the labors that she is required to do, they force her ("kofin otah") and she does it, even with a whip.


84 posted on 11/24/2004 11:37:18 AM PST by Pitiricus
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To: Pitiricus
Any wife who refrains from doing a labor among the labors that she is required to do, they force her ("kofin otah") and she does it, even with a whip.

Nice try.

However, a wife does not have plural husbands ("they").

The "they" does not refer to a husband, it refers to the public enforcers of the halakhah, the agents of the beit din, who may prescribe physical punishments, such as flogging, to Jews who cause scandal in the community.

Putting aside the fact that the Mishneh Torah of the RamBam does not hold the same authority as the Shulchan Arukh of the HaMechaber, it is clear that this opinion does not authorize a husband to take it upon himself to do violence to his wife. In fact, it assumes that he has no such authority.

89 posted on 11/24/2004 11:46:12 AM PST by wideawake (God bless our brave soldiers and their Commander in Chief)
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